Pilot Grove was a 60 acre cluster of oaks which served as a sentinel on the wide open prairie of Iowa County, Iowa.  Many early settlers used the grove as a compass to guide them successfully across an otherwise unrecognizable landscape. The goal of this project is to reveal the natural and cultural history of Pilot Grove and in particular the portion of the original grove now preserved as the "Pilot Grove State Preserve." This history will offer a general understanding of the grove and the families that owned the portion of the grove now preserved. 

On October 11, 1842, the Sauk and Fox Tribe ceded all of their remaining lands west of the Mississippi River. This was the first step required in transferring land ownership from the Native Americans, to individual citizens, via the U.S. Government. Before the U.S. Government could sell the land acquired in the treaty, it had to be surveyed. The boundaries of Pilot Township were surveyed in May of 1843 and the township was subdivided into sections during November of 1844.  Although the main purpose of the survey was to allow for the accurate description of individual parcels, a secondary benefit is that it left a description of the landscape at the time of the survey. In 1844, John Senter, deputy surveyor, described the section line, which bisected the original grove as "passes through center of Grove containing some sixty acres of W. Oak and Hickory." The rest of the area was described as first rate prairie.

With the survey complete, the land could now be sold.  The land office for this region was located in Iowa City.  A date would have been set to sell land in Pilot Grove Township.  Sale was first offered to those with squatter's rights. The 40-acre parcel, which includes the current preserve was first purchased from the government by Levi Lough on November 5, 1851 for $1.25 per acre.  

Sometime prior to 1866, Samuel Carson purchased this 40 acres as well as other land in the area and built the brick house that still exists less than a mile east of the preserve. He then moved to Marengo leaving the farm to his son-in-law William Welsh who had married Samuel's daughter Elizabeth in 1868. This land stayed in the Welsh family for 104 years.  In 1973, the Kelting family purchased the preserve and in 1980 ownership was transferred to the State of Iowa.

The Pilot Grove Preserve is meant to preserve the natural oak community, which represents the original oak grove which, was so important to the early settlers of the area.