April 13, 2016: One of four interpretive panels about Grant Wood at the “American Gothic” House in Eldon. Open image in new tab for larger version.
A Los Angeles Times reporter dropped in on Anamosa, Stone City, and Eldon, going beyond “American Gothic” and exploring Grant Wood’s rich connections to the land and culture of early 20th century Iowa.
July 25, 2016: The St. Lucas Veterans Memorial prominently honors two people: Father Aloysius H. Schmitt, who died at Pearl Harbor, and Pfc. James A. Kruse, an Army medic who died in Vietnam in 1969.
The U.S. Department of Defense has identified the remains of the Rev. Aloysius Schmitt of St. Lucas, Iowa, the Dubuque Telegraph Herald reports. (Story on Register’s and World-Herald’s websites.) Schmitt was a chaplain on the USS Oklahoma on Dec. 7, 1941 and, according to the article, saved the lives of 12 sailors before the Oklahoma capsized in the attack on Pearl Harbor. Schmitt’s remains will be interred at Loras College on Oct. 8.
I’m putting this in the blog because I made my first visit to St. Lucas, in Fayette County, this summer, and photographed the veterans memorial.
A wind turbine on the south side of Traer is providing 40 percent of the town utility’s energy usage, the Waterloo Courier reports. (This was the newspaper centerpiece last Sunday.) The turbine, now five years old (and built after the derecho), will be paid off by the end of next year. Traer Municipal Utilities also has some solar panels generating electricity.
It’s a big change from when trainloads of coal came downtown to serve as fuel.
Last Friday, the intersection of IA 21 and Shaulis Road on the south side of Waterloo closed for construction of turning lanes and signals, the Iowa DOT said in a press release.
Until a decade ago, IA 21 went all of its 98 miles without a stoplight. Then signals were added to the ramps at US 20 and to the south at the Hawkeye Community College corner (Orange Road). Shaulis Road is between the two locations. IA 21 will then have four stoplights in its northernmost two miles, at every intersection it has in the Waterloo city limits, but still none on the rest of the route.
July 12, 2016: The St. Francisville bridge over the Des Moines River.
Well, it finally happened: A dozen years after it was bypassed, the old bridge over the Des Moines River in Lee County has been closed permanently. It was only a matter of time; I was kind of surprised when it didn’t close shortly after the opening of the new Avenue of the Saints bridge just to its west or upon completion of the four-lane road. The website nemonews.net has the story (h/t Austin Draude) and reports that the Wayland Special Road District has no plans to repair the bridge — but there are no immediate plans to tear it down, either.
The bridge was built in 1937 and wasn’t on the state highway system until 1980, when the Iowa DOT took over the road running straight south of Donnellson and designated it IA 394. The bridge’s strategic location became more obvious as a four-lane Avenue of the Saints gradually became reality. The old bridge brought traffic to a halt for collecting tolls on the Missouri side while four-lane segments crept closer and closer from both Iowa and Missouri. After the new bridge opened, this one became a free bridge and the toll booth was removed. Pictures of the brief time it was signed as the official Avenue of the Saints, and the co-signing of IA 394 and IA 27, can be found on the IA 394 South page.
Now I’m very glad I took the time to drive the bridge and even record a video crossing it in July.
Brian Seda has achieved a dream he’s had for a long time: He’s been named a drummer for Spinal Tap a starter for Iowa State on the offensive line. He actually got the nod last week, against TCU, but Saturday is the first time he will be playing in front of the home crowd.
Seda is a redshirt senior walk-on who played on North Tama’s 2010 championship football team. Here’s a profile from the Times-Republican (actually the Google News link in case of paywall).
Congratulations to Seda for all his hard work paying off. Lord knows the ISU O-line needs all the help it can get.
The Grand Avenue bridge across the Des Moines River closes today for demolition and replacement, the Des Moines Register reports. The bridge, built in 1918, was a key link in Iowa’s early highway system. It wasn’t part of the first version of the River-to-River Road (the RRR used Locust Street between 7th and East 9th streets in a 1910 guide), but by the mid-1920s, after the bridge was built, it was on the route that became US 32 and then US 6. The four major street bridges in downtown Des Moines were built in a decade-long span in the early 20th century, the Register article notes.
September 17, 2016 (projected): An angry TCU team, coming off a double-overtime loss to Arkansas, took out its frustrations on the hapless Iowa State Cyclones to start Big 12 play…
This week’s Iowa State game at TCU means an early start to Big 12 play. ISU has played TCU twice in September before, in 1995 and 1998 as non-conference games (both losses). This year, the early date is for Big 12 TV scheduling purposes.
In the Big Eight era and the 11-game schedule, Iowa State never started conference play before Oct. 1, and didn’t even start the season until the second Saturday in September through the mid-1980s. After that, the number of conference games played before Sept. 23 can be counted on one hand:
*The 2002 schedule is especially weird. ISU played 14 games that season, with the Eddie Robinson Classic, a special allowance game against UConn (which was transitioning to D-IA and beat ISU), and the Humanitarian Bowl. The fifth game of the 2002 season was Sept. 21.
Personally, I’m not opposed to starting the season with a conference game as some SEC teams do — say what you will about Cupcake Saturday in November, but it serves its purpose. Then again, ISU’s alleged cupcakes give us indigestion anyway.
A majority of voters in the Odebolt-Arthur school district rejected a merger with the Battle Creek-Ida Grove school district Tuesday, the Sioux City Journal reports. More than half of OA’s registered voters turned out to oppose a plan that would have given the BCIG area twice as much representation on the school board because BCIG has nearly twice the population.
OABCIG is the state’s third-longest active two-way whole-grade sharing agreement, dating back to 2009, but right now it’s back to the drawing board for future plans.
Elsewhere in northwest Iowa, the 1930s school in Hartley will remain in use after a bond issue didn’t get a supermajority (KIWA).
