Fun Iowa Facts/Trivia for My Spartan Friends

HawkeyeCheesehead · 10-19-2009, 11:02 AM

Iowa Facts and Trivia

True Iowa fans hate Minnesota
Ripley's Believe It or Not has dubbed Burlington's Snake Alley the most crooked street in the world.
Strawberry Point is the home of the world's largest strawberry.
The state's smallest city park is situated in the middle of the road in Hiteman.
Scranton is home to Iowa's oldest water tower still in service.
Dubuque is the state's oldest city.
Crystal Lake is home to a statue of the world's largest bullhead fish.
Rathbun Dam and Reservoir is the largest body of water in the state.
Spirit Lake is the largest glacier-made lake in the state.
West Okoboji is the deepest natural lake in the state. Its depth is 136 feet.
Imes Bridge is the oldest of Madison County's six bridges.
Iowa's longest and highest bridge crosses Lake Red Rock.
Elk Horn in the largest Danish settlement in the United States.
At 16 miles, East Okoboji is the longest natural lake in the state.
Kalona is the largest Amish community west of the Mississippi River.
The state's lowest elevation point (at 480 feet) is in Lee County.
The Holliwell Bridge is the longest bridge in Madison County.
Francis Drake was 66 years old at his inauguration and Iowa's oldest governor.
Iowa's oldest continually running theater is in Story City.
The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art houses the largest collection of Grant Wood artwork.
Fenlon Place Elevator in Dubuque is the world's steepest and shortest railway.
Wright County has the highest percentage of grade-A topsoil in the nation.
Quaker Oats, in Cedar Rapids, is the largest cereal company in the world.
The Saint Francis Xavier Basilica in Dyersville is the only basilica in the United States situated outside a major metropolitan area.
Clarion is the only county seat in the exact center of the county.
Dubuque is home to the only county courthouse with a gold dome.
Cornell College is the only school in the nation to have its entire campus listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Sergeant Floyd Monument in Sioux City honors the only man to die during the Lewis and Clark expedition.
Maynard Reece is the only artist to win the Federal Duck Stamp competition five times.
A bronze life-sized sculpture of a Norwegian immigrant family (circa 1860) is located on a six acre restored prairie site located at the east entry to Lake Mills on Highway 105.
Iowa's only operating antique carousel is located in the city of Story City.
Knoxville's National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum is the only museum in the country dedicated to preserving the history of sprint car racing.
Iowa's only fire tower is situated in Yellow River State Forest.
Sabula is Iowa's only town on an island.
Herbert Hoover, a West Branch native, was the 31st president of the United States and the first one born west of the Mississippi.
Mamie Doud Eisenhower's birthplace is located in Boone and includes a restored frame house, complete with summer kitchen and original furniture from the family.
Van Meter is the hometown of baseball's Bob Feller, an Iowa farm boy who went on to greatness with the Cleveland Indians during the Golden Age of baseball.
Born Donnabelle Mullenger in Denison, Oscar Award-winning actress, Donna Reed, started her career at the young age of 16.
Born Marion Robert Morrison in Winterset, John Wayne was the son of a pharmacist and grew up to become one of Hollywood's most popular movie stars.
Meredith Willson, who played with the famous John Philip Sousa and the New York Philharmonic before launching his career as a famous composer and lyricist, is a Mason City native.
Glenn Miller, noted trombonist and orchestra leader, was born in Clarinda located in Southwest Iowa.
The town of Fort Atkinson was the site of the only fort ever built by the U.S. government to protect one Indian tribe from another.
Campers and motor homes are manufactured in Winnebago County. They're called Winnebago's.
Iowa is the only state whose east and west borders are 100% formed by water.

Missouri and Mississippi rivers.

The highest double track railroad bridge in the world, the Kate Shelley Bridge, is located at Boone.

Iowa is the only state name that starts with two vowels.

The famous actor John Wayne was born in Winterset on May 26, 1907.

Iowa State University is the oldest land grant college in the U.S.A.

Decorah hosts Nordic Fest a three-day celebration of Decorah's Scandinavian heritage.

The National Balloon Museum in Indianola chronicles more than 200 years of ballooning history.

Sheldon High School Summer Theatre, the only high school repertory in Iowa and one of just a few in the nation presents a different play for each week in June and July.

I won a serious amount of free coffee this week from the smarmy Badgers in the office.

Iowa is 7-0 for the first time since 1985.

Iowa has never been 8-0 in football.

Iowa has not won in East Lansing since 1995.

This is going to be a fun week around here!

Gary in Bradenton · 10-19-2009, 11:11 AM

Damn you have a boring state.

