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Tour D'Iowa Vatal Statistics (As of 3-11-2024)

Number of Days on the Tour……………….294 Number of Miles Traveled……………….. 87836.0(298.8 miles per day) Number of Miles by Bike……………………603 Number of Museums…………………………85 Number of Historical Sites………………….94 Number of Entertainment Sites…………….23 Number of Botanical Sites……………………18 Number of Wildlife Sites………………………12 Number of Geologic Sites…………………….7 Number of Welcome Centers……………….4 Number of…

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ITA's Geographic Moment (Emmet County)

Emmet County Precipitation is an essential element of any discussion of physical geography.It sustains life, shapes land formations, and defines how we live our lives Ask any Iowa farmer and he will be able to tell you that one of the essential ingredients to a successful crop is receiving adequate and timely rainfall during the growing season.Ask any Iowa golfer about rainfall and he will tell…

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ITA'S Geographic Moment (Dubuque County

The Lead Mines Quarry Area  A county’s resources often influence its settlement patterns . In most cases ,Iowa’s fertile soil is the resource but not always!!     Early Iowa history centers in Dubuque County  largely because of its unique location on the Mississippi River. Julien Dubuque a Frenchman received a land grant from the Governor of Spain, who had resided in New Orleans at the time. The…

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ITA’s Geographic Moment ( Des Moines County)

  OK we are going to talk a little geological history in connection with the geography of Iowa.In the far SE corner of Des Moines County and part of Henry County is an area known as the geode center of Iowa and roughly borders the  Des Moines River valley in   far SE Iowa. Geodes are crystalline like formations that form as a older rocks dissolve . This dissolution happened over 340 million years…

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ITA’s Geographical Moment (Calhoun County)

Everybody knows about the Meteor Crater located in Northern Arizona and size of the hole made from a long-ago visit from space. Did you know that Iowa has a crater too? Big difference here is that the 24 mile dia. crater in and around Manson Iowa  is covered by 100 to 300  feet of Iowa soil. Thank you glaciers!! One of the interesting facts about this collision was that Iowa surface was an inland…

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ITA’s Geographical Moment (Buena Vista County)

Here's another geo-political refence!!

(Reprint) Sometimes when you are studying the geography of a particular area it helps to have a historical perspective of the settlements and the names that were chosen to identify their locations.Such is the case of Buena Vista county. No it’s not named for the college in Storm Lake but rather derived from the name of a decisive battle of the Mexican War of 1846. Students of Iowa history will…

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ITA’s Geographical Moment (Black Hawk County)

The county was named after Black Hawk, a Sauk leader during the 1832 Black Hawk War . (see photo) Chief Black Hawk I originally thought that Black Hawk was the only county in Iowa named after a tribal leader. However a little research revealed the error of my thinking. There were nine: Keokuk,Mahaska,Osceola,Poweshiek,Tama,Wapello,Appanoose Black Hawk and Winneshiek. All derived their names…

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ITA's Geographical Moment (Audubon County)

Patriotic Albert Audubon County is the home to a “one of a kind” landmark.That is if you are into cement geography. Albert the Bull holds the title as the world’s largest bull statue and is Audubon, Iowa’s, tribute to its cattle-industry heritage. The 30-foot-tall, 45-ton concrete statue of a Hereford and has a horn span of 15 feet . That’s a bunch of bull!! How about that!!       .

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ITA's Geographical Moment (Allamakee County)

NE Iowa's Allamakee County

Allamakee County is located on the far NE Corner of Iowa deep in the heart of Iowa drift-less land formation. Drift-less doesn’t mean amnesty from shoveling snow or blocked roads. Instead it simply refers to the area of Iowa that missed out on the  last glacial period in Iowa and thus wasn’t flattened. Mount Hosmer One of the hill/mountain formations can be found near Lansing and offers an…

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ITA's Geographical Moment (Adair County)

I haven't posted anything lately as Iowa travel has come to the usual winter weather standstill. Not too soon to be thinking about 2024 destinations

Once upon a time, the state of Iowa designated counties on their license plate by their position in an alphabetical list . The distinction of being # 1 on and the answer to countless trivia questions was Adair County. Also holding the #1 position is the fact that the first “Freedom Rock” was painted near a quarry on the Hiway 25 between I-80 and the town of Greenfield. Now that phenomonen has…

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The Iowa Travel Advisor's Geographical Moment

For those who may have missed the first go-round I am reposting selected articles from a series I posted several years ago Hope you enjoy

You have seen various Iowa geography articles in the past and I may have recited a few Iowa facts in my various travel accounts but I have never featured geography in my stories. So, this article will serve as the beginning of a “How About That?” feature aimed at enhancing both your and my knowledge of our great state of Iowa. http://

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The Poweshiek County Fair(Grinnell)

The Poweshiek County Fairgrounds are located in the far southern reaches of the city of Grinnell. As I approached the fairgrounds from the north I couldn’t help but notice a different approach to fairdom in this county than the Central Iowa Fair I had visited in the morning. On the afternoon that I arrived the fair was in the midst of an equestrian event and the action centered around the arena…

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The Central Iowa Fair(Marshalltown)

The name of this  fair is fairly non descript as  most any town in Central Iowa could lay claim to this title, but maybe Marshall County and Marshalltown got there first  At any rate the fair is shooting for something more than just a county fair. So when I arrived I was looking for something that made it bigger!! They certainly have an impressive frontage exhibition building near the entrance…

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The Tama County Fair(Gladbrook)

         As I approached the Tama County Fairgrounds from the south on a gravel road I was struck by the completely rural feel that this fair was presenting.The fairgrounds is located on a shaded slope on the west side of Gladbrook . It was my first experience of a county fair not located in a county seat town. This did not detract from my experience as a fair visitor though. Instead of…

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The Tama County Fair (Gladbrook)

                  The Tama County Fair Show Ring (4th in a series)        As I approached the Tama County Fairgrounds from the south on a gravel road I was struck by the completely rural feel that this fair was presenting.The fairgrounds is       located on a shaded slope on the west side of Gladbrook . I was my first experience of a county fair not located in a county seat town. This did not…

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The Benton County Fair(Vinton)

(number 3 in a series)  The job of visiting all the county fairs in Iowa(over 100+ at last count) poses many problems to this season traveller. The logistics of completing a tour loop is complicated by the the distance to each fair,the dates of the fair,  weather the amount of time it takes to fairly review the event. It is quite obvious that this task won’t be completed in the time slot of late…

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The Howard County Fair(Cresco)

Any fair that advertises itself as the”Mighty” Howard County fair has got a lot to live up to and my visit to Cresco did not disappoint. I arrived at the fairgrounds around noon and noticed a steady stream of people heading to the fair from the parking lot. Immediately I knew that this was a community that was supporting the fair at least with their stomachs! So naturally I joined the throngs to…