March 18, 2008
Ball of Twine
Cawker City, Kansas is the home of the World's Largest Ball of Twine. Frank Stoeber started the Ball of Twine in 1953. In just 4 years it weighed 5,000 pounds and stood 8 feet high. Stoeber gave the ball to Cawker City in 1961. Many of the businesses on the short main street have paintings containing the ball of twine in their windows. A twine stripe of the sidewalks leads from the World's Largest Ball of Twine to the pictures.
Other Kansas attractions, including the Emmett Kelly Museum in Sedan, Kansas
From Spiral Pocus. Also there, the giant Space Shuttle External Tank
All New – Featuring the personal websites of Grow-a-brain’s readers! Today – The professional website of Wordsmith for Hire and writer Tom Geller. Submit yours for consideration.
A Huge Depository of Unusual Links about Iowa Here
March 18, 2008 in Traveling Places - Iowa | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack
June 04, 2007
Gravity Wave
The Fenelon Place elevator is described as the world's shortest, steepest scenic railway, 296 feet in length, elevating passengers 189 feet from Fourth Street to Fenelon Place in Dubuque. (From Presurfer)
Beautiful eastern Iowa flickr slideshow, by Todd Ehlers
Time Lapse Video of a "Gravity Wave" in Iowa. (YouTube). Per wikipedia, in fluid dynamics, gravity waves are waves generated in a fluid medium or at the interface between two mediums (e.g. the atmosphere or ocean) which has the restoring force of gravity or buoyancy
Winterset, Iowa, the Birthplace of John Wayne
Thanks to the readers who emailed and left comments – I am no longer ill
/// Fark it /// A Huge Depository of Unusual Links about Iowa Here
June 4, 2007 in Traveling Places - Iowa | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 19, 2007
Flying raccoon & frozen grain silos
The story of Ricky the Flying Raccoon
The Raj in Fairfield, Iowa - Traditional Ayurveda rejuvenation treatments in French county-style hotel
Every winter, Climber Don Briggs hoses down some grain silos with water, and builds ice mountains in Cedar Falls
Iowa football players bobbleheads
"As early as 1992, students at Grinnell College, a small liberal arts school in Iowa, began receiving strange, anonymous letters in the mail. The letters contained homemade greeting cards with crudely drawn pictures—men crawling on the ground, toilets and trash cans, twin closet doors—and jokes that didn’t make any sense." Chasing the Duclod man. (With additional information on this Metafilter thread)
Punk rock in north-central Iowa, 1977-2007. (Also from Metafilter)
/// Reddit it /// Add it to your del.icio.us /// A Huge Depository of Unusual Links about Iowa Here
March 19, 2007 in Traveling Places - Iowa | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
October 01, 2006
Des Moines' well-endowed flood control
Here’s an aerial photo of Des Moines' detention basin at 2617 Easton Blvd. The nearly four-acre basin was constructed about two years ago and "took some of the load off of the pipe downstream" and helps prevent flooding. Consultants who work for the city did not design the $5.7 million detention basin to resemble anything, but recent e-mails to City Hall from area residents seem to have found "art" in the not-so-subtle phallic design
Artist Paco Rosic’s Sistine Chapel in spray paint in Waterloo, Iowa. (From Mira y Calla)
Thumbnail Photos of Iowa Telephone Directories
Antonin Dvorak in Spillville, Iowa, 1893
Marquette, Iowa, Population: 479 people, 1 pink elephant
The Iowa Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame
/// Add it to your del.icio.us /// A Huge Depository of Unusual Links about Iowa Here
October 1, 2006 in Traveling Places - Iowa | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 22, 2006
21 Years Apart
Iowa City got hit by tornado on April 13, 2006. (From Coudal). The twister sculpture was undamaged
Architecture of Richard Meier: The Des Moines Art Center Addition
Oxford Project, an effort to document small-town Iowa life through the images and words of its people. "A lot of people don't like small towns because they're so tight knit," Mr. Stoker said in an interview. "But that's what makes the place so great. You know who's sleeping with whom, but when your mother dies you know there will be 28 people at your door with casseroles."
A Field Of Giant Corn Ears in Dublin, OH
I started adding to the old “Blog Of The Day” category again. Today’s BotD is Guy Kawasaki’s blog Signum sine tinnitu. If you’d like to recommend an excellent, fresh blog for consideration, please email me.
