Today has been a long day and I decided to open up one of my Grandma’s Scrapbooks for inspiration.

I have been reading a book about frontier life and just read a chapter about the 1832 Black Hawk War that was fought in Illinois and Michigan Territory.

In the scrapbook I opened there was a page full of illustrations of Native American chiefs. Many of them had participated in the Black Hawk War and also have a place in Iowa history.

There were also several articles that I ran across about the Black Hawk War that may be used in future posts.

One of the illustrations brought back childhood memories for me, and also tied into some news that I saw yesterday.

Wapella or Chief Wapello was a chief of the Mesquakees. He was born in 1787 in what is today Wisconsin and died on March 15, 1842 after getting sick on a hunting trip near Ottumwa, Iowa.

I remember visiting his grave near Agency, Iowa when I was a kid.

However, the big memory I have of Chief Wapello is the statue on top of the Wapello County Court House in Ottumwa, Iowa.

The pictures of the statue in the post this evening come from the City of Ottumwa, Iowa Facebook Page.

The statue of Chief Wapello weighs 450 pounds. The statue was damaged during a violent storm in 2012 and was removed for safety.

The statue has been repaired and was returned back to the top of the courthouse yesterday.

Chief Wapello is now back home atop the court house looking out across Central Park and the Des Moines River.

This is also bringing back Election Memories as I remember waiting with my dad for election returns in the court house.

The next time I am in Ottumwa I plan on taking pictures of the statue of Chief Wapello. I also have a long list of other pictures I want to take.

Steven