Iowa Highway Ends (etc.)

According to the June 18, 1981, Daily Freeman-Journal, “several hundred people” were waiting when the new K-mart opened its doors in Webster City. It was the most prominent big-box retailer to have a store in Hamilton County. Webster City already had a Gibson Discount Center, which in the late 1970s was co-branded and then replaced with the Pamida name, according to this timeline from the Omaha World-Herald (reprinted via Kearney Hub) that covers the purchase and rebranding of all Pamida stores as ShopKos earlier this decade.

But now Webster City will have neither a Kmart nor a ShopKo Hometown, because the former got the ax with Sears’ bankruptcy filing in October and the latter will be closing in February.

YouTube user “Midwest Retail” has posted a walkthrough of the Webster City Kmart, “one of 4 tiny Kmart’s remaining.” The store is less than half the size of normal ones reflecting the smaller population area. Its last day, according to the user, is Jan. 31.

This century, the Ladora Savings Bank building has gone from dead to resurrected to waiting for a new inhabitant.

The “jewel box” bank that was a victim of the Depression was vacant in 2004 when it caught the eye of a passing motorcyclist. The building was renovated into a wine bar/bistro. Last year it was named the best small-town restaurant in Iowa.

It will be closing shortly after Valentine’s Day.

Baby boomers in Iowa’s Class of 1969 were one of three groups of students, and the most recent, to have a political oddity: A senior year with three governors.

Twice before, Iowa had had governors serving under 60 days: Warren Garst from Nov. 24, 1908, to Jan. 14, 1909, and Leo Elthon, from Nov. 22, 1954, to Jan. 13, 1955. The third time came after the election of 1968, when Gov. Harold Hughes was elected to the U.S. Senate and resigned to take his seat when Congress began its session. Taking Hughes’ place for a whole 15 14 days was Robert D. Fulton. The Waterloo Courier did a profile of him in 2007.

Fulton is still alive and thus, technically, Iowa’s oldest living governor, and the shortest-tenured one. The short biographies I find online give Jan. 1, 1969, as the start of his tenure. The Iowa Official Register (“Red Book”) for 1969-70 (large PDF, p. 273) and through to the most recent say Fulton “served the unexpired term from Jan. 1 to Jan. 16, 1969.” BUT the weird thing is, contemporary news sources say Fulton was sworn in a day later!

The Cedar Rapids Gazette ran a short Associated Press story Dec. 21, 1968 — one column on Page 10 between the high school basketball roundup and the classifieds — that said Hughes would resign “effective Jan. 2” to take his seat in Congress the next day. A short AP story about Fulton being sworn in ran on the cover of the Jan. 2 Gazette. The same AP story got bigger play in the Jan. 2 Webster City Daily Freeman-Journal, which said “sworn in today.” So who, exactly, was governor of Iowa while Ohio State was beating USC in the 1969 Rose Bowl? A silly question, perhaps, but how in the world is there conflicting data here, and how would the official record keepers get it wrong right off the bat?

Today (or technically tomorrow) marks a half-century time span over which Iowa had five people serve as governor: Ray, Terry Branstad, Tom Vilsack, Chet Culver, Branstad again, and Kim Reynolds. (Illinois had eight, some of whom have not been to prison.) Reynolds’ inauguration will come two days after the 50th anniversary of the end of the previous time someone sat in the governor’s office without being elected to the post.

In Fulton’s only major action, giving the Condition of the State address, he advocated for the reorganization (read: consolidation) of Iowa’s 99 counties, calling the system “archaic” and “prejudicial to our state’s progress.” (Journal of the Senate, p. 31) In that light, two weeks was more than enough.

October 20, 2018: I didn’t think I’d get a blog post hook for this fast friend in Washta (who didn’t want to sit for a picture), but … kittykittykittykitty!

From a KMA story about a Shenandoah man’s call for cat registration:

“He (Ferguson) puts out bird seed and feed for the different wild birds in the area,” said Lyman. “And, he has some cats in the neighborhood that are coming, and eating some of the birds. He’s tried to talk to who he believes the owners to be of these cats, and have asked them to keep the cats inside. The parties in question have maintained they’re not their cats–they just put food out for them.”

You can’t OWN cats, man. They don’t like the demotion. And they especially don’t like being told they’re banned from the buffet.

(Yes I realize the story is about registration not a ban.)