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The best way from A to B isn t always the fastest one. That s the main lesson among many, many smaller ones in a new documentary called River to River: Iowa s Forgotten Highway 6[3], which premiered last week in Davenport and is making the rounds this month at screenings statewide. It s the story of the two-lane road between Davenport and Council Bluffs on the country s longest highway[4], which stretches more than 3,600 miles from Cape Cod to Southern California. Most drivers abandoned it when Interstate 80 came along in the 1950s and ’60s, speeding past all the small towns that most of us know only from the exit signs.
But the towns are still there and so are their ghosts Herbert Hoover, Jesse James, the outlaws Bonnie and Clyde. The woman who created Nancy Drew grew up right along the highway in Ladora. There are plenty of living characters, too, and the husband-and-wife filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle[5] of Moline, Ill., spent the last three years meeting them at all the old soda shops, filling stations and roadside attractions along the way. They’ve made other Iowa films before about Ioway Indians[6] and old country schools[7] but they’re usually “three-hanky affairs,” Kelly Rundle said. The new show is more fun. They got the idea from Dave Darby, who leads the Iowa U.S. Route 6 Tourist Association[8] and encourages drivers to skip the white-knuckled interstate race for the more leisurely pace on the older road.
Every hill and every curve, there s something new to see, he told the Rundles. You connect with the land and you connect with the people you meet.
His pitch was enough to get the Rundles to produce the new hour-long movie. And my pitch for a story about it was enough to persuade my editor to let me out of the office for a couple of days. I recruited my mom as a chauffeur, and we hit the road for two separate day trips from Des Moines one west to the Missouri River, the other east to the Mississippi. But the film proceeds straight through from east to west, so for the sake of this story, we will, too. Let s get started …
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The double-decker bridge from Davenport to the Rock Island Arsenal. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
… in Davenport, where cars rumble over the double-decker trestle bridge from the Rock Island Arsenal[9], the biggest government-owned arsenal in the country. The island fort cranked out some of its first guns and ammo for the highway s first namesake, Teddy Roosevelt, whose troops fired them while charging up Cuba s San Juan Hill in the 1898 Spanish-American War. The first thing you ll see in Iowa is the Dam View Inn[10], a recently refurbished bar.
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The Dam View Inn in Davenport. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
Up the hill at Palmer College of Chiropractic[11], keep your eyes peeled for Odin, an Alaskan Malamute who hangs out on the roof of the fancy old mansion that houses Delta Sigma Chi. We caught a shot of him yawning, just watching the world go by.
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Peek-a-boo: An Alaskan Malamute named Odin keeps on eye on visitors at a frat house in Davenport. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
The Wilton Candy Kitchen[12] in nearby Wilton is still up and occasionally running even if one of its beloved owners isn t. Good old George Nopolous[13] died in June, after working 89 of his 95 years at his family s soda fountain. (He started at 6, cranking the old Victrola record player.) His wife, Thelma, who turns 84 this weekend, still opens the place from time to time and will happily tell you about its history, which stretches back before the Civil War and includes visits from President Dwight Eisenhower, actors Gregory Peck and Brooke Shields, and countless giddy kids.
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The famous Wilton Candy Shop in downtown Wilton. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
The 271 fine citizens of Atalissa welcome you. And the two grumps, well, not so much.
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An honest welcome sign in Atalissa. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
Stop in West Liberty for a plate of tacos at El Patio. The state s first Hispanic-majority town has a handful of Mexican restaurants, but you ll be hard-pressed to find a better chorizo or beef-tongue taco than the ones here. Mom bought a packet of whole nutmeg kernels for just a few bucks in the adjoining store.
