Shimek State Forest

Shimek State Forest
White Oak Lake, located within Shimek State Forest
Location of Shimek State Forest
Location	Van Buren and Lee, Iowa, United States
Coordinates	40°38′2″N 91°40′52″W / 40.63389°N 91.68111°W / 40.63389; -91.68111
Area	9,148 acres (37.02 km²)
Elevation	700 ft (210 m)
Established	1930s
Named for	Bohumil Shimek
Governing body	Iowa Department of Natural Resources
Website	Shimek State Forest

Shimek State Forest is an Iowa state forest maintained by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Its five units are strung along the Des Moines River a few miles above its confluence with the Upper Mississippi River in Lee and Van Buren Counties in the southeast corner of Iowa. Its 9,148 acres (37 km²) contain one of the largest remaining contiguous forests in the state with large stands of mixed oak-hickory forest with about 1,000 acres (4 km²) of planted pine.

The Farmington (2,207 acres (9 km²)), Lick Creek (2,866 acres (12 km²)), Donnellson (1,330 acres (5 km²)) and Croton (1,827 acres (7 km²)) units are near Farmington, where the Iowa Bureau of Forestry administrative office is located. The Keosauqua (918 acres (3.7 km²)) unit is upriver, opposite Keosauqua and adjoins Lacey-Keosauqua State Park and wildlife management areas. The Croton unit is near the site of the Battle of Athens, the most northerly battle of the Civil War, and the only one fought (in part) in Iowa.

The forest has extensive recreational facilities. Campgrounds, fishing, hunting, hiking trails, horseback riding trails and equine facilities are offered.

Its earliest development was by the Civilian Conservation Corps on exhausted, abandoned farmland. In 1950 it was named for Dr. Bohumil Shimek, a Czech-American naturalist, conservationist, and university professor at the State University of Iowa.

Sources

Iowa State Forests, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Retrieved July 27, 2007
Shimek State Forest, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Retrieved July 27, 2007

Protected areas of Iowa

Federal

National monument	Effigy Mounds
National Historic Site	Herbert Hoover
National Wildlife Refuges	DeSoto Driftless Area Neal Smith Northern Tallgrass Prairie Port Louisa Union Slough Upper Mississippi River

State

State Parks	Ambrose A. Call Backbone Badger Creek Banner Lakes at Summerset Beeds Lake Bellevue Big Creek Black Hawk Brushy Creek Cedar Rock Clear Lake Dolliver Memorial Elk Rock Elinor Bedell Emerson Bay Fairport Fort Defiance Geode George Wyth Memorial Green Valley Gull Point Honey Creek Lacey-Keosauqua Lake Ahquabi Lake Anita Lake Darling Lake Keomah Lake Macbride Lake Manawa Lake of Three Fires Lake Wapello Ledges Lewis and Clark Lower Gar Maquoketa Caves Marble Beach McIntosh Woods Mines of Spain & E.B. Lyons Mini-Wakan Nine Eagles Okamanpedan Palisades-Kepler Pikes Peak Pikes Point Pilot Knob Pillsbury Point Pine Lake Pleasant Creek Prairie Rose Preparation Canyon Red Haw Rice Lake Rock Creek Springbrook Stone Templar Trapper's Bay Twin Lakes Union Grove Viking Lake Volga River Walnut Woods Wapsipinicon Waubonsie Wildcat Den Wilson Island
State Forests	Backbone Barkley Gifford Holst Loess Hills Pilot Mound Shimek Stephens White Pine Hollow Yellow River
State Preserves	A.F. Miller Ames High Prairie Anderson Prairie Behrens Pond and Woodlands Berry Woods Bird Hill Bixby Bluffton Fir Stand Brush Creek Canyon Brushy Creek Cameron Woods Casey's Paha Catfish Creek Cayler Prairie Cedar Bluffs Cedar Hills Sand Prairie Cheever Lake Clay Prairie Claybanks Forest Cold Water Spring Crossman Prairie Decorah Ice Cave Dinesen Prairie Doolittle Prairie Fallen Rock Fish Farm Mounds Five Ridge Prairie Fleming Woods Fort Atkinson Freda Haffner Kettlehole Gitchie Manitou Hanging Bog Hardin City Woodland Hartley Fort Hayden Prairie Hoffman Prairie Indian Bluffs Primitive Area Indian Fish Trap Iowa's State Preserves System Kalsow Kish-Ke-Kosh Prairie Lamson Woods Liska-Stanek Prairie Little Maquoketa Malanaphy Springs Malchow Mounds Manikowski Prairie Mann Wilderness Area Marietta Sand Prairie Mericle Woods Merrill A. Stainbrook Merritt Forest Montauk Mossy Glen Mount Pisgah Cemetery Mount Talbot Nestor Stiles Prairie Ocheyedan Mound Old State Quarry Palisades-Downs Pecan Grove Pellett Woods Pilot Grove Pilot Knob Retz Woods Roberts Creek Rock Creek Island Rock Island Roggman Boreal Slopes Rolling Thunder Prairie Saint James Lutheran Church Savage Woods Searryl's Cave Sheeder Prairie Silver Lake Fen Silvers-Smith Woods Slinde Mounds Starr's Cave Steele Prairie Stinson Prairie Strasser Woods Sylvan Runkel Toolesboro Mounds Turin Loess Hills Turkey River Mounds White Pine Hollow Williams Prairie Wittrock Indian Village Woodland Mounds Woodman Hollow Woodthrush

County

State Parks (Leased)	Bobwhite Cold Springs Crystal Lake Eagle Lake Echo Valley Frank A. Gotch Heery Woods Lake Cornelia Lake Icaria Kearny Margo Frankel Mill Creek Oak Grove Oakland Mills Pammel Sharon Bluffs Spring Lake Swan Lake Three Mile Lake

Iowa Department of Natural Resources

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