419Spartan08 · 10-19-2009, 11:12 AM

And you still suck

sec.27 · 10-19-2009, 11:25 AM

45. Iowa fans travel well.

Madison Spartan · 10-19-2009, 11:30 AM

I gotta be honest, I couldn't make it through that whole list--and my job frequently involves scouring boring documents for pertinent details, so I'm good at making it through boring lists.

MattR644 · 10-19-2009, 11:31 AM

Wow, no wonder Iowa fans travel so well.

Keepfightingforit · 10-19-2009, 11:37 AM

46. Iowa has the highest per capita rate of ********** in the nation.

Colonel Forbin · 10-19-2009, 11:52 AM

**** that list. It says Iowa State is the oldest land grand university in the country.

Bull****.

Chitown_Badger · 10-19-2009, 12:01 PM

[QUOTE=HawkeyeCheesehead;6229744]Iowa Facts and Trivia

Quote:

Ripley's Believe It or Not has dubbed Burlington's Snake Alley the most crooked street in the world.

Bull ****

Sincerely,

Gary in Bradenton · 10-19-2009, 12:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Colonel Forbin

**** that list. It says Iowa State is the oldest land grand university in the country.

Bull****.

ISU is an older school but MSU was land grant before ISU.

Kam Fong as Chin Ho · 10-19-2009, 12:07 PM

Does Iowa have a "Mystery Spot" alongside a highway somewhere?

spartanjdk · 10-19-2009, 12:13 PM

WHO CARES

Misterray · 10-19-2009, 12:27 PM

Iowa became the 29th state on December 28th, 1846, after Congress finally persuaded the state to change its name from "Corntopia".

The state bird of Iowa is the goldfinch, which should not be confused with any criminal masterminds who tried to kill James Bond.

Iowa contains exactly 99 counties. The legendary "lost 100th county" is currently being sought by a ragtag band of spaceships fleeing from the evil Cylon Empire.

Geographically, Iowa is one of the flattest states in the US, but it IS considering getting implants so that South Dakota will FINALLY pay attention to it.

Iowa was nicknamed the "Hawkeye State" after the popular deep-fried delicacy served in most of the state's taverns.

The 31st president of the US - Herbert Hoover - was born in West Branch, Iowa. The Hoover Dam was named in his honor, since its construction was made possible by his invention of the concrete beaver.

The state song of Iowa is "Corn! Corn! Corn!", which consists entirely of people singing the word "corn" for 5 minutes, and was the inspiration for Monthy Python's "Spam" sketch.

The state tree of Iowa is the oak tree, because... well, they had to choose SOMETHING, and since corn doesn't grow on trees, they figured acorns were close enough.

Burlington, Iowa is home to Snake Alley, the crookedest street in America, which rates an impressive 9.5 on the Kofi Annan crookedness scale.

Strawberry Point, Iowa is home to the world's largest strawberry. It's 10 feet tall, weighs 500 pounds, and subsists on a diet of migrant farm workers.

The world's smallest city park is in Hiteman, Iowa, and consists of a single blade of grass growing through a crack in the sidewalk.

And yes, keeping it mowed IS a union job. How did you guess?

Iowa has more people of Norwegian extraction than it does black people, which is why pickled herring is sold at basketball games.

You know that team that the Harlem Globetrotters always beat in exhibition games? They're all from Iowa.

Crystal Lake, Iowa has a statue of the world's largest bullhead fish, which was finally caught in 1982 by a hockey-mask-wearing serial killer.

Kalona, Iowa is the largest Amish settlement west of the Mississippi. It was founded in 1858 by ultraconservative Amish who were sick of those Pennsylvania harlots shamelessly flaunting their naked wrists.

Cedar Rapids, Iowa is home to the world's largest breakfast cereal company - Quaker Oats - which also makes other funny-hat-wearing, religion-related cereals, like Islam Puffs, Jew Chex, and Pope-ee-o's.

In Scrabble, Iowa is worth 7 points, which, coincidentally, is the same number of points awarded for running down a pedestrian while playing Grand Theft Auto: Des Moines.

Dubuque, Iowa is frequently the site of violent turf wars between rival gangs of Hicks and Bumpkins.

Native Iowans are easily identifiable by their unique ability to actually locate Iowa on a map.

Iowa has a population of nearly 3 million people, all of whom will punch you right in the freakin' nose if you tell one more stupid corn joke.

The state vegetable of Iowa is corn, which [punching sound effect] OW! MY FREAKIN' NOSE!

IMAO: Fun Facts About Iowa: The Director's Cut