The Iowa high point is Hawkeye Point, located at 43° 27' 36"N, 95° 42' 31"W, in Osceola County, Section 29 of Wilson Township. Its elevation is 1670 feet above sea level. Tammy, Matthew, Faith and Mark II, and I visited there on Labor Day weekend, 2003. I visited again on May 3, 2005, on a county highpointing trip to northwestern Iowa (see that report below).
The Iowa High Point is on the private property of Merrill and Mrs. Sterler, of Sibley. Our sincere thanks to them for their generous hospitality. Between my first and second visits, Mr. Sterler passed away.
We approached Hawkeye Point from the south. From the junction of Iowa State Highway 9 and U.S. Highway 75, we went north 2 miles, with the view of the feed trough easily visible from the road.
We turned right onto a gravel road heading east. About 100 yards along that road is the Merrill Sterler farm. There are two driveways. Turn right into the second driveway, and follow it around to the left to the end of the gravel.
If you get to this sign, you've gone too far east. True, the point is 1/8 mile south from here, but it is not passable by vehicle.
There is no trail head to speak of. We parked at the end of the gravel road and walked the nicely-maintained lawn to the feed trough.
There was a new monument put up, and the feed trough was partially dismantled as compared with recent trip reports. Faith had just woken up and was in a foul mood.
This was Baby Mark's first state high point, just before he turned six months old.
The Registration book is behind the bench. I signed it for the five of us, and noticed that there were several entries previously for that day, one of whom was on their way to the Dakotas.
We were in a hurry, since it was late in the day, and we wanted to get to the Iowa--Minnesota--South Dakota tripoint.
| Family Member | Count |
|---|---|
| Mark | 4 |
| Tammy | 2 |
| Krystyn | 3 |
| Matthew | 2 |
| Faith | 2 |
| Mark II | 1 |
| Shads | 3 |
| Zeke | 2 |
This was Mark II's first state high point.
Roger Rowlett (Spring, 1973); Greg Slayden (June 25, 1989); Adam Roddy (Aug. 11, 1998);
While I was visiting the first time, I noticed that the ground in the soybean field looked as high or higher, so on my return visit, I walked in the field, too, stepping on all the high ground I could see, especially south and east of the monument.
From here, it is only a short distance to the Lyon County High Point. I got back onto S.H. 9 and drove west.
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| Written by: | Mark Ness |
| Last Revised by: | Mark Ness |
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