In 1985 when we bought our Decatur County land we had city dwellers’ concept of land ownership.  You pay for a property, get the deed and it’s yours.  That’s not true in southern Iowa.  Our 200 acres was located in the heart of 1200 acres of prairie and woodland that had always been open range. From the pony farm to the north, across Brush Creek through our property and south, west and east this was prime deer and turkey hunting land.  Just because we had paid for the land didn’t mean we could own it.  We had no right to keep people who’d always hunted here off.

Timberhill in 1985

We learned this lesson early on.  Before building the house in 1993, we spent weekends away from Des Moines in a nearby rental.  It was our habit to take a long walk on our property each morning. One morning as we came up the trail from the Brush Creek bottom we heard the unmistakable click of a shotgun round being chambered and were confronted by two hunters pointing their guns in our direction.

“What are you doing here they asked?  Don’t you know any better than to walk through here during deer season?

Although we had clear title to the property, hunters were a constant presence especially during white tail deer and wild turkey seasons. They, too, had invested in our property by building shooting stands in the walnut and oak trees along Brush Creek.  We accepted  the poachers as a fact of life in the country, and  it wasn’t until we built our house that we tried to control access to our property. We built a heavy galvanized tube gate across the south entrance to our property.  Affixed to the gate was large sign, “Private Property” and a chain and padlock that secured it to the fencepost. That only made things worse.  Two nights in a row after the gate was in place I was awakened by a pickup driving north past the house.  Our neighbor had broken down the gate to let us know that even though we thought we owned this property  it was still open range.   We’ve learned our lesson.  We keep a low profile and leave the gate open.

Trail across Timberhill from the south gate

Timberhill Map

When our lawyer did a title search prior to closing on our first purchase of Decatur County land  he warned,

“Be careful they don’t slip an extra forty acres in on you.”

Our lawyer believed that land was only worth buying if it could  produce an income.  The overstocked woodlands we had purchased had no value except for  hunting and harvesting firewood.   But to Bill and me the land was beautiful.  I’ll never forget walking the East Savanna trail the day after we closed.  Falling leaves brushed my shoulder as I walked up hill under a canopy of oak trees.  I couldn’t believe this mosaic of woodlands and prairie openings was really ours.

In 2001 when we were negotiating to purchase the West 40 we sought advice from an appraiser regarding price.  Looking across the fence at the W40  hickory woodland overgrown with eastern red cedar and honey locust he shook his head in disgust.  Why would we even consider buying such worthless land?  But  the West 40 not only had wildflowers such as purple prairie clover and bottle gentian not found on our east property but there was a remnant white oak and bur oak savanna.  We also knew that the West 40 had never been plowed.

Since our land was considered so worthless no one had ever located the exact boundaries.  The only permanent survey markers mounted on steel posts designated an abandoned right of way that used to run through the middle of the east savanna.  Whatever the original Government Land Office surveyor had available when he surveyed the property in 1847  marked the rest of the survey points.  For example,  a harrow bar marked the southwest corner between the West 40 and West Creek.   The northwest corner was marked by a buggy axle buried in the creek, the southeast corner a buggy pole brace.  A wringer spindle (iron spindle of a wringer washer), chips of crockery or a peg fashioned from the wood of a nearby tree  and placed under a large stone marked other survey points.  To quote the survey map, “a stone “under E & W fence about 2 feet west of fence line south”, and “stone & jig under gray boulder”.

Permanent survey marker on steel post between fencelines

There were fence lines but they were confusing.  At the  corner between the east property and the West 40 the east fence line  ended forty feet south of  it’s continuation to the west.   A road that used to run along this line had been abandoned in 1938 and the property divided between the landowners.   But the owners kept the fence lines where they were, one that ran on the south side of the road and another on the north.   When we purchased the West 40 we asked the county surveyor to mark the corners with permanent survey markers.   Standing near where he thought the buggy pole brace might be he swung the metal detector back and forth until it indicated buried metal.  With a shovel he found  the buggy pole brace and set  a permanent survey marker 1 foot south to the south.  The exact location  of the survey point was noted on the permanent survey record.    To find the northwest corner he had to wade into the creek.  This time he set the permanent survey marker south of the actual survey point  and drove nails into a nearby post and box elder  from which another surveyor could shoot the actual survey point.

Since then Decatur County land such as ours has increased in value.  However, the increased value is not in its beauty or restoration potential but its ability to produce deer.  We are now surrounded by hunters who have paid up to $3000 per acre for private hunting grounds.  They know exactly where the boundaries are and monitor them  constantly with trail cameras to deter poachers.