Many More Unusual Links about Iowa Here
April 22, 2006 in Traveling Places - Iowa | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 26, 2005
State Farm
Going back to Iowa, for Grant Wood was the formative experience in his artistic life
'Iowa sucks'. Officials say the grass should be regaining its color by October 15
2003 Iowa Gas Swap Meet, from “Old Gas”, The Gas Station & Auto Service Collectibles Web Site
For eight years I have been the leading supplier of hybrid seed corn in Winneshiek County, Iowa and the reason is clear: My seed is pure
One of the world's largest pizzas - 50,000 slices in Iowa Falls
Elsewhere:
Twas the night before Fitzmas, and in the White House
Every one was scared shitless, and Bush was quite soused
The indictments were hanging like Damoceles’ sword
As verminous oxen prepared to be gored…
Many More Unusual Links about Iowa Here
October 26, 2005 in Traveling Places - Iowa | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack
January 08, 2005
American Vedic
Welcome to Maharishi Vedic City, Iowa, incorporated on July 21, 2001, as a model of ideal city life, in honor of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
"Farming in the 20’s", from Living History Farms in Urbandale, Iowa
Butter Cow at the Iowa State Fair
Oceans of Kansas, Fossils from the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Sea. (From “The Corpuscle”)
Abandoned Airfields in Iowa. (From Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields with unusual histories)
The Danish Immigrant Museum in Elk Horn, IA
Images from Living In Iowa
(About the models for "American Gothic" by Grant Wood). Many More Unusual Links about Iowa Here
January 8, 2005 in Traveling Places - Iowa | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 08, 2004
Dairy Cams / Corn Cams
Herky on Parade is an event designed to "Take the Hawkeye Spirit to the Street”. (From “Pure Essense” - “My boyfriend andy had won the Gold Medal at Iowa State VICA Compatition for automative service technology”)
“Smelly Cat, Smelly Cat,
What are they feeding you?
Smelly cat, smelly cat
It's not your fault?” – A strange video about saying goodbye to "Friends" (?) in Des Moines... (From “Attu”). Similarly, just as bizarre, another short film about 9 Naked Men (?) - No idea what they are about...
Panoramic view of Downtown Iowa City
Dairy-Cam is a collaborative effort with Northeast Iowa Community College and Iowa Farmer Today
Breaking news - Tree Huggers hug Trees
Our Eclectic Links about Iowa Here
May 8, 2004 in Traveling Places - Iowa | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 19, 2004
Links from Iowa
”Antique Power” has kept history alive by publishing magazines dedicated to antique tractors and antique trucks
"Rooting for Carrots in Iowa" - Caroline Hoyt is the proud owner of a brilliant set of carrot collectibles
Scaling Counties in a Checkerboard State, State delegate equivalents and the 2004 Iowa caucuses. By Jonathan Corum
Iowa 80 - World's Largest Truck stop
100 cowboy actors and actresses at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library-Museum, West Branch, Iowa (from ”The Cartoonist”)
See our complete links about Iowa here
March 19, 2004 in Traveling Places - Iowa | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
January 31, 2004
Here is the 2003 Grow-a-Brain Iowa Collection
1908 Aboard The Underground Railroad , the organized effort to assist slaves to escape - 12/16/03
Amana Heritage Society (From "Plep") - 10/26/03
Artist Stan Herd creates large artworks on the ground that can be best viewed & appreciated from above. Here is a four acre landscape design near a Cedar Rapids airport runway . (From "Dublog") - 12/13/03
Brian brought some homemade Antique Fishing Lures with him from his trip home. We didn't think that there might be some websites for such. There are many! - 11/9/03
Dairycam from Iowa (By way of "Sciatica" )
"Field Of Dreams" in Dyersville. Other films shot in Iowa
Futures at the Iowa Electronic Markets
Grant Wood's World and "American Gothic" Parodies
Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa
Heavy Malt Liquor drinking in Iowa City - How to get good & drunk
"Ice Cream Capital of the World" - one of the hundreds of towns that have some unique "Claims to fame" - 11/11/03
Local Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation
On A Rock In Rural Iowa (Thanks, Brian!) - 10/31/03
Our friends come from Armstrong, Iowa Population 979, where "Rush hour only lasts 15 minutes & there are Fresh mosquitoes every year".... - 7/12/03
Panoramic maps of Iowa, 1847-1929 - 1/10/04
Pork Queen 2004 and 2003- 2/3/04
Square dancing tractors (slow to load, worth the wait).
Square Dance Patter Sayings are rhymes or jingles said by callers while dancers are executing a long call such as Promenade Home. Things like: "All jump up and never come down, Swing Your pretty girl round and round"
Steam Tunnels at Iowa State (From "Plep" )
Student bondage club makes comeback at ISU
The Farm - 12/26/03
The flag of The Iowa of Oklahoma and The Bead Code of the Zulus (From "Symbolism of Color": Using Color for Meaning) - 12/24/03
Trappist Caskets from the New Melleray Abbey in Peosta - 10/25/03
Test Your Knowledge of Iowa Small Towns
Tasty Insect Recipes from Iowa State University
Welcome to Hardin County - 12/16/03
Welcome to the Iowa State Fair
Got interesting Iowa Links? Please submit them here!
January 31, 2004 in Traveling Places - Iowa | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack