Good morning my fellow Rotarians. Quite
often in my travels people will ask me about Iowa wanting to know some things
of interest besides the fact that we have snow, corn and John Deere
Tractors. So, here is some trivia about a
few of our towns that you might find helpful…
Burlington… ‘Ripley's Believe It or Not’ dubbed Snake
Alley the most crooked street in the world.
Strawberry Point… Home of the world's largest strawberry.
Strawberry Point… Home of the world's largest strawberry.
Elk Horn… A Community with the largest Danish
settlement in the United States.
Dubuque… Fenelon Place Elevator is the world's
steepest and shortest railway.
Cedar Rapids… Quaker Oats, home of the largest cereal plant in
the world.
Dyersville… The Saint Francis Xavier Basilica is the only basilica in the US located outside a major metropolitan area.
Dyersville… The Saint Francis Xavier Basilica is the only basilica in the US located outside a major metropolitan area.
Mt Vernon… Cornell
College is the only school in the nation to have its entire campus listed on
the National Register of Historic Places.
Fort Atkinson… The only fort ever built by the U.S
government to protect one Indian tribe from another.
Mason City… Home of Meredith Wilson, composer and writer
of THE MUSIC MAN.
Boone… Location of the Kate Shelly Bridge, the highest double track railroad bridge in the world.
Winterset… Birthplace of Marion Robert Morrison, or
better known as John Wayne, who became one of Hollywood's most popular
movie stars.
Ames… Home of Iowa State University, the oldest
land grant college in the US.
Iowa, an Indian name,
means ‘beautiful land.’ And there you
go, a few fun facts for conversation about our great state of Iowa! And
that is the bottom of our news on this Friday, January 10, 2014! ###
