Iowa Almanac
Iowa Almanac -- Tuesday, September 17, 2024
A darling of a park! More from the Iowa Almanac in a moment. Make plans to attend the annual Camp Courageous Waffle Breakfast and Open House Sunday September 29th from 8am until noon at the Camp Courageous Main Lodge. Enjoy made-to-order Belgian waffles and pork sausage and tour this unique facility. Train rides, live music, zip-line rides, and more! See you for the Waffle Breakfast and Open House Sunday September 29th at Camp Courageous near Monticello, Iowa. Camp Courageous.org. Jay Norwood Darling was born in Michigan in 1876, but he quickly became an Iowan. He spent much of his childhood in Sioux City and returned there after graduating from college in Wisconsin. He became a reporter for the Sioux City Journal, but his hobby of sketching quickly overshadowed his reporting. And Darling became the paper's editorial cartoonist. He signed his work "Ding", shortening his last name of Darling by using the first letter "D" and the last three "ING". His work soon became well-known, and in 1906 he joined the Des Moines Register and Leader and provided artwork for that newspaper's front page. He tried working for New York newspapers on two separate occasions, but each time "Ding" Darling soon returned to Des Moines, where his cartoons graced the front page of the register until 1950. Along the way, his work was syndicated nationally, and he won two Pulitzer Prizes for his editorial cartoons in 1924 and 1943. But Darling was at heart a conservationist. In the 1930s, he was appointed by President Franklin Roosevelt to a federal commission on wildlife restoration, which is when he came up with the idea of the federal duck stamp program to raise funds for wildlife preservation. He even designed the first stamp himself. Roosevelt then appointed him as the head of what is today the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. On September 17, 1950, Lake Darling State Park was dedicated in his name near Brighton, Iowa. "Ding" Darling himself set the gate, the ceremony by which the valve on a spillway is closed, completing the water impoundment process to create the lake. Lake Darling State Park is made up of more than 1,400 acres, including a 300-acre lake with 18 miles of shoreline. Camping, hiking, boating, and fishing are popular activities there today. And that's not the only recognition you'll find for Ding's conservation efforts. The Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge was named for him in 1967 on Sanibel Island, Florida, where he had a winter home. Many know Ding Darling as an award-winning editorial cartoonist, but it was his work in conservation that led to the dedication of Lake Darling State Park in his name. On this date, in 1950, and that's Iowa Almanac for September 17. More online at IowaAlmanac.com. Until tomorrow, I'm Jeff Stein.