Kossuth County High Point Trip Report

Date: June 23, 2001
Author: Edward Earl

From IA 15 where county road B30 heads E, we proceeded 1 mile W on a gravel road to an intersection in the middle of a shallow depression. From there we headed 1/2 mile N along the Kossuth-Palo Alto county border until the road gained the crest of a hill. According to the topo, there are three possible HP areas: a large liner area right on the road and two tiny areas several hundred feet S and SE. The nearest buildings were some silos 1/4 mile N, there were no residences in sight, and the property was not signed or fenced, so I had no qualms about walking about 100 feet out across a plowed field to the top of a hump. To verify that the other two areas need not be visited, I put my cheek to the ground and saw that all ground around the alternate areas (which were not visible to my eye as rises) disappeared behind the shoulder of the hump where I was standing, while the horizon (which was necessarily lower) remained visible. It was a sort of vertical line-of-sighting. However, the true county HP is the road itself, which is about a foot higher than the hump in the field.