Burlington area historian visits Dover Museum

A nice crowd attended the 25th Anniversary of New London's Dover Museum on Sunday, July 21. Burlington author and historian, Russ Fry's information about Henry's County's section of the Agency Road appealed to all in attendance. This road, established about 1839, began near the western edge (at that time) of Burlington, near the current railroad tracks, and continued west up the hill on Agency Street. This was an important route for westward bound pioneers and immigrants.

It continued on through what is now Geode State Park into Henry County's Baltimore Twp., to Lowell where it crossed the Skunk River, which had to be forded. It again climbed the hills to what is now the intersection of X23 and J20 at Pickle Church. Going west on J20, it branched off in Jackson Twp., forming two routes that later connected in Salem Twp. From Salem, the road continued through Hillsboro where it intersected with another military road that ran from Dubuque to the Missouri line.

Further on, the road went through small towns, now abandoned, in Van Buren and Jefferson Counties before reaching the Sauk and Meskwaki Indian agency near the present-day city of Agency in Wapello County. Parts of Iowa's first road, in the beginning just a dirt path, still is very much in use.

Fry has written several books including, Agency Road: From Burlington to the Indian Territory.