Category Archives: Iowa Miscellaneous

Apr 26

Iowa border history, with a focus on the Iowa Great Lakes

Posted on Friday, April 26, 2024, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Arnold Garson of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative wrote a Substack post last week about how the Iowa Great Lakes almost didn’t figure in to the state of Iowa. His writeup touches on the paired-states issue before the Civil War (slave … Continue reading →

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Apr 08

An early RAGBRAI LI correction

Posted on Monday, April 8, 2024, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

The RAGBRAI map and pass-through town list was not unveiled until April (a first) and on a weekday (another first). It ran in the Des Moines Register both online and in print on April 4 (and was off the website’s front … Continue reading →

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Mar 05

More about College Township

Posted on Tuesday, March 5, 2024, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

In early 2021 I wrote about “Western College” in southern Linn County and how that connected to the short-lived Leander Clark College in Toledo. Now the Gazette’s “Curious Iowa” series has a feature on College Township with more history about … Continue reading →

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Feb 16

You want fat? Let’s get fat

Posted on Friday, February 16, 2024, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

I wrote about food! Specifically, I wrote about the tradition of churches inviting people to come eat a certain type of food at a variable date in February.

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Feb 12

Oh well

Posted on Monday, February 12, 2024, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

The Iowa Newspaper Association awards ceremony Thursday night recognized newspapers for their work between October 2022 and August 2023. The winning entries can be found here. The Cedar Rapids Gazette won 40 awards. Three I had a minor hand in … Continue reading →

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Jan 19

Shenandoah, somewhere

Posted on Friday, January 19, 2024, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Iowa has not one but TWO stories about babies in a blizzard: In western Marshall County, a sheriff’s deputy walked half a mile through the snow to assist with a delivery at a farmhouse. The Marshalltown Times-Republican has a clinical recap … Continue reading →

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Jan 17

Caucus reporting from Reinbeck

Posted on Wednesday, January 17, 2024, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

I reported on a precinct caucus in Grundy County for my Substack (and the Sun-Courier newspaper). This was the first presidential caucus in my adult life where I wasn’t working for an Iowa newspaper. It came 200 days after being … Continue reading →

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Jan 15

Politico vs. Pizza Ranch

Posted on Monday, January 15, 2024, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

We were close to getting out of the 2024 caucuses without major broadsides on Iowa for being Iowa, but then the Associated Press went for it: Iowa’s winter blast could make an unrepresentative way of picking presidential nominees even more … Continue reading →

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Jan 12

Southern Benton County lost its newspaper

Posted on Friday, January 12, 2024, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Publication of a newspaper dedicated to the interests of Belle Plaine and southern Benton County ceased at the end of 2023. The Belle Plaine Union had that name for the overwhelming majority of its life. The Blairstown Press and the Benton … Continue reading →

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Jan 10

Update on Preston’s Station restoration

Posted on Wednesday, January 10, 2024, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Last year, Preston’s Station in Belle Plaine marked its 100th year of existence and 95th year at its current location. The station was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2020. In the past few years, a concentrated … Continue reading →

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