This weekend I was looking through a box of memories and ran across an interesting patch.

The patch was for the Chief Wapello Trail near Ottumwa, Iowa. I don’t remember when I acquired the patch, but it was with some Boy Scout badges.

The patch brought back a lot of memories of growing up in Wapello County, Iowa.

About ten years ago in one of my Grandma’s Scrapbooks I found a page full of illustrations of Native American chiefs. Many of them participated in the Black Hawk War and also have a place in Iowa history. I used some of the pictures in a post titled Iowa Chief Counties as some of counties near Ottumwa are named for them.

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.

For some of my memories of the courthouse see: Election Memories II

The statue of Chief Wapello is quite large and weighs about 450 pounds.

The pictures of the courthouse and statue in this post come from the City of Ottumwa, Iowa Facebook Page  from about ten years ago when it was repaired and placed back in position. The statue had been damaged during a violent storm in 2012 and removed for safety. The statue was repaired and returned back to the top of the courthouse.

Chief Wapello stands atop the court house looking out across Central Park and the Des Moines River.

A lot of memories tonight.

Steven