(nature sounds) ♪♪ [Joe Horaney] Mount Trashmore, it's been called that since the '80s.

A former Cedar Rapids Mayor was kind of the person who made it famous.

♪♪ [Joe Horaney] It started off as a joke.

It's something that we've embraced as the agency because we know that is what everyone knows it as.

[Kohlsdorf] What used to be a landfill, is now a local landmark.

Transformed by the Cedar Rapids Linn County Solid Waste Agency into a place people actually want to visit.

♪♪ [Joe Horaney] It's in the middle of Cedar Rapids.

You can't help but see it.

How do we turn this into something that we can make it an asset to the community?

We're limited on what you can do with it because it is a closed landfill.

What is the best thing about Mount Trashmore?

It's the view at the top.

It's incredible.

You get up there and you can see the Cedar River rolling through the city.

You look out the other end and you see just the beautiful tree canopy that made it through the derecho.

Mount Trashmore is the tallest point that you can stand on in Linn County.

Let's make it so we can give access to the top and make it an adventure for everyone.

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] Hikers have the choice of two different paths up the hill.

A flow trail gives mountain bikers an exhilarating path back down.

[Joe Horaney] Underneath all of that, the wildflowers and the native prairies that we have growing on there, there's more than 6 million tons of garbage that has gone into that.

It took all of that going into it so that we could have Mount Trashmore as it is today.

In the top 30 feet, which is kind of just such a stark reminder, the top 30 feet is more than 430,000 tons of debris that was generated just from the floods of '08.

All the homes and businesses that had been out here for generations, when the floods took them out that is where all of that material ended up.

So, it's kind of that reminder of we have this beautiful thing now, but we only have it because we've had tragedies.

We turned it into something that people can now enjoy.

This is literally the view of us growing and bouncing back.

♪♪ [Joe Horaney] This is a very park-like setting.

This still is a regulated site as a closed landfill, so that's why it's not open all the time.

We do have set hours.

We try to be open as much as we can because we know people want to get out here and enjoy the weather.

We want folks to come out here and take it in, in all seasons that they can.

Our attendance has gone up every year that we've been open.

We're over 20,000 people every year now coming into see it.

[Kohlsdorf] The old garbage dump now draws visitors from all 50 states and around the world, proving one city's trash can become a community's treasure.

♪♪