Iowa Trivia & Tidbits - Page 16

Looking for Iowa trivia? Try our list Iowa little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

The nation’s only working replica of the keelboat used by explorers Lewis and Clark is at Lewis and Clark State Park near Onawa (pop. 2,973), where it was built by volunteers.

first appeared: 5/13/2001

After suggesting the creation of flight attendants, Ellen Church of Cresco (pop. 3,600) was hired by United Airlines as one of the first eight “stewardesses” in the world in the 1930s. All were registered nurses paid $125 a month.

first appeared: 5/6/2001

From 1997 to 2000, Francis Childs of Manchester (pop. 5,424) won the National Corn Growers Association contest for corn yields. He raised 357.3 bushels per acre on his farm in 2000.

first appeared: 4/29/2001

In 1998, Gov. Thomas J. Vilsack became the first Democrat elected governor of the state in more than 30 years. Vilsack practiced law in Mount Pleasant (pop. 8,223) for 23 years before being elected governor.

first appeared: 4/22/2001

When residents of Defiance (pop. 298) needed brick to build St. Peters Community Hall in 1935, they used cobblestone from nearby Council Bluffs where the streets had been repaired a short time before.

first appeared: 4/15/2001

Pivoting to allow passage of boats on the Mississippi River, the 545-foot swing bridge built at Fort Madison (pop. 11,625) in 1927 is the nation’s longest such bridge.

first appeared: 4/8/2001

The Airpower Museum at Blakesburg (pop. 285) houses a working model of a rare “ground effect” plane which rides on a cushion of air just above the water. German scientist Alexander Lippisch, who came to the United States after World War II and lived in Cedar Rapids, designed several versions of the plane in the 1960s.

first appeared: 4/1/2001

Orion Clemens, the older brother of Samuel Clemens (better known as Mark Twain), owned a printing shop in Keokuk (pop. 12,495) in the mid-19th century. He later was appointed secretary of the Nevada Territory.

first appeared: 3/25/2001

A baseball field northeast of Dyersville (pop. 3,845) where actor Kevin Costner played amid the corn in the 1989 movie Field of Dreams is one of the most visited sites in Iowa.

first appeared: 3/18/2001

In 1900, farmers Henry Jensen, Frank Donnelly, L.D. Favor, and U. Albertus of rural Alvord (pop. 188) had no poles to string a telephone line between their houses and a phone in town, so they used fence posts instead.

first appeared: 3/11/2001

Wallace H. Carothers, the inventor of nylon, was born in Burlington (pop. 26,585) in 1896. For his invention, he was named one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century by Life magazine.

first appeared: 3/4/2001

For four years, 1997-2000, Francis Childs of Manchester (pop. 5,424) has won the National Corn Growers Association contest for corn yields, producing 357.3 bushels per acre in 2000.

first appeared: 2/25/2001

Forty wooden clocks ornately carved by farmers Frank and Joseph Bily from 1913 until 1958 are on display at the Bily Clock Museum in Spillville (pop. 394). Henry Ford offered the brothers $1 million for one of their clocks in 1928, but they turned him down.

first appeared: 2/18/2001

In 1805, men traveling up the Mississippi River with explorer Lt. Zebulon Pike named a 500-foot bluff near McGregor (pop. 771) after him. The bluff is now an overlook in Pikes Peak State Park.

first appeared: 2/11/2001

—The house that artist Grant Wood (1892-1942) used as the background in his painting, American Gothic, is in Eldon (pop. 985). Wood used a dentist to portray the farmer, and Wood’s sister posed as the farmer’s daughter.

first appeared: 2/4/2001

—Stoner Drug soda fountain in Hamburg (pop.1,282) serves what it calls a Fried Egg Sundae—an ice cream sundae covered with marshmallow sauce that resembles a fried egg, sunny side up.

first appeared: 1/28/2001

Winnebago Industries, headquartered in Forest City (pop. 4,453), has manufactured more than 300,000 motor homes since the company was founded in 1958.

first appeared: 1/21/2001

Iowa’s official state rock is the geode—which, when broken open, reveals a sparkling lining of mineral crystals.

first appeared: 1/14/2001

The nation’s easternmost pocket of prairie rattlesnakes inhabits the Broken Kettle Preserve, north of Sioux City (pop. 82,820).

first appeared: 1/7/2001

In 1999, Iowa's 96,000 farms led the nation in corn, soybean, and hog production.

first appeared: 12/31/2000

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