Category Archives: Iowa Miscellaneous

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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May 31

Walnut McDonald’s closed for good

The McDonald’s at I-80 exit 46 in western Iowa closed permanently April 17. I found out first-hand, but it slipped my mind for about a month. It didn’t have great reviews on TripAdvisor, for whatever that’s worth. The closure is … Continue reading

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May 30

WHAT Confederate monuments in Iowa?

October 4, 2015: In this view of the Civil War soldier at top of the monument at Keokuk National Cemetery, it doesn’t look like he has a specific insignia. But that’s likely intentional, at least in part because he represents unknown soldiers … Continue reading

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May 24

Goodbye, Gov. Branstad

November 21, 2012: Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (second from left) helps cut the ribbon to open new US 20 between IA 4 and US 71. Also shown, center to right, are Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds, U.S. Rep. Steve King and … Continue reading

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May 17

Statewide bridge database available online

September 1, 2009: Despite being less than 50 years old, the IA 136 bridge over the Mississippi River at Clinton is classified as poor condition and functionally obsolete. Without any fanfare, the state has put a valuable resource online: A … Continue reading

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May 09

Sinclair-Tribune deal affects all but one Iowa market

Sinclair Broadcasting Group, an owner of TV stations across the country that’s going to get more coverage about its visible political stances but is better known to consumers for repeatedly playing hardball on cable and satellite retransmission agreements, is about to … Continue reading

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Apr 21

Dispatches from the frontier

The Washington Post went to Kiron, Steve King’s hometown, and put its observations on the front page earlier this week. The article doesn’t set out for a particular point, more of a “day in the life” of pretty typical Iowans. … Continue reading

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