Lake Binder Wildflowers

Before we had Lake Icaria there was Lake Binder for swimming, fishing, picnicking and camping. A visit there a few days ago was good for simply reflecting on memories of those times and photographing some wildflowers.

Doesn't it seem fitting that Queen Anne's Lace grows around one of the tombstones in the old Queen City Cemetery?

Tiger lilies with the Queen City Memorial marker and remaining cemetery stones. It is believed there were around 200 graves here. The marker was erected by the Corning Civic Department in 1980.

Water lilies near the boat ramp on the west side of the dam.

Milkweed and cattails near the spillway.

Chicory and wild oats. Many Iowa roadsides are adorned with chicory blue now - it is one of the few colors of blue I like.

Milkweed blowing in a soft, summer wind. This patch was on the opposite side of the lake and at the opposite end. The Monarch butterflies are going to love this area.

This little beauty is a new one for me. I had to come home and search and search and search before discovering it is Prairie Petunia. I had never heard of it before nor remember ever seeing it growing.

Here is another specimen I could not identify. No amount of searching helped. So for now, this one is "unknown".

Field Thistle with white flowers. I don't remember ever seeing white thistle flowers before, just purple ones. One site says white flowers occur in about ten percent of the thistles. And yes, these are listed on the Minnesota Wildflowers Field Guide.

A Japanese Beetle lunching on one of the thistle flowers.

Standing on the bridge over the spillway, looking across Lake Binder.

Two years ago water was pouring over the spillway. You can see the end of the bridge I was standing on when I took this year's dry spillway photo.

This is the swinging bridge that used to cross the spillway. Very few "kids" now in their 60's or 70's don't fondly remember the thrill of crossing this.

It was a good day to capture the beauty of some wildflowers as well as some memories of Lake Binder.