Iowa Trivia & Tidbits - Page 4

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

—In 1897, Thaddeus Cahill patented the telharmonium, or dynamophone, which has been called the first electronic musical instrument. The immense keyboard instrument, which used rotating electromagnetic generators, weighed more than 200 tons and was 60 feet long. Cahill transmitted music by telephone to businesses and homes. He was born in 1867 in Mount Zion.

first appeared: 4/8/2007

—Best-selling novelist Janet Dailey wrote her first Harlequin romance in 1974, and then published the Americana Series, a romance set in each of the 50 states. Born in 1944 in Storm Lake (pop. 10,076), Dailey boasts 325 million copies of her books in print.

first appeared: 3/25/2007

—The state’s tallest building rises 630 feet and is known as the 801 Grand building in Des Moines. The 45-story building was completed in 1991.

first appeared: 3/11/2007

—Ice-climbing enthusiast Don Briggs, a physical-education instructor at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls (pop. 36,145), transforms grain silos into ice-climbing venues. Students from several states compete at the Silo Summit contests each winter.

first appeared: 2/27/2007

—In 1892, John Froelich of Froelich invented the first successful gasoline-traction engine—the tractor—which could be driven forward and backward. He helped form Waterloo Gasoline Traction Engine Co., which was sold in 1918 to Deere and Company in Moline, Ill. (pop. 43,768).

first appeared: 2/11/2007

—In 1984, Peter Feldstein set out to photograph every person in Oxford, then population 676, to document small-town life. Twenty-one years later, Feldstein began re-photographing as many of the same 670 people as he could find, while author Stephen Bloom started interviewing the subjects for the Oxford Project, which has attracted national fame to the town.

first appeared: 1/28/2007

Since 1926, the Maasdam family has been growing sweet sorghum cane and making sorghum syrup at Maasdam Sorghum Mill near Lynnville (pop. 366). The mill produces 8,000 to 12,000 gallons of syrup each year, and a 1940s steam engine operates the equipment.

first appeared: 1/14/2007

—Trappist monks at the New Melleray Abbey in Peosta (pop. 651) are well known for their high-quality handcrafted wooden caskets, made from timber harvested from their own forest.

first appeared: 12/17/2006

—Guests can sleep in a flat-bottomed boat or a duck blind behind camouflage at Chase the Adventure Licensed Hunt and Gun Club, a hunting lodge with outdoor-themed rooms in Decorah (pop. 8,172).

first appeared: 12/3/2006

—Every August since 1987, the river towns of Le Claire (pop. 2,847) and Port Byron, Ill. (pop. 1,535), have held an old-fashioned tug-of-war with an unusual twist—the 2,400-foot-long rope is stretched across the Mississippi River. The Illinois team won the most recent contest, knotting the series at 10 victories each.

first appeared: 11/19/2006

—Alvin Straight of Laurens (pop. 1,476) wanted to visit his ailing brother in 1994 in Wisconsin, but didn’t have a driver’s license or good eyesight. So, he hitched a trailer with provisions to his 1966 John Deere mower and drove at 5 mph for six weeks. The trip inspired the 1999 David Lynch movie The Straight Story.

first appeared: 11/5/2006

—Coordinator of the Small House Society, Greg Johnson of Iowa City (pop. 62,220) lives in a chalet that is 7 feet by 10 feet. The microhouse movement bucks the decades-long trend to build ever-bigger homes.

first appeared: 10/22/2006

—From antique outboard motors to exhibits on ice harvesting and the pearl-button industry, the River History Museum in Lansing (pop. 1,012) tells the story of how the Mississippi River shaped the town.

first appeared: 10/8/2006

A 56-foot-tall replica of a railroad spike in Council Bluffs (pop. 58,268) marks the eastern terminus of the Union Pacific Railroad, the nation’s first transcontinental railroad, completed in 1869. The Golden Spike monument was dedicated in 1939.

first appeared: 9/24/2006

A 3,100-pound, 7-foot-tall popcorn ball, billed as the world's largest, was produced in Sac City (pop. 2,368) in 2004. The recipe: 910 pounds popcorn, 1,500 pounds sugar, 690 pounds syrup and more than 40 energetic volunteers.

first appeared: 9/10/2006

The Iowa Walk of Fame in Shenandoah (pop. 5,546) showcases the names and birthplaces of 90 famous Iowans, including actress Donna Reed, President Herbert Hoover, nurseryman Henry Field, and singers Andy Williams and the Everly Brothers.

first appeared: 8/27/2006

In 1959, during the Cold War, agricultural innovator Roswell Garst boldly invited Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to his Coon Rapids (pop. 1,305) farm—a visit that furthered "trade butter, not guns" diplomacy. The historic farm operates today as Garst Farm Resort.

first appeared: 8/13/2006

In 1993, prolonged flooding of Coralville Lake in Iowa City (pop. 62,220) exposed 375-million-year-old fossils and limestone, a geological attraction known now as the Devonian Fossil Gorge.

first appeared: 7/30/2006

Plenty of monkey business takes place at Fox River Mills in Osage (pop. 3,451), where the company manufactures the classic Rockford Red Heel work socks. Buyers have stitched the socks into red-lipped monkey dolls since the early 1900s. The socks originally were made in Rockford, Ill., by Nelson Knitting Mills.

first appeared: 7/16/2006

Hotel Manning is a classic example of Steamboat Gothic architecture and has stood on the banks of the Des Moines River in Keosauqua (pop. 1,066) and welcomed guests since 1899.

first appeared: 7/2/2006

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