Mount Trashmore – A True Cedar Rapids Landmark

Why is it that a 200-foot mound of trash brings me such joy? KRNA’s Coop had a great post recently (“Cedar Rapids Gets Owned on Urban Dictionary”) that was both sardonically funny, yet painfully insulting to Cedar Rapidians. The fact that a giant mound of garbage affectionately dubbed “Mount Trashmore” has been referred to as a community asset, at first glance, seems like more proof for Urban Dictionary that we’re just a bunch of trashy, Midwestern hicks. I look at it a different way. What’s the old saying? “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”

“Mount Trashmore” was birthed, I guess you could say, in 1965. Before that, it was the Otis Quarry. The "Site 1 Landfill", located on the south side of Cedar Rapids, was capped in 2006, and then reopened after the 2008 floods. It was capped again, for good, in 2013. In 2014, the Cedar Rapids/Linn County Solid Waste Agency Board elected Ayers Associates out of Wisconsin to direct a future plan for the site.

You want one of the best views of Cedar Rapids? Trashmore is the place. They’ve had 5K runs at Trashmore for great causes. They’ve had school field trips. We’ve taken five decades of trash and turned it into something… uhh… useful and beautiful. What is next? Bike paths? Ski slope? Hiking trails? We’ll have to wait and see. The famous smells of the city, Mount Trashmore… yes, Cedar Rapids truly has it all.