Back Issues Index

March 1989

• Book Review: Wally Byam's Trailer Travel

April 1989

• "Grand Canyon"

June 1989

• "LSB Farewell"

March 1989

• Book Review: Richard Halliburton's New Worlds to Conquer

August 1989

• "Adventure on Bassett's Creek"

April 1990

• "Border Country"
• "The View from Blue Mounds"

July 1990

• "Ellsworth's Rock Garden"
• "Historic Watertowers"

August 1990

• "Cowboys and Indians"

October 1990

• "Concrete comes to life"
• "A nice place to visit"
• "Across the lonely plains"

January 1991

• "Elvis lives in Graceland"
• "Our Lady of Grace Grotto"

July 1991

• "Airstreams Land in Duluth"
• "Rock is no longer a Sea Lion but holds onto spirit"

December 1991

• "Junk becomes fantasy at art park"
• "Welcome to the Great Stink Lake"
• "The biggest birdhouse in North Dakota"

Our Lady of Grace Grotto

by Matt Bergstrom

In the Mississippi River town of West Burlington in southeastern Iowa there is an interesting attraction made of rocks and cement. It is the Our Lady of Grace Grotto, next to the catholic church.

Fathers Kaufman and Levey built the completed the grotto in 1929. Most of the thousands of stones that make up the bridges and fountains of the grotto are geodes cracked open to reveal shiny crystals. There are also some rocks collected from around the world. The fathers intended the grotto to be a quiet place to meditate on God's grace.

In time, however, decay set in and the Grotto was grown over and deteriorated. In 1979 citizen action restored the grotto and it was rededicated.

According to the plaque, it is "one of the more interesting places in Iowa for tourists of all faiths to visit."

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