Pilot Rock Lookout
High on a ridge at the south end of Cherokee, Iowa,
Pilot Rock, an enormous glacial boulder, overlooks the Little Sioux River
Valley. The rock is composed of Sioux Quartzite, and was carried to its current
resting place by the most recent continental glacier, over 20,000 years ago. The
rock is approximately 20’ high by 40’ wide and 61’ long. Long before white
settlers used this marker to find the fertile valley where Cherokee was founded,
ancient trails led Native American travelers to the massive landmark, which they
called “Woven Stone.”
According to historical
records, American novelist James Fenimore Cooper of New Jersey described Pilot
Rock, though not by name, in Chapter 8 of his 1827 novel The Prairie, one of the frontier tales of Natty Bumppo, or
Leatherstockings. During the Civil War, the land surrounding the stone was lost
to its owner due to non-payment of taxes, and Albert Riggs, a Fenimore Cooper
fan from New Jersey, bought the land to protect the rock from settlers who were
blasting chunks of the quartzite to build their foundations. The Riggs family
owned the parcel for many years, and it remains in private ownership at the
present time.
The lookout area includes a
parking lot, picnic shelter with table, a charcoal grill, and a historical
marker placed on the site by the Pilot Rock Chapter of the Daughters of the
American Revolution
Location
1650
Pilot Rock Road
Cherokee, Iowa
