Eagle Point Park - Clinton, Iowa

The Castle at Eagle Point Park in Clinton, Iowa.

David and William Joyce built a park on the bluffs on the outskirts of Clinton in 1895. The Clinton & Lyons Railway made the trip possible, hauling sightseers to the top in mule carts where they could gaze down on the river.

A trip to the bluff was a moment of reprieve for busy families. They could spread out simple meals, breathe in the wind, and look over the river. The Joyces may have intended it as a business, but the park quickly became something larger—a shared space where the community could claim ownership of the view.

In 1925, the city purchased Eagle Point Park for $22,500. It was no small sum for the time, but the people of Clinton believed in the value of this place. The purchase meant the bluff would remain open, not parceled into lots or sold off to private hands.

The 1930s breathed new life into the park. The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) stepped in, hiring men who needed wages to feed their families and sent them to Eagle Point. With hammers, chisels, and sweat, they built stone and timber structures that looked as though they had risen from the bluff itself.

Foot bridge at Eagle Point Park

Generations came to know the Thousand Steps not only as a WPA project but as part of their own lives. It became a place of legend, a shaded refuge in summer, a hidden path where young people tested freedom. Every town has a place like that, woven into the fabric of youth and memory. Clinton’s just happens to be carved in stone.

As the years passed, the park grew along with the city. In 1958, Lookout Point was added, a terrace with coin-operated binoculars bolted down for anyone who wanted to see the river closer. By the 1990s, the Lodge was winterized, making it a year-round venue.

Seasonal traditions took hold. The Symphony of Lights arrived each December, stringing tunnels of bulbs through the park. Cars lined up in the cold to drive beneath arches of color, past glowing displays of deer and snowmen.

In 2007, disc golf came to the park. Bright plastic discs flew where mule carts once rattled. A dog park followed, complete with a swimming pond. Horses were given an arena. A waterfall was restored.

The bluff absorbed it all. That’s what parks do. They change and adapt, carrying forward the past but always open to new ways of being used. Through it all, the view remained. The Mississippi spread below, steady and endless, reminding the city that no matter what changed above, the river was constant.

View of the Mississipi River from the observation post.