Joel Koehn
AGENT | LAND SPECIALIST
Ask Joel Koehn
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As you drive north out of Fayette on Highway 150, the open fields of corn and beans slowly give way to the ridges, timbered draws, and deep valleys that make this corner of northeast Iowa so different from the rest of the state. When you turn east onto Ivy Road, the blacktop follows the high ground for about three quarters of a mile before it brings you to a fenced pasture on the south side of the road. This is Ivy Road Pasture, 9.4± acres of horse ground with a long view to the east.
Once you step through the gate and walk up the rise, you start to understand what makes this place worth the drive. The pasture climbs gently away from the road and then falls off toward the valley floor, so that from the top of the hill you can look across the bottom to the line of wooded ridges on the far side. That view changes with the calendar, turning rust and gold in October, bare and gray against the snow in January, and green again in May, and it is the kind of thing a person never really gets tired of looking at from their own porch.
Horses have been grazing this ground, and the perimeter fence that kept them in still outlines the property today. A new owner will likely want to spend a few afternoons walking the line, tightening wire and tending to posts where they need it, and that work has a way of teaching you a piece of land as you go. By the time the fence is done, you will have a good sense of where the water settles after a rain, where the deer like to cross, and where the interior paddocks and a run-in shed would make the most sense for your own animals.
The same slope that holds the view also lays out naturally for a home with a walkout lower level, with the main floor looking east over the valley and the lower level opening right onto the pasture. It is easy to imagine the first cup of coffee there in the morning as the sun clears the far ridge and the horses make their way down the hill to graze. What makes that picture closer than it might seem is that the well has already been drilled and electric service is already on the property, which means the two jobs that usually take the longest and cost the most on raw ground are finished before you ever break ground on a house.
Anyone who has spent a spring on a gravel road in northeast Iowa knows how much the road in matters, because when the frost comes out of the ground in March, those back roads can turn soft enough to bury a horse trailer to the axles. Ivy Road is paved all the way to the gate, so whether you are hauling horses, bringing in a camper, or waiting on a delivery of building materials, you can count on getting in and out in the middle of mud season just as easily as you would on a dry day in August.
About three miles up the road, Volga River State Recreation Area stretches across more than 5,000 public acres of river bottom, bluffs, and hardwood timber, with 22 miles of trail that are open to horseback riding. Living this close means you can saddle up after breakfast, load the trailer, and be riding those trails while the dew is still on the grass, then come home in time to turn the horses out for the evening. The park also offers Volga Lake for fishing, the river for canoeing and kayaking, and in the winter months the trails open to cross-country skiing and snowmobiling. For a buyer who would rather keep a camper on the property and spend long weekends in the park, the paved road, the well, and the power already on site make that easy to do.
Evenings here tend to belong to the wildlife. As the light fades, whitetail deer step out of the surrounding timber along the edges of the pasture, and wild turkeys move through on their way between the woods and the crop fields nearby. Through the summer the field margins fill in with wildflowers, which bring the songbirds along with them and give the whole place a little more life.
Fayette is only about five minutes to the south, and West Union, Oelwein, and Waterloo are within 10, 20, and 60 minutes. The property is vacant land with no house.
Joel Koehn lives in Fayette and knows this stretch of country well. If you would like to stand at the top of the rise and see the view for yourself, or walk the fence line and get a feel for the ground, contact Joel with Ironhorse Land Company.
Property Highlights
Directions:
From Fayette, take Highway 150 north about 2.5 miles. Turn right onto Ivy Road and continue east about three quarters of a mile. The property is on the south side of the road. Watch for the Ironhorse sign.
Showing Instructions:
Call agent for showing
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