Volunteers lend a hand at Wapsipinicon State Park

Areas of the Wapsipinicon State Park have remained closed for more than a month after flash flooding on June 30 caused heavy damage, but more than 20 volunteers worked to remedy that on Sunday.

'This park is a huge gem stone to the community,” said Shannon Appleby, who coordinated the clean up efforts, which stretched from a creek crossing known as the upside down bridge to Horse Thief Cave in the park. 'The residents are coming together to help the park in any way we can.”

Damage to the park totaled somewhere between $50,000 to $75,000. Dennis Murphy, a park ranger for Wapsipinicon State Park, said that he had been working to clean up the area with a single tractor, trailer and three individuals that were working at the park over the summer.

'This is the worst I've seen it,” said Murphy, who has worked at the park since 2004, of the aftermath from the flash flooding. 'This is going to be a big start on getting this area ready to go.”

A range of volunteers from Anamosa's chief of police to members of the local girl scouts, Cub Scouts and boy scouts began piling debris, cutting up downed trees and scooping up large amounts of sand at 9 a.m. and worked well into Sunday afternoon.

'I was just walking along and got asked to help,” said Echo Morgan, a resident of Anamosa. Morgan said that she was walking in the park on Sunday morning when Appleby asked her if she wanted to help with the clean up efforts. Morgan agreed and soon found herself at a picnic table next to a 'Volunteer Here” sign helping others sign waivers and keeping track of the number of hours individuals were working. 'I use it (the park), and I want to keep using it, so I thought I might as well help them out.”

While some volunteers gave their time on Sunday, others donated equipment, money and grass seed to reseed several areas of the park.

'They want to come out here and splash around,” said Sharon Minger of her children's use of the shallow creek where the flash flooding occurred. 'We do use our state park quite a bit.”

Minger and her husband, Jeff, offered not only their time, but a skidloader and dump truck to Sunday's efforts from their Minger Mowing and Landscaping business.

Appleby said that he had collected $425 in donations that would go toward paying for fuel for the donated equipment.

'This is the most popular part of the park. We're the ones that use it and play in it,” said Appleby of why he decided to put together the volunteer efforts, which took him around a week to coordinate. He explained that volunteers will continue to work on Monday starting at 9 a.m. for anyone able to come out and help.

Murphy said that he does not expect the road that leads to the Dutch Creek Shelter and Horse Thief Cave to be open after the volunteer efforts are completed on Monday since the Department of Transportation still has to fix portions of the road. He said that he expects the road to be fully opened by mid August.