This Frequency episode is devoted to a special training ground up in the Iowa Great Lakes area. More than 100 years ago, a University of Iowa official saw the natural resources that were present along that lakes region, and felt strongly that it should be studied and monitored at a time America was changing to become more modern and industrial.
That led to the eventual founding of what became Iowa Lakeside Laboratory on the west side of West Lake Okoboji, near the village of Wahpeton.
Lakeside Lab continues to function to this day on picturesque grounds, and has been the place where an untold number of professors and hundreds and hundreds of students from the three public universities in Iowa can come for classes and special studies and other tasks related to the area in Dickinson County.
A trail of professors and college students doing research have stretched out over more than 110 years, all in a natural laboratory that is coincidentally among the most pretty places in Iowa.
Mary Skopec, who is executive director of Iowa Lakeside Laboratory, and an intern from the University of Iowa, Lyndy Holdt, spoke from the Waitt Building of the campus, as summer 2024 events are well underway.
Skopec said Iowa Lakeside Lab essentially functions as a college campus, a museum, and a sort of state park.
Holdt and Skopec noted also that Iowa Lakeside Laboratory isn’t just for academics, but is open to the public in a host of ways, including with programs and camps.
Click on the audio link above to hear the entire show.
*What's The Frequency, Episode 22