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Tacos at El Patio in West Liberty. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
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Old Highway 6 is also known at the Grand Army of the Republic Highway. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
The Grand Army of the Republic, a group of Northern veterans from the Civil War, lobbied for years to have Highway 6 renamed in their honor. They finally succeeded in the 1940s. A few miles north of the highway, in West Branch, you can visit the humble childhood home of President Herbert Hoover[14], who had the good sense to standardize many of the traffic laws when we was U.S. Commerce Secretary in the 1920s. The new movie points out that until then, some states used green lights for stop and red ones for go. There are lots of cool old neon signs along the route, like this one at the Sudbury Court[15] motel in Marengo. Rooms go for $50 to $70.
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The Sudbury Court motor motel in Marengo. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
An 1861 pioneer cabin is part of the Pioneer Heritage Museum[16] in Marengo. It stands right across the museum lawn from an early gas station, which would have looked strange to the pioneers.
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An 1861 cabin at the Pioneer Heritage Museum and old gas station pumps sit across the street from eachother in Marengo. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
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The Ladora Bank Bistro (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
The classy old Ladora Bank Bistro[17] has been a popular stop on the highway ever since Dimitri Makedonsky opened it in 2008 after a four-year restoration. He d discovered the empty 1921 building on a motorcycle ride, peeked in the windows and decided to buy it. It was closed on the Monday we visited, so we peeked in the windows, too, and admired the chef s garden outside. A battered garage stands across the street, with another old sign.
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An old garage in Ladora. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
Just down the street in Ladora is the childhood home of Mildred Wirt Benson[18], who wrote 23 of the first 30 books in the Nancy Drew mystery series.
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The Ladora birthplace of Mildred Wirt Benson, who helped created Nancy Drew. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
The Highway 6 film points out that she started writing as a young girl, because she didn t like many of the kids books at the library, and then kept on writing for the rest of her 96-year life. She was the first to earn a master s in journalism from the University of Iowa, in 1927, worked for decades as a newspaper reporter, and wrote the Nancy Drew books on the side, from 1929 to 1947, under the pen name Carolyn Keene. We spotted this handy man s pick-up truck in tiny Carnforth. It s painted so the driver looks as if he or she (but probably he ) is sitting on a toilet next to a toilet-paper banner that reads, If you can t be good, be sanitary! (See? I told you all those I-80 drivers are missing out.)
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A temporary roadside attraction in Carnforth. The side of the handy-man’s truck says, “If you can’t be good be sanitary!” (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
A new mural about old Highway 6 covers the wall of the Brooklyn[19] hardware store, whose owner, Rusty Clayton, helped raise money for the Highway 6 signs in the county (Poweshiek) and then the one next door (Iowa).
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A Highway 6 mural on the hardware store in Brooklyn. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
He organizes monthly road trips on the state s two-lane highways, and for the last few years has driven the annual River to River Cruise[20] that rolls along Highway 6 in a parade of vintage cars every September. This time he drove his green 1950 Thunderbird.
Some people like to do car shows where they just park them somewhere and polish them all day, he said. I like to drive them. We met Clayton at The Classic Deli[21] over a slice of co-owner Lynn Marshall s peach pie, still warm from the oven. She bakes all the week s pies on Monday, the day we visited, so stop in on Tuesday if you want the most choices.
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Lynn Marshall’s freshly baked pies at The Classic Deli in Brooklyn. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
The waitress at the counter, Jessica Gibson, apologized: Mondays are the worst day for pie. But it s hard to believe her when you re eating the best peach pie you ve ever tasted. Outside we admired the handiwork of Marvin Herman, who lives north of town on Holiday Lake. He spent seven years restoring a 1936 Ford delivery truck. He bought it, half-sunk in the ground, for $500 and dragged it home to the garage despite at least a few objections from his wife. But she loves it now and will be just as sad as he is when they finally sell it. He s hoping for $35,000.
It s a blast to drive, he said. It rides like a Cadillac.
