Category Archives: Trip Reports

Apr 24

Great Plains Trip Day 1

August 2, 2016: The Golden Spike Monument in Council Bluffs marks the east end of the Transcontinental Railroad, as designated by Abraham Lincoln himself. However, the first rail bridge to Omaha didn’t open until March 1872. Broken Bow, Nebraska — … Continue reading

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Apr 14

The thought process of a roadgeek

“Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.” — Walt Whitman My sister remembered I wanted to see her in Colorado! That’s good! But I have to do it by Memorial Day. That’s less good. Clinching US 34 is … Continue reading

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Mar 20

947. Palmer

March 20, 2003: A Fort Dodge Messenger newsrack in Palmer announces the beginning of U.S. military action in Iraq. Fourteen years and five ISU men’s basketball coaches ago, I took my first solo multi-day trip to photograph Iowa highways. Palmer … Continue reading

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Dec 30

The Final Countdown: 1. Klemme

October 4, 2016: The sign on US 69 at old IA 179, Main Street into Klemme. County Road B55 is a quarter-mile north. Compared to nearly all the rest of my final 50 towns or so, Klemme’s population of 507 … Continue reading

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Dec 28

The Final Countdown: 2. Curlew

October 3, 2016: The Curlew Cannon ranks up with the Coin Overpass in my observations of Iowans’ modest humor. You can see the regularity of railroad stops along the diagonal from the junction west of Fort Dodge: Clare, Pioneer, Gilmore … Continue reading

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Dec 27

The Final Countdown: 3. Greenville

October 3, 2016: The remnants of a baseball diamond on the east end of Greenville, possibly just south of where the school was. I just missed Greenville, pop. 74, on my spring break 2003 trip, the one that I have … Continue reading

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Dec 21

The Final Countdown: 4. Archer

October 3, 2016: Archer, like MANY other hamlets in Iowa, owes its existence to the railroad, but the rails were pulled up when a Cherokee-Sioux Falls line was abandoned in the mid-1980s. Archer, pop. 131, is five miles from US 18 … Continue reading

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Dec 20

The Final Countdown: 4 1/2. Meriden

The trio of Meriden, Cleghorn, and Marcus were once served by individual spur routes from IA 5 (now IA 3) until the highway was moved closer to the railroad. Today, IA 143 is the only number that remains, because downtown … Continue reading

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Dec 14

The Final Countdown: 5. Varina

October 3, 2016: No big stone lions guarding this library. As I crossed IA 4 on US 20, I saw long green tubes on freshly churned dirt in the middle of a cornfield, and I realized I was entering Bakken … Continue reading

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Dec 13

The Final Countdown: 6. Duncombe

October 11, 2002: Mile marker 11 on IA 928 near the Highview elevator in Hamilton County shows a countdown to Fort Dodge, even though the Webster County segment was turned over almost right away. On old 20, you can be … Continue reading

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