Saint James Lutheran Church State Preserve

Saint James Lutheran Church State Preserve features the remnants of a church that was built by the First Congregational Church Society between 1840 and 1866. It was later sold to the German Evangelical Lutheran Saint James Church Society, and was the center of a German immigrant community. It was eventually abandoned in 1894, and today the roofless, limestone walls sit on the preserve near a small cemetery. In 1970 the Iowa Conservation Commission acquired it and it became a historical state preserve.