Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
Marshall Cohen—researcher and producer, CNN
Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
HERITAGE POND
HERITAGE POND. Located between Dubuque and Sageville to the west of Highway 52, Heritage Pond has been the source of many urban myths. Perhaps the most repeated story was that it was the site of a gravel pit that suddenly flooded--trapping a crane. Fishermen in boats, it was said, often snagged their lines on the tip of the crane.
Brian Preston, Dubuque County Conservation Board executive director, in an article for the Telegraph Herald on January 5, 2011, said there was not a lot of information about the development of the pond. It lies in the Couler Valley, the former channel of the Little Maquoketa River. Between 1 million and 2 million years ago, the Little Maquoketa and the MISSISSIPPI RIVER eroded the land that separated them, and the Little Maquoketa changed its course flowing into the Mississippi north of the present JOHN DEERE DUBUQUE WORKS.
It is believed the pond was once a marsh from which rock was excavated for construction projects.
In 2011 the pond covers approximately 9 acres and is at most twenty feet deep. It contains such varieties of fish as bluegill, crappie, largemouth bass, catfish, bullheads, and pike. Rainbow trout are also stocked in the pond for winter fishing.
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Source:
"Heritage Pond: Man-made Lake or Natural?," Telegraph Herald, January 5, 2011, p. 3