Backbone State Park is Iowa's oldest state park, dedicated in 1919. Located in the valley of the Maquoketa River, it is approximately three miles (5 km) south of Strawberry Point in Delaware County. It is named for a narrow and steep ridge of bedrock carved by a loop of the Maquoketa River originally known as the Devil's Backbone. The initial were donated by E.M. Carr of Lamont, Iowa. Backbone Lake Dam, a relatively low dam built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 1930s, created Backbone Lake. The CCC constructed a majority of trails and buildings which make up the park.HistoryThe area of the Devil's Backbone was a favorite of natural scientists such as W.J. McGee, Thomas Macbride, and Samuel Calvin who visited it to study its ancient geologic formations. Edward M. Carr bought in the 1890s to protect the Backbone Ridge from destruction. MacBride and members of the Iowa Park and Forestry Association thought of it as a prime location for a state park. The State Board of Conservation, organized in December 1918, recommended buying the land at its first meeting. It took a little over a year for the purchase to be finalized. On May 28, 1920 Backbone was dedicated a Iowa's first state park.Development of the park was deferred until 1925, although trees were planted and planning for a roadway was begun in prior years. Tensions developed between two groups in the 1920s and the 1930s over development. One group saw the state parks as places that protected the natural areas, and the second group had a multiple-use philosophy of conservation. The multiple-use concept won the debate. Two camps from the Civilian Conservation Corps, a public work relief program during the Great Depression, developed the park between 1933 and 1942. CCC Camp SP2 and Camp SP17 developed the overnight cabin and recreational area on the southern end of the park; a picnic, hiking, and camping area in the center; and Richmond Springs on the north end. Backbone became one of the largest and one of the most extensively developed parks in the state system.
