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Pat's Grove
Description
This 80 acre park is located at the junction of the Des Moines River and the Heron Lake Outlet. The park offers great areas for hiking, nature interpretation, canoeing, and picnicking.
Pat's Grove provided one of the region's first caucasian inhabitants, Pat Conlin. Conlin built a stone house in 1878 out of the remains of a half-built flourmill. The walls are more than a foot thick and it stands twenty feet tall. The family made their dwelling here until 1936. The park once held two log cabins built by Conlin as well. Today, only the stone house remains, which was restored in 2019.
At this time, the plan is to leave Pat's Grove as primitive as possible which will allow access and exploration of the natural habitat for birds, plants, and wildlife.