Category Archives: Iowa Miscellaneous

Aug 09

Rolling Stone article has Iowa-related inaccuracy

A Rolling Stone profile published more than six weeks ago has a factual error related to Iowa. (Fake news in Rolling Stone — whodathunkit?) In the article “Meet the Megadonor Behind the LGBTQ Rights Movement,” about multimillionaire (and Quark founder) … Continue reading

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Aug 08

They held an election and no one showed up

September 29, 2015: Outdoor post office boxes (left) replaced the post office building (right) in McIntire in 2011. Special elections are notoriously low-turnout things. See, for example, the vote last week on supervisor districts in Linn County, which existed only … Continue reading

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Aug 01

Wide IA 9 shield in Waukon

KCRG had a story last week about Waukon’s preparations as a host town for RAGBRAI. At the 2:01 mark of the video above is a shot of downtown. There is a “Jct 9” assembly visible — and the 9 is … Continue reading

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Jul 31

Grandpa, tell me ’bout the good old days

While taking a short trip recently, I didn’t take the iPod and bounced around on the radio instead. I was delighted to come across a station playing REAL country music — the ’90s songs I have had on CDs and … Continue reading

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Jun 27

Worst. Temp. Job. Ever.

June 20, 2016: Hello, I must be going. The Carroll Kmart was not in the large list of nationwide Kmart closures announced at the beginning of the year, but was included in a less-publicized round in spring. Two months after … Continue reading

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Jun 22

Lincoln Highway: Marshalltown, Iowa

March 26, 2010: Closeup of the clock tower at the Marshall County Courthouse. The Lincoln Highway’s original route through Marshall County went right through Marshalltown. It wasn’t relocated onto a straightaway until the end of 1947. The route through the … 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 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 01

A slight extension of this website’s coverage

Blog post 2000! With all the Iowa highway information newly available online, there’s plenty of work I can do. I’ve been doing some of that by editing the pages with the most important changes (or obvious corrections). I announced a … Continue reading

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