Iowa Trivia & Tidbits - Page 8

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

Harry Reasoner, an original correspondent for CBS’ popular 60 Minutes, was born in 1923 in Dakota City (pop. 911).

first appeared: 6/6/2004

In 1973, two writers at The Des Moines Register rolled out the world’s largest bicycle ride. The week-long Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa averages 471 miles and has attracted 223,650 bicyclists.

first appeared: 5/30/2004

The Steamboat Bertrand, bound from St. Louis for the Montana gold fields, sank in the Missouri River in 1865. The recovered hull and cargo are exhibits at the DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge in Missouri Valley (pop. 2,992).

first appeared: 5/23/2004

Robert Lucas, former governor of Ohio, served as the first territorial governor of Iowa from 1838 to 1841 and built his retirement home, Plum Grove, in 1844 in Iowa City (pop. 62,220).

first appeared: 5/16/2004

DeWayne “Tiny” Lund, born in Harlan (pop. 5,282), won the Daytona 500 race in 1963 with an average speed of 151 mph on a single set of tires.

first appeared: 5/9/2004

The 1918 Woodbury County Courthouse in Sioux City is the nation’s largest public building designed in the Prairie style of architecture developed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

first appeared: 5/2/2004

In 1977, Janet Guthrie, born in Iowa City, became the first woman to race in the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500.

first appeared: 4/25/2004

The nation’s first female lawyer, Arabella Babb Mansfield, was born May 23, 1846, near Burlington (pop. 26,839), and was admitted to the Iowa bar in 1869.

first appeared: 4/18/2004

In 1998, residents of Dyersville (pop. 4,035) gained national attention by collectively losing 3,998 pounds in 10 weeks. Their Fight the Fat campaign inspired a book, The Town that Lost a Ton.

first appeared: 4/11/2004

In 1906, schoolchildren in Clarion (pop. 2,968) gave four-leaf clovers to Superintendent O.H. Benson during a visit and inspired the emblem for the area’s agriculture clubs: 4-H.

first appeared: 4/4/2004

The Quakers of Henry County provided much help on the Underground Railway, and one of their stations—the Lewelling House, with its trap door and hidden tunnel, in Salem (pop. 464)—is open to the public.

first appeared: 3/28/2004

Fort Madison, the first U.S. fort on the upper Mississippi, was built in 1808 and abandoned in 1813 due to constant Indian harassment. In 1965, part of the cellar of one blockhouse was uncovered by chance in a parking lot in what is now the city of Fort Madison (pop. 10,715).

first appeared: 3/21/2004

The Winnebago County Fair was judged “one of the best in the Midwest” in the May/June 2000 issue of Home and Away, the magazine of the American Automobile Association.

first appeared: 3/14/2004

The Sheldon High School Summer Theatre in Sheldon (pop. 4,937) lays claim to being the only high school repertory theater in Iowa, and one of only a few in the nation that presents a different play for each week in June and July.

first appeared: 3/7/2004

The International Wrestling Institute and Museum is located in Newton (pop. 14,789). Former professional wrestler and Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura was among its 2003 Hall of Fame inductees.

first appeared: 2/29/2004

Keokuk (pop. 11,427) was home at various times to John Wayne, Roger Maris, and Samuel Clemens.

first appeared: 2/22/2004

The Des Moines Register has been published since 1849, and bills itself as “The newspaper Iowa depends upon.”

first appeared: 2/15/2004

The National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum in Knoxville (pop. 7,731) is dedicated to preserving the history of sprint car racing.

first appeared: 2/8/2004

Snake Alley in Burlington (pop. 28,839), a block-long brick road laid out in 1894, is dubbed the most crooked street in the world by Ripley’s Believe It or Not. It has five half-circle turns, and two quarter-turns within its 275 feet.

first appeared: 2/1/2004

Every farmer in the state grows enough food and fiber on average to feed 279 people.

first appeared: 1/25/2004

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