Lamson Woods State Preserve – SE corner of Fairfield Golf Club.

Gorgeous, rustic wooded trails and ponds (no swimming). Connects to the Fairfield Loop Trail.

Lamson Woods is a 43-acre woodland preserve located on the southeast edge of Fairfield. This hilly, wooded area was willed to the city of Fairfield by Carrie Lamson Ross in 1930. Originally “Lamson’s Pasture” was a park that included Fairfield’s first golf course. The golf course was in a pasture for cows and pigs along a small woodland, and was dubbed “cow-pasture golf”. It was a favorite area for hiking and nature study for people of all ages. The woodland was dedicated as a biological state preserve in 1978.

The preserve is a mixture of upland and lowland forest. Mesic and dry woodland species occupy the slope and ravines that are cut into Pre-Illinoian glacial deposits (500,000 to 2.5 million years old) typical of the Southern Iowa Drift Plain landform region. Trees occupying the canopy include cottonwood, white oak, bur oak, shingle oak, shagbark hickory, American elm, hackberry, and black cherry. Ohio buckeye can be found in the understory with hazelnut along the woodland edges. A planted pine grove is located in the southwest corner of the preserve.

The Lamson Woods/Neff Wetlands section of the Loop Trail begins at Glasgow Road and heads west across the wetlands dike. The Lamson Woods boardwalk/bridge takes you to the Mint Blvd parking lot. A walking-only trail is accessed from the boardwalk.

The spring wildflower display begins with the blooming of bloodroot, bluebells, and spring beauty, followed by prairie trillium, tooth wort, white trout-lily, blue phlox, wild geranium, mayapple, Solomon’s seal, swamp buttercup, and wild hyacinth. By May, moonseed and Jacob’s ladder can be seen in flower followed by jumpseed and pale touch-me-not in July. August brings the blooming of hog peanut (a popular plant with birds and hogs) among the sensitive dren and maidenhair fern fronds. In the fall, the bright red leaves of Virginia creeper can be seen crawling up the trunks of trees or along the ground.