The Bridge at
Iverson Crossing BY WAYNE FANEBUST
T
he bridge at Iverson Crossing and the road leading up to it are both named in the honor of Ole B. Iverson, a Norwegian immigrant who came to Dakota Territory from Iowa in 1868. He came with his father Iver, his brother Peter and brotherin-law Andy, all of whom claimed a series of 160 acre chunks of land along the Big Sioux River, from where present-day Brandon is located, all the way south to the Iowa border. The Iverson’s domain also included what is now Gitchie Manitou State Preserve, a
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HISTORY
beautiful, well-wooded parcel of prairie located in the extreme Northwest corner of Lyon County Iowa, with the Big Sioux River as its western boundary. The park became part of a homestead in 1868, when Ole B. Iverson purchased 148 acres at a cost of $1.25 per acre. Iverson described the land as “smooth prairie with a very gentle slope toward the river,” a tract of land that included ten acres of “red Sioux Falls sand stone.” This, of course, is a reference the pinkish quartzite stone, the huge outcroppings of which that adds
great beauty to the park. Iverson also noted that his land featured “the largest cottonwood tree I ever saw.” Iverson also pre-empted the adjacent quarter of land on the Dakota side of the border. Other members of his family also claimed homesteads along the Big Sioux River, in Dakota, because Ole’s father wanted each of his children to have a farm “in the same neighborhood.” The land that would eventually become Gitchie Manitou State Preserve was part of the “neighborhood.” A peculiar feature of that
