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Marlis Mildred Ackin donated her entire estate to preserve the Loess Hills and Raccoon River region where she grew up.

SIOUX CITY — A Sioux City woman who donated her entire estate to a conservation group won’t see the land she helped protect.

But future generations will enjoy 40 new acres adjoining Stone State Park, thanks to the generosity of Marlis Mildred Acklin and Shelley Sweeney.

Acklin, a longtime Sioux City resident, died last autumn at age 93. She left her estate to the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation (INHF), a non-profit conservation group, asking that the funds be used to preserve the Loess Hills and the Raccoon River region where she grew up.

Meanwhile Sweeney, also of Sioux City, asked INHF if the group would help protect the land she and her late husband purchased 20 years ago on the south boundary of Stone State Park. She wanted her land to become part of the park.

Thanks to the desire of both women to protect important natural lands for their community, INHF was able to purchase Sweeney’s land using Acklin’s legacy. The two women never met.

Mark Ackelson, INHF president, offered the 40 acres as a gift to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources at their commission meeting on March 13 in Indianola.

He also announced a major milestone for INHF: This addition includes the 100,000^th acre of Iowa land the organization has helped to protect since it was founded in 1979. INHF assisted with three previous additions to Stone State Park and eight other sites in Woodbury County.

This key ridge will connect the main body of the park to the recent 98-acre Sloan addition, which is located one-half mile to the south of the Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center. It includes prairie ridges, oak savanna and woodlands. The property also provides expansive scenic views of the Big Sioux River valley.

“We hope the community will come to know this place as Acklin Ridge to remember and honor Millie and her legacy,” Ackelson said. “She appreciated the beauty and uniqueness of the Loess Hills. This bequest is Millie’s way of keeping the beauty of the Loess Hills in the place that was home to her. We’re very grateful to both Shelley and Millie for making this addition possible.”

Shelley Sweeney’s husband, Doug, hunted and spent countless hours on the land until he died unexpectedly at the age of 45.

“He liked to bow-hunt,” Sweeney said of her husband. “He liked to go up there and just watch the deer. He was an outdoorsman.”

Sweeney and son Luke, now 20, have held onto the land since Doug Sweeney died in 2003. She said her family always loved Stone State Park, and that was key in her decision to sell the property to a conservation group.

“That was a big push for me, knowing that it could become part of Stone State Park and others could enjoy it,” Sweeney said. “No one would develop it or ruin the natural beauty of the Loess Hills. It’s a lot easier giving it up, knowing that it’s going to stay natural.”

This new addition will offer great benefits to Siouxland residents, said Kevin Pape, Stone State Park’s ranger.

“From a recreation standpoint, the Sweeney acquisition will serve as a connection for hikers exploring the Sloan property to the south. The potential now exists to run a path from the existing park or nature center trails south through the Sweeney and Sloan properties,” Pape said.

The land will likely be open to the public within one year.

Acklin’s bequest and this project are part of INHF’s new Campaign for The Bluffs, The Hills, The Lakes, which seeks to protect 15,000 acres in priority wildlife habitat regions within the next five years, including 6,000 acres in the Loess Hills.

Acklin lived in Sioux City for 67 years. She grew up on a farm near Lake City, Iowa, and taught in a one-room schoolhouse there. During World War II, Acklin trained at the Methodist Hospital School of Nursing in Sioux City and remained in this community the rest of her life.

She practiced 35 years as a nurse anesthetist for Johnson Sibly Johnson and later Surgical Consultants. She was active in St. Luke’s Auxiliary, the Salvation Army, the Sioux City Retired Teachers Association and the First United Methodist Church Women’s Society.

For more information, e-mail Cathy Engstrom, Director of Communications, or call (515) 288-1846.