Iowa Trivia & Tidbits - Page 9

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

The state is the only one whose east and west borders are formed entirely by rivers, including in this case the Mississippi, Missouri and Big Sioux.

first appeared: 1/18/2004

The only authentic, working Danish windmill in the United States is located in Elk Horn (pop. 649). The 1848 windmill was dismantled and reassembled in Elk Horn in 1976, and now is a popular tourist attraction.

first appeared: 1/11/2004

Marion Morrison, born in Winterset (pop. 4,768) in 1907, moved to California six years later and eventually changed his name to John Wayne.

first appeared: 1/4/2004

The 1843 Van Buren County Courthouse in Keosauqua (pop. 1,066) is the state’s oldest courthouse in continuous use.

first appeared: 12/28/2003

The 1927 George M. Verity, the first river steamboat to move barges between St. Louis and St. Paul on the Mississippi River, is berthed at Keokuk (pop. 11,427) and open as a museum.

first appeared: 12/21/2003

Keokuk (pop. 11,427) was named in honor of Chief Keokuk in 1834 at John Gaines’ saloon after Gaines set out a whiskey bottle and told citizens to step forward and take a drink if they favored “Keokuk.” The vote carried eight to one.

first appeared: 12/14/2003

The renovated 1913 Hotel Pattee is located in Perry (pop. 7,633), not Perryville, as suggested in a previous edition.

first appeared: 12/7/2003

In 1950, Lake Darling State Park near Brighton (pop. 687) was dedicated and named after Jay Norwood “Ding” Darling, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and pioneering conservationist. He began cartooning in 1900 for the Sioux City Journal.

first appeared: 11/30/2003

Black australorps and red frizzle cochins are among the exotic chickens sold by Murray McMurray Hatchery in Webster City (pop. 8,176), the world’s largest rare breed hatchery.

first appeared: 11/23/2003

Developed in 1911 by Walter Burley Griffin, the Rock Crest-Rock Glen National Historic District in Mason City (pop. 29,172) is a neighborhood of prairie-style homes. Griffin was a student of Frank Lloyd Wright.

first appeared: 11/16/2003

Jay Berwanger won the first Heisman Trophy in 1935 while halfback for the University of Chicago Maroons. He was born in 1914 in Dubuque (pop. 57,686).

first appeared: 11/9/2003

Readlyn’s welcome sign announces that it’s “home to 857 friendly people and one old grump.” Janice Heineman is the reigning grump, crowned last June during Grump Days.

first appeared: 11/2/2003

Dr. Lucy Hobbs Taylor, the nation’s first woman to graduate from a dental college, practiced dentistry in Bellevue (pop. 2,350) and McGregor (pop. 871) in the 1860s.

first appeared: 10/26/2003

The 1918 Wickfield Sales Pavilion round barn being restored in Cantril (pop. 257) boasts a dining room, guest rooms, and hog showroom.

first appeared: 10/19/2003

Quilting bees are regular get-togethers in Kalona (pop. 2,293), the “Quilt Capital of Iowa” and home of the largest Amish Mennonite settlement west of the Mississippi River. A quilting museum, quilt shops, and quilt sale each April cater to stitchers.

first appeared: 10/12/2003

In the late 1930s, physics professor John Atanasoff and graduate student Clifford Berry built the world’s first electronic digital computer at Iowa State University in Ames (pop. 50,731).

first appeared: 10/5/2003

Fresh eggs, overalls, vacuum cleaners—the century-old Dralle’s Department Store in Greene (pop. 1,099) sells it all. Third-generation owner Jeff Dralle follows his grandfather’s advice: “You can’t sell from an empty wagon.”

first appeared: 9/28/2003

Bernie Boyle of Danville (pop. 914) won the 2002 World Championship Duck Calling Contest in Stuttgart, Ark. (pop. 9,745).

first appeared: 9/21/2003

At the Living Heritage Tree Museum in Storm Lake (pop. 10,076), the trees have historic roots associated with famous people and events. The Versailles chestnut was grown from a seed from the site in Versailles, France, where the treaty to end World War I was signed. A maple tree came from the birthplace of President Ulysses S. Grant.

first appeared: 9/14/2003

Since 1922, biblical scholars have met in July at the Cedar Falls (pop. 36,145) Bible Conference, one of the nation’s largest Bible conferences.

first appeared: 9/7/2003

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