A Trip To Ladoga

I don't know what made me think of Ladoga a few days ago. Maybe it was some reference to Lake Ladoga in Russia. One of my jigsaw puzzles perhaps? At any rate, it rang a distant bell. Why do I know that name? It's someplace around here, but where? Google to the rescue. "Of course, it's in Taylor County, now I remember." 

When I mentioned Ladoga to Bud, he said he'd never heard of it. So when we set off on a little adventure yesterday, I said: "I'm going to show you where Ladoga was. But, first, on the way, I want to stop at the Ladoga Cemetery."

Naturally, along the way I was looking for photo ops. The first one was these two Turkey Vultures sitting on the bare branches of some trees that had been pushed up.

Of course they flew just as I was about to take the picture.

There was no signage for the cemetery, but we found it at the end of a closed road about a quarter mile off the highway.

We wandered around for awhile reading some of the older tombstones.

I admired this huge old tree, though I couldn't identify it. The leaves reminded me of the Chokecherry.

After much research, I think this might be a Black Cherry tree. There were no visible berries, but that could be because the birds and other wildlife have already eaten them.

This was the view north across the valley. It was such a  peaceful, typical summer in Iowa, view.

The tree in the foreground is Osage Orange. You can see the lime green hedge balls on it.

It has been a long time since I was down this road. I had a vague memory of an old schoolhouse and/or a church.The town was long gone but there were still some farm buildings on the east side of the road where it curved to the right.

Now all that remains is this sign marking where the Ladoga School, Washington #9, stood from 1874 to 1959.

Ladoga was founded in 1883 with a post office that lasted until 1913. The population in 1900 was 374. The town was located on the Humeston, Burlington and Shenandoah branch railroad three miles SW of Gravity. 

Destination of our morning outing was Windmill Lake County Park a few miles on down the road. The old well pump was still there, right where I remembered it. We didn't try pumping to see if water would still come out.

A more recent memory was seeing the news about the tornado that struck the campgrounds (directly across the lake from the well) June 16, 2017. A camper with a mother and her three young daughters was blown over and rolled down into the lake. They were able to open a vent and crawl out onto the top as water filled the interior. The mom swam her 4-year old to shore and then swam back to stay with her 8-month old and 10 year-old daughters on the roof until help arrived. I just remember thinking how terrified they must have been and how lucky that they all survived.

Other photos taken at the lake:

Great Blue Heron

You can see how low the water is.

Monarch Butterfly

Flowers of the Arrowhead plant which I had never seen before.

There is a little brown Skipper butterfly on the top bloom.

And, lastly, the windmill at Windmill Lake. I don't know if it was damaged in that tornado or has just succumbed to old age and wear and tear.

It was a nice morning to be out and about - another successful little jaunt out into the countryside and nature.