Grotto at Guttenberg


Guttenberg, Iowa 

In May 1935, Rudolf Wolter, Sr. and his son, Joseph, finished constructing the stone grotto in Ingleside Park. The monument is situated south of the Guttenberg Fish Hatchery along South River Park Drive in downtown Guttenberg. It is dedicated to the Native Americans who lived in the area before the community was established.

The grotto stands about 6 feet high and around 6 feet in diameter. The rocks and shells used to create the monument were bought from several places across the United States by the Wolter and Gilbertz families, including the Black Hills of South Dakota, Yellowstone in Wyoming, Washington D.C., Virginia, and California.  It features a rectangular niche fashioned from cement on the west side in which a statue of an Indian in colorful raiment reclines beside a hunting dog. A cement planter sits on top of the grotto stones. In addition to the rocks and shells are small ceramic pots and metal items. The date “1935” is shaped with small pieces of quartz. Small evergreens and flowers were planted around the base of the structure.

A plaque was added in 1987 besides the niche that reads:

This monument was Built By

Rudolf Wolter

In 1934 As A Commemoration

To the Indians

That Lived in This Area

In the 1820s, the Sauk (Sac) and Meskwaki (Fox) had seasonal villages along the three-mile-long terrace on which Guttenberg is located. Small groups of Native Americans continued to return to the area to hunt and fish over the following decades.

Rudolf Wolter came from Germany to Guttenberg in his early twenties sometime between 1866 and 1870. According to oral history, the Meskwaki people assisted Mr. Wolter on several occasions when he was a young man. One story reports that his horse floundered while he was crossing a small local river, possibly the Turkey River. Meskwaki nearby came to his rescue. Wolter built the grotto at age 93. He died two years later.