Author Archives: Jeff

Feb 19

X is for Exira

Posted on Friday, February 19, 2016, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

(Hey, that’s cheating! — Ed.) May 22, 2014: Five weeks after this picture was taken, the school building used in Exira for most of the 20th century was destroyed in a controlled burn. There is an easy way to tell … Continue reading →

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Feb 18

Y is for Yarmouth

Posted on Thursday, February 18, 2016, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

June 1, 2015: The Yarmouth school building in northwest Des Moines County. The Yarmouth school building is visible from a distance on X31. According to the Mediapolis 1975 centennial book, the school was still in use at that time, 14 … Continue reading →

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Feb 17

Z is for Zero

Posted on Wednesday, February 17, 2016, at 4:00 PM by Jeff

There’s nothing there.

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Feb 17

Clutier’s 1942 championship team remembered

Posted on Wednesday, February 17, 2016, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

The Gazette looks back at small-town six-on-six champions from eastern Iowa from the first half of the 20th century. (Coincidentally, the listing of the towns one by one is the same narrative plan I had for something else involving girls’ … Continue reading →

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Feb 16

Diagonal last sub-100-enrollment school standing

Posted on Tuesday, February 16, 2016, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Iowa’s 2015-16 certified enrollment numbers were released last month. There was no press release dedicated to it (the annual Condition of Education report comes out at the same time). The overall public enrollment ticked up, but it’s from a trough … Continue reading →

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Feb 15

Mediapolis bypass, IA 78 interchange part of US 61 plans

Posted on Monday, February 15, 2016, at 11:00 AM by Jeff

Iowa’s last rural segment of US 61 that isn’t four lanes north of Keokuk is between Burlington and Grandview, and a meeting in Mediapolis on Tuesday is about closing that gap. The existing five-year plan has US 61 four-laned from … Continue reading →

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Feb 12

iPhoto Places thrown onto Apple’s abandonware heap

Posted on Friday, February 12, 2016, at 10:03 AM by Jeff

Apple said, We upped our photo-management system…now up yours! [This is a rant that needed to be written seven months ago, when the event actually happened, but nothing would have changed if it had. I know that, you know that, … Continue reading →

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Feb 11

Great River Road to be signed like other Iowa byways

Posted on Thursday, February 11, 2016, at 10:10 AM by Jeff

I travel the whole thing and THEN it gets new pretty signs. May 14, 2010: The current style of Great River Road shields in Iowa is a square smaller than square highway shields. This is at the north end of … Continue reading →

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Feb 10

Keokuk no longer a ‘control city’ on I-172

Posted on Wednesday, February 10, 2016, at 10:05 AM by Jeff

April 20, 2008: Former sign at a road intersecting I-172 in Adams County, Illinois. I-172 is an interstate spur in far western Illinois connecting Quincy to Interstate 72. For decades, I-72 ended where I-172 began, until a new bridge across … Continue reading →

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Feb 09

There is a piece of Vermont that sticks into New Hampshire

Posted on Tuesday, February 9, 2016, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

A combination of having politics and state borders on the mind… The Connecticut River forms the border between Vermont and New Hampshire, two states that would fit comfortably inside Iowa. Halls Creek forms the western part of the border between … Continue reading →

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