I was speaking to a co-worker a few years ago about good places to take an Autumn leaf tour. The entire Des Moines River valley from Fort Dodge to Des Moines is such a place. I mentioned that Deception hollow near Liehigh, just south of Brushy Creek is a good alternative if you have just tired of driving to Northeast Iowa for your dose of Autumn Color. I suggested a ride on the Boone and Scenic valley Rail Road as a capper to an Autumn Leaf tour. Drive from Dolliver Park to The Ledges Park. Maybe a canoe or kayak float down the river.
My Co-worker then said, "I wonder why they call it Deception Hollow?"
I told her that I did not know, it got me to thinking about that and I got on the Internet to find out. I found nothing. I don't ruminate much about such things, but did make searches from time to time. I posed the question on a chat site about the Fort Dodge area.
Meanwhile my imagination filled in the blanks, I wondered if Indians had lured some hapless pioneer family into the hollow and murdered them, or if some pioneers lured some hapless Indians into the hollow to murder them. I thought to myself could a man have deceived some girl in the hollow or the other way around. I thought maybe some greedy land speculator had sold a bill of goods to some settler who ended up with worthless bottom land. I thought perhaps Local Dragoons had been ambushed in the valley. In my mind I considered only dark and exotic things to account for the dark sounding place name.
A couple of years later I found my way back to the same chat room and somebody had answered my query. It seems if you live in the hollow the sun goes down early and you can climb up back into daylight. After all my imagination run wild, the name turned out to be for a very humdrum and pedestrian reason.
