Category Archives: Iowa Miscellaneous

My visit to Van Buren County on Jan. 18 was a two-fer for stories. The Historic Hills Scenic Byway coordinator made the Iowaville presentation the cornerstone of a two-day, multiple-location tour of sites along the byway. This second presentation, in … Continue reading →

A visit to Lacey-Keosauqua State Park kicked off the first of what I hope will be multiple stories of Iowa history related to Iowa Scenic Byways and America 250. The presentation focused on an Ioway village rediscovered a few decades … Continue reading →

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources does NOT want you to say that when you see a bobcat, but LOOKIT. When I saw “Meet Comet” in the alert, I thought it had to be a sports-related name, and yes, this … Continue reading →

Like half of Iowa’s counties this year (this month, specifically), Crawford County turns 175 years old. KTIV did a story about the celebration and an abbreviated version aired on KCCI and KCRG. It mentions Abraham Lincoln’s Black Hawk War grant … Continue reading →

For Christmas, here’s what I wrote after Thanksgiving about the Canadian Pacific Kansas City’s Holiday Train stop in Bellevue. Jackson County is the 14th county in Iowa I’ve written a Substack story from.

Erin Kiernan is voluntarily leaving WHO in Des Moines to spend more time with her family — and that’s in the most positive way possible. The TV staff surprised her with a seven-minute farewell segment. Today is her last broadcast. … Continue reading →

John Fitzsimmons of Boone, a longtime member of the Lincoln Highway Association, died Saturday. He had a blog he occasionally posted to from 2016 to 2021. He billed himself as a “vagabond road artist”.  I last saw him at the … Continue reading →

This story was entirely dumb luck (stopping at a Marion Kum & Go that was in the process of becoming not-a-Kum-&-Go) followed by the usual “This data set has to exist somewhere. It doesn’t? Guess I have to find out myself.” … Continue reading →

OK, eating pie is better than reading about pie, but I can only do so much. Here’s a look at one of the pie contests at the Iowa State Fair.

Here’s my Substack story from when RAGBRAI passed through Aplington and Parkersburg. It’s only been a month since it happened, and if you haven’t read it, it’s new to you!