Tanner Scheuermann, who heads the Greene County Conservation, will tell the story of Squirrel Hollow Park at a Greene County Historical Society lunch Friday, Oct. 4, at the Rippey Methodist Church.
The park, the second-oldest county park in the state, is located in a heavily wooded area in the far southeast corner of Grant Township. Briggs Wood in Hamilton County became a park in 1919 and Squirrel Hollow came in second in 1934.
Squirrel Hollow was developed under President Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal.” Workers employed by the Civil Works Administration carved out the park’s winding roads and built its iconic fieldstone shelterhouse atop a steep cliff overlooking the Racoon River.
According to Scheuermann, the county’s conservation board is working on a master plan for the 56-acre park, which is bordered on two sides by a 147-acre wildlife management area.
A Greene County native and 2000 graduate of the local high school, Scheuermann earned an undergraduate degree in foresty from Iowa State University in 2015. He was Boone County Conservation’s operations manager before becoming Greene County’s conservation director in 2021
Cost of the noon lunch, prepared by members of the Rippey Methodist Church, is $12, all of which goes to the church. The free program begins at 12:45 pm. Please call a Historical Society community contact or 515-386-4408 by Tuesday, Oct. 1, to reserve a seat at the table.
