Abandoned Towns
USGS topographic map of the Soldier River valley and the wooded Loess Hills at the Preparation townsite

Farm and ranch town

Preparation

Charles B. Thompson led about fifty Mormon families off the trail to Utah in 1853 and founded a town to prepare them for the next world. He took their property and fled in 1858. The town faded by 1900, and its land is now Preparation Canyon State Park.

41°53′15″N 95°53′31″W · ≈1,090 ft

Aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).

State park

The townsite is part of Preparation Canyon State Park, run by the Iowa DNR, with picnic shelter, pit toilets, backcountry trails and ten hike-in campsites with self-registration. No buildings of the town stand. In a video posted November 21, 2025, a descendant of the settlers walks the mowed trails through what he calls the old settlement area, open grassland and woods in the lower park. Park office: 712-456-2924.

Overview

A town built to prepare for the next world

Most of the Mormons who crossed Iowa after leaving Nauvoo had gone on to Utah by 1853. Charles B. Thompson did not. That year he settled on Soldier Creek in what became Monona County, and about fifty Mormon families followed him. In 1854 he laid out a town and called it Preparation, because life there was to prepare his people for the world to come. The county's first government did its first business at Preparation, and Thompson printed two papers there.

Calling himself Father Ephraim, Thompson ran the colony through revelations. In 1854 he had his followers deed him all their land and goods and bind themselves and their children to work for him for two years. Some sued, and in 1858, when he refused to divide the property, his people turned on him and he fled the state. The Iowa Supreme Court ruled in 1866 that the land should be shared out among the disciples.

The town lived on for a while without him. At one point it had 67 houses, a school, a newspaper, a post office, a skating rink and a blacksmith shop, the DNR says, and an 1890 county history still lists a store, post office and smithy. By 1900 it had all but faded away, and the post office closed in 1904. The stockyard lasted until 1946. Descendants of the settlers, the Perrins, sold the land to the state in parcels from 1934 to 1969, and it became Preparation Canyon State Park.

Video

A descendant walks the settlement

Brian Mann, who says his great-great-grandfather was one of the first settlers, walks a summer morning through the lower park on mowed trails. Drone shots show the open valley, farm fields and wooded Loess Hills ridges. He points out the grassy flat where most buildings stood, an old road through the settlement area, and a flat spot up a hill where family stories place about a dozen unmarked graves, which he hopes will one day be confirmed. His count of 265 to 270 people comes from a copy of the 1856 census he says he holds, and the grave site is family tradition; neither is in our other sources. The video was posted by the Friends of the Loess Hills State Forest.

Play “Monona County, Iowa - Preparation Settlement 1853” from YouTube
“Monona County, Iowa - Preparation Settlement 1853”, by Friends of the Loess Hills State Forest on YouTube. The player loads from YouTube when you press play.

Timeline

Prophet, lawsuit and park

  1. Charles B. Thompson, a Mormon leader who had broken from the Utah-bound trains, settles on Soldier Creek. About fifty Mormon families follow.
  2. Thompson lays out Preparation, about fifteen miles southeast of Onawa. Monona County's first government does its first business there before the seat goes to Ashton that fall. A post office opens. Thompson publishes two papers, The Messenger and Zion's Herald.
  3. Thompson has his followers deed him their property and work for him for two years, as "Jehovah's Presbytery of Zion." Some sue to get it back.
  4. Thompson refuses to divide the property. His people turn on him and he flees.
  5. The Iowa Supreme Court rules the land should be divided among the disciples.
  6. The state census counts 588 people at Preparation, by an 1890 county history's account, about 97 of them foreign-born, nearly all Scandinavian.
  7. A county history lists a store, a post office and a blacksmith at Preparation.
  8. The post office closes. By about 1900 the town has all but faded away.
  9. Walter and Martha Perrin, descendants of the settlers, sell the first 82 acres to the state, and the park begins.
  10. The stockyard, the last business, closes.
  11. Martha Perrin sells 157 more acres, and in time the family farmstead. The park grows to 344 acres.

What's left

Open ground in the Loess Hills

No building of Preparation stands, and none of our sources names a surviving ruin. The DNR calls the park a quiet enclave of backcountry trails, with a picnic shelter, a nature study area and ten hike-in campsites reached from a trailhead in the southeast corner. It warns of rough terrain and loose soil. In the November 2025 video, the lower park is open grassland and woods with mowed paths; the walker says many poorer settlers lived in dugouts cut into the loess, and that family stories put graves on a hill above the settlement, unmarked and unconfirmed.

The GNIS point for the old post office sits on IA 183 where the hills meet the flat Soldier River valley, with a few farm buildings at the crossroads. The 1954 USGS sheet labels Preparation Canyon State Park in the hills, with a cemetery nearby and the Soldier River, Elk Creek and the highway to the east. The 1980 sheet shows the park in its ridges and hollows above the valley.

  • The townsite, now Preparation Canyon State Park
  • Trails, picnic shelter and hike-in campsites
  • Graves on a hill, by family tradition (unconfirmed)
USGS topographic map of IA 183 and the Soldier River at the foot of the Loess Hills
USGS The National Map, topo. IA 183 and the Soldier River run along the valley; the park's hills and trails rise to the west.
Aerial view of a crossroads with farm buildings, woods and crop fields
Aerial imagery, same area. Farm buildings and woods at the crossroads; fields fill the valley floor.

Historic maps

Preparation on USGS maps, 1954–1980

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Preparation, 1954
Omaha sheet, 1954, 1:250,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Pisgah, the DNR's contact address for the park, lies about four and a half miles south on IA 183. From Omaha, take I-29 north into Iowa, then county roads east to IA 127 and IA 183 north.

USGS topographic map from Pisgah north along IA 183 to the Preparation townsite, with the route drawn on it

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From Pisgah4.5 miabout 7 min
  1. From Pisgah, start on Jackson Street.0.1 mi
  2. Turn left on 1st Street (IA 183) and follow it north to the townsite point.4.4 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • IA 183 is a state highway. The routes end at the GNIS point on the highway; the DNR gives the park's location as Preparation Canyon Road, and its trailheads and parking lots are in the hills to the west.
  • The DNR warns hikers of rough terrain and loose soil. Camping is at hike-in sites only, with self-registration in the east parking lot.

Photos

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Visitor reports

Been to Preparation?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Preparation

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Iowa index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. Wikipedia, "Preparation, Iowa", retrieved October 2026: the 1853 founding, the name, the 1854 to 1904 post office, the 1885 census and 1890 description, the park.
  2. Wikipedia, "Preparation Canyon State Park", retrieved October 2026: "Father Ephraim," the stockyard closed in 1946, the Perrin sales of 1934 and 1969, the park's coordinates.
  3. Iowa DNR, Preparation Canyon State Park, read October 2026: 344 acres including the old town, Thompson in 1853, the 67 houses and town institutions, fading by 1900, the sale to the state, facilities, hike-in camping, the Preparation Canyon Road location, contact address and phone.
  4. F. R. Aumann, article on Charles B. Thompson, The Palimpsest, July 1927 (IAGenWeb transcription): Soldier Creek, the fifty families, the 1854 town fifteen miles southeast of Onawa, the county government and Ashton, the papers, the covenants, Thompson's 1858 flight and the 1866 court ruling.
  5. Friends of the Loess Hills State Forest, "Monona County, Iowa - Preparation Settlement 1853", YouTube, posted November 21, 2025: the video on this page, filmed by Brian Mann; the settlement area today, his 1856 census figure, dugouts, the unconfirmed graves.
  6. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits