Author Archives: Jeff

Jun 21

Lincoln Highway: Jefferson, Iowa

May 15, 2011: The Greene County Courthouse, as seen from the Lincoln Highway (above) and looking east on the Lincoln Highway from the Mahanay Memorial Carillon Tower (below). Half a century plus one year after the Mahanay Memorial bell tower … Continue reading

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Jun 20

Lincoln Highway: Williamstown, Ohio

October 3, 2013: Intersection of the Lincoln Highway and US 68, Williamstown, Ohio. A significant stretch of the Lincoln Highway in Ohio was signed as US 30 as recently as the beginning of the 21st Century. The highway was upgraded … Continue reading

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Jun 19

The Lincoln Highway, as previously seen here

July 6, 2013: Youngville Station at the intersection of US 30/218 in Benton County. Over multiple days, I traveled the then-newly-signed Lincoln Highway Historic Byway across Iowa for its 100th birthday. Since this week is the Lincoln Highway Association’s annual … Continue reading

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Jun 16

Bonus: E is for Elma

August 4, 2015: Some of the windows at Elma Elementary aren’t “windows” at all; they have classical artwork and inspirational quotes on them (detailed below). A decade ago, the Howard-Winneshiek school district was the second-largest in the state by area … Continue reading

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Jun 15

Dysart legalizes chickens

By votes of 4-0, 3-2, and 3-2, the Dysart City Council passed three readings of an ordinance allowing residents to keep chickens inside city limits. Because when chickens are outlawed, only outlaws will have chickens. Now, will this get hipsters to … Continue reading

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Jun 14

I-380 construction will split travel lanes

While traveling in Kentucky last year, I encountered a road construction phenomenon I haven’t seen often, if at all. While a rural interstate was being expanded to three lanes in each direction, an on-site detour had one lane of traffic … Continue reading

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Jun 13

The end of the Marathon to Marathon

July 23, 2009: Welcome sign for Marathon at the south end of former IA 390. The Marathon to Marathon has become the latest casualty of an aging and depopulating rural Iowa. The last race was last weekend. While it may … Continue reading

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Jun 12

A significant reduction of Des Moines’ one-ways

Des Moines is out to remake its nearly 65-year-old system of downtown streets, the Register reports. It’s a combination of doing the right thing for the wrong reasons, and doing the wrong thing for stupid reasons. One-way streets are the second-worst … Continue reading

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Jun 10

The most accurate headline of the year

“You can never have too many kolaches”. It may be a seasonal article, but consider the alternative…

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Jun 09

Final IA 17 reroute revealed

At a mid-May meeting, the Iowa DOT presented the newest version of its plan to reroute IA 17 east of Boone. A new road would run north of the Central Iowa Expo (Farm Progress Show) grounds for about ¾ mile … Continue reading

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