Yes, it was a long time coming, spurred on by several large monetary grants. One was a Destination Iowa grant to the tune of $400,000, and to finish off the financial needs for Phase I work were federal dollars received by Marshall County from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Together, these funding sources provided a total of $1,118,000 to accomplish the contract design.

As you can see by a review of today’s aerial images, there was extensive earthwork grading and road building, and the modern shower house/restroom had to be set with all appropriate electrical and water services.

A camper waste dump station is near the west gate to allow clean out of camper toilets. All of these factors and more are part of the system to improve the park for more people.

There are 14 new camper sites and two are specifically built for use by people with mobility issues. These will be paved sites so wheelchairs or other devices can navigate park facilities. A playground area will also be installed, and it will also be ADA compliant.

Meanwhile, this fall and winter, planning work, design and construction drawings are being perused by Clapsaddle Garber Associates for Phase II of the campground improvements. The contract for Phase II work may be let this winter for construction during 2025.

This work element will add another 14 camper sites with services to each area. When completed, Green Castle’s campground will become a ‘village’ of outdoor enthusiasts who bring their temporary home with them to enjoy a weekend or week long stay. Camper overnight fees will be based on similar facilities in other state or county conservation parks.

For more details on the long term plans for Green Castle, feel free to contact the conservation board office at the Grimes Farm, 641-752-5490. Your patience is appreciated during every construction season. It takes time to conduct the groundwork needed to make a good product.

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Green Castle is named after the township name in southeast Marshall County. The site was purchased in 1977.

From that humble beginning, improvements were taken one step at a time to make it accessible and more usable for the public. At the time of purchase in 1977, the artificial lake of 16 surface acres was already in place.

It needed work and improvements but those all did come about in annual bits and pieces. Access roadways were graded. Silt catching entrapment ponds were built, three of them, to hold watershed runoff, slow the water down, and allow any silt loads to settle out.

Three picnic shelter houses were constructed with large decking for outdoor tables and lake viewing. The lake itself was surveyed for its underwater topographic features and its fish populations. Plans were made, and cooperative management goals put in place for fish management.

Then, about 15 years ago, a major lake water drawdown was initiated to concentrate remaining fish, remove game fish to other sites, and then kill off the remaining carp invasion that had taken place. While the lake water was super low, shoreline improvements and fish habitat structures were built and installed. When the lake refilled during subsequent years, new stockings of game fish species took place.

If one goes back to the mid 1980s, the dam at Green Castle was inspected and found to be deficient in its design and strength. Through a state of Iowa budget appropriation, a large sum of money was directed specifically to Marshall County to allow for bid letting and contracting out the fixes for the dam, its underground soil sealing with bentonite, widening its base and installing a properly sized intact tube and outlet pipe. Those designed improvements have proven to be adequate for holding storm waters and allowing safe drawdowns, if needed, for management purposes.

Hundreds of trees were planted. Large open fields were planted with native prairie grasses. Pheasants and deer plus many species of waterfowl use the lake every spring and fall during migration.

Resident Canada geese make use of the area for nesting and raising young goslings. A pasture of about eight acres is high fenced to hold a small herd of American Bison, a native animal to the Midwest. The public can safely view these large animals and marvel at their size and hardiness to take in stride our cold winters and hot summers.

Fishing activities in the lake are among the things people like to do. Fishing is fun. Fishing brings no guarantees as the line and lures presented from the shore or a silent canoe are seen from the fish’s point of view as tempting but not necessarily an easy mark.

Largemouth bass, walleye, bluegill, black crappie and catfish await the right lure in the right place at the right time. The state record white crappie was caught from Green Castle’s water that tipped the scale at four pounds, nine ounces. This fish was 21.25″ long. Its replica is on display at the Conservation Center at the Grimes Farm.

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Trout will be stocked at Sand Lake on Oct. 18 at about noon time. Rainbow trout from Iowa’s trout fish hatcheries will be transported in a special truck that will back toward one of the north shore pools.

At that point, the tank gates will be opened to allow the 8 to 10″ sized trout to swim into Sand Lake’s water. The fisheries crew from Iowa DNR will release about 1,000 or up to 2,000 fish. Fisher persons will need to have purchased the trout fee in addition to a regular fishing license to possess trout.

Community fishing waters like Sand Lake allow the trout to come to the people rather than people having to travel to the cold water streams of Northeast Iowa. Sand Lake is a great place to bring kids for a fishing outing.

The trout stocking program is made possible by everyone who purchased trout fee privileges. A daily limit of trout is five with a possession limit of 10.

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October happenings to contemplate are here. What comes to mind for you during October? For one thing, it will bring a big change in tree leaf color as day lengths get progressively shorter. Cooler air temperatures are sure to follow eventually. Bowhunters will be sitting in tree stands or ground blinds awaiting a passing deer, and on the 26th, the opening day of rooster pheasant season begins at 0800.

October will likely bring a killing frost, the average date being Oct. 18. The earliest record for a below zero air temp happened in 1925 when the thermometer went below zero, actually to five below on the 29th.

October days will start out at 11 hours, 45 minutes long. By the 31st, day length will have shrunk to 10 hours and 24 minutes.

Central daylight savings time (CDT) will be with us for the entire month. The switch back to standard time happens on Nov. 3 at 2 a.m. Our sunrises will become later and sunsets will come earlier, just a common thing for planet earth on its orbit of our sun.

And of course, many species of songbirds, waterfowl, shorebirds and raptors will be migrating southward. Keep your eyes and binoculars ready to see our avian friends pushing through.

Lots of small birds migrate at night, then hang around maybe a day or so before resuming a new night time departure.

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Considering the power of positive thinking, check out this quote from Joyce Meyer.

“Being negative only makes a journey more difficult. You may be given a cactus but you do not have to sit on it!”

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Garry Brandenburg is the retired director of the Marshall County Conservation Board. He is a graduate of Iowa State University with a BS degree in Fish & Wildlife Biology.

Contact him at:

P.O. Box 96

Albion, IA 50005