Moving heaven and earth

As we gazed at the grassy hillside in front of us our imaginations drifted back a thousand years. We could envision a group of early Iowans digging in the dirt with bone and shell tools and carrying it in baskets. Using just human muscle power and simple tools, they crafted magnificent animal shaped mounds. We marveled at how hard they worked on high bluffs above the Mississippi River in what is today Effigy Mounds National Monument. They were Iowa’s first earth movers.

We decided to do a long day trip to focus on how different cultures moved the soil, enjoy food in small town eateries, and take in Iowa’s Driftless Area scenery.

After leaving Cedar Rapids in the early morning and enjoying breakfast at Strawberry Point’s historic Franklin Hotel, we continued north on Highway 13 and reached Effigy Mounds National Monument by mid-morning. That gave us time to take in the visitor center, do some birding and walk to effigies the U.S. National Park Service protects.

Following a picnic snack, we headed south to visit the relatively new Earthmoving Legacy Center off Highway 13 just north of Elkader. Inside the door we spotted a technological advance. By the 1800s digging tools had evolved from Native American bones and baskets to wheelbarrows and shovels. That is what greeted us as we entered the Earthmoving Legacy Center – a wheelbarrow and shovel. As amazing as it seems, these tools, powered by human muscles, dug the Erie Canal and smoothed the roadbed of the transcontinental railroad.

Our knowledge of earth moving was limited. So, our two-hour visit to the Earthmoving Legacy Center provided an education in the evolution of earth moving technology and how it impacts people today. And a close up look at gigantic and really cool earth movers.

C.J. Moyna and Sons employee Ryan Young greeted and guided us through galleries of restored earth moving machines of many sorts. He had prior experience designing casino layouts and explained that as unlikely as it may seem, that experience helped him design the museum. The large building houses many massive vintage machines with more on display outside. The feeling was spacious with fascinating historic interpretation.

When we entered the museum, we knew little about earth moving machines. Bulldozers. That was it. We knew they were big and powerful.

“Bulldozers are earth movers, but not all earth movers are bulldozers,” said Young.

Other types include graders, scrapers, digging machines, and trenchers. They are a diverse type of machinery that continues to evolve.

Young spoke as he guided us among beautifully restored vintage machinery.

“We restored many of these. Parts can be hard to find but we have a 3D printer and can make them as needed. If we fueled up most of these old machines they would run fine today,” he said.

“Most people don’t think much about earth moving but it touches everyone’s lives. Earth moving machines prepare the ground for highways, pipelines, commercial buildings and houses. They terrace farm fields and level ball fields,” Young remarked.

The Native Americans who built effigy mounds might be envious of today’s machines. Mechanization began transforming earth moving from human and horse muscle to machine power in the 1800s. The 38,000 square-foot museum displays examples of the evolution and use of machines from the 1880s to about 1940 with an emphasis on those made by the Caterpillar Co. It also includes models made by Holt Manufacturing and C.L. Best.

Holt had been using the Caterpillar name for his line of track-type tractors, and C.L. Best had been developing a line of tractors that were higher quality. Young explained that to avoid further debt incurred by patent disputes, those two companies eventually merged to form the Caterpillar Tractor Co.

Many of the machines were painted bright yellow but one section displayed others painted in battleship gray with bright red accents. A nearby sign solved the mystery. Following World War I, the government had a huge surplus of gray ship paint that they sold at deep discount, so for a while earth movers everywhere were the color of navy ships.

The Earthmoving Legacy Center sprang from the vision and work of John Patrick Moyna, the third-generation leader of Elkader-based C.J. Moyna and Sons Cos. The modern building hugging Highway 13 is a museum holding scores of machines while also serving as a training site for machinery operators and a social gathering place for area citizens.

The center is a new nonprofit organization tightly connected to the C.J. Moyna and Sons Cos. John Patrick’s grandfather Cecil John Moyna founded the company, now run by his grandson John. The company operates earth moving equipment, manufactures equipment, does aggregate mining and sales and trucking. It employs about 300 people in Clayton County.

As we left the center, we were amazed at the contrast between the Native Americans using their muscles and simple tools to make immense mounds with modern machines crafting such projects as rebuilding the I-80/I-380 interchange or the widening of U.S. Highway 30.

The Earthmoving Legacy Center is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. It is a nonprofit museum with an admission fee. Group tours can be arranged in advance at no extra charge.

A visit to Effigy Mounds National Monument (nps.gov/efmo) and the Earthmoving Legacy Center gives a day tripper a chance to experience Northeast Iowa’s steep hills and deep valleys where clear streams flow. There might be enough time in the day to cast a fly for trout or view the Mississippi from Pikes Peak State Park.

The roughly 100-mile drive north to Effigy Mounds takes drivers through contrasting topography. South of Strawberry Point the land is relatively flat farm fields, but northward it transitions into the Driftless Area’s steepness. Roads are up and down and back and forth and offer glimpses of delicious scenery.

An earth moving day trip can be circular by taking different roads up and back. We sometimes return to Cedar Rapids down the Great River Road with a walk along the Mississippi Riverfront in Guttenberg. On a recent trip we detoured slightly to see Clayton County’s impressive Motor Mill.

Northeast Iowa has a long earth moving human history starting with Native Americans creating mounds and continuing with machinery in the Earthmoving Legacy Center.

Visiting is pleasant and educational and comes with the added bonus of delightful scenery and the great food and interesting architecture of Iowa’s small towns.