In 1867, Josiah Finch purchased a 10-acre tract that occupied both aides of the West Fork of the Cedar River. He paid Daniel Meyers $300 for the land, which Meyers had purchased from Sems Newell in 1858.

Finch built a dam and a gristmill here, and the area became known as "Finch's Ford." In 1871, the town of Finchford was platted. It eventually included two general stores, a blacksmith shop, a creamery, a church and a number of houses. The town also had a post office and a sorghum mill that produced, for example, 14,000 gallons of syrup in 1895.

In 1958, the Black Hawk County Conservation Board acquired 96 acres for Thunder Woman Park on both sides of the West Fork River. The park was named in a contest held among local schoolchildren and memorializes a Winnebago Indian woman whose body is buried in the nearby Newell Cemetery. On the north side of the park are oak-shaped camping grounds and a large fishing pond. On the south side are picnic grounds, a canoe dock and access to the sand beaches of the river. The two sides of the park are connected by an unique suspension footbridge which was built over the river in 1968.