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Marvin Herman’s pride and joy in Brooklyn. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
A blind pig named Wilbur (of course) spends his days on a farm west of Brooklyn, which looks like the one straight out of Charlotte s Web red barn, cackling chickens, stealthy cats, the whole works. Owner Gary Cline, who was fixing a tractor wheel bearing in the shed, said the 3-month-old oinker got a lucky break when his first owner discovered him just running circles in his confinement pen. So he came to live here, under the productive branches of an apple tree in Cline s front yard.
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Wilbur, a blind pig, roams a field on a farm near Brooklyn. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
While we were there, farmer Tony Kriegel stopped by and told us all kinds of (mostly true) stories about the old highway. His grandmother used to feed hobos who passed through during the Depression, and his grandfather opened a cigar shop in town after an uncle took a train full of the family s cattle to the Chicago stockyards and disappeared with the check. The cigar shop is now Brooklyn s Front Street Tap, where we lie, cheat, steal and call each other dirty names, Kriegel said. How can you possibly have a better time than that?
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Tony Kriegel has farmed Poweshiek County for most of his life. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
The Spaulding Inn[22] bed and breakfast in Grinnell was built by the owners of the local Spaulding Manufacturing Co[23]., which produced both buggies and early cars.
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The Spaulding Inn, a bed and breakfast in Grinnell. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
A motorcycle with Louisiana plates was parked outside the Mid-Iowa Motel in Newton, one of several old motor lodges along the route.
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A motorcycle at the Mid-Iowa Motel in Newton. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
Downtown Newton has some great murals, including this one, a few blocks west of the Jasper County Courthouse.
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One of Newtown’s many murals. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
The big screen at the Valle Drive-In[24] west of Newton has lit up summer nights since 1949. The original speakers still work, but now you can also tune in on your car radio. Movies still play into the fall, but only on weekends.
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The Valle Drive-In just west of Newton. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
The road winds toward Colfax, where you can get your sweet fix on Historic Route 6 at the Cratty Shack[25] ice cream shop. From there, the road runs through Mitchelville and Altoona on peaceful rolling hills we never see from the construction hassles on I-80. In Des Moines, old Highway 6 follows Hubbell Avenue, Grand Avenue and Keo Way up to Beaver Avenue and Hickman Road familiar territory so let s skip over to Adel, where a sign at the local vet clinic[26] offered some wise advice: Dinosaurs didn t go to the vet … look what happened!
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Good advice for dinosaurs in Adel. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
The highway here parallels the Raccoon River Valley Trail,[27] which these days is probably more well known. Outside of Adel, we bumped into a guy named Dan Jacob of Surprise, Ariz. He s a retired photographer from the Waterloo Courier and had stopped for a few shots of an old windmill during a cross-country trip back to Iowa with his wife. He told us about a place in New Mexico called Pie Town the town s real name which sounds like a good excuse for another trip[28] someday.
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A pleasant surprise: Dan Jacob of Surpise, Ariz., took photos of a windmill near Adel. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
In the Redfield suburb of Wiscotta, you can see a house that has seen better days on its hilltop perch near the Raccoon River. It s sinking into the ground now, along with a rusty old car.
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A house — or what’s left of it — in Wiscotta. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
The section of Highway 6 known as the White Pole Road starts in Dexter, where locals have repainted the faded telephone poles and rebranded the area to attract more tourists.
[29]
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The White Pole Road starts in Dexter and heads west. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
A statue of a firefighter and his trusty Dalmatian have kept watch over the Dexter fire station for decades.
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Bonnie Parker aims a gun on her partner in crime, Clyde Barrow, as the two mug for the camera in this photo from 1933. (Photo: Register file photo)
A few blocks west is the Dexter Museum, where curator Doris Feller can tell you about her uncle Marvel s run-in with the outlaws[30] Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. The poor guy was milking his cows one summer day in 1933, just minding his own business, when Barrow ran up with a gun and demanded he turn over his car. The farmer had to show him how to drive it. Bonnie and Clyde had been laying low for a few days in nearby Dexfield Park, a campground at one Iowa s first amusement parks. They escaped in the getaway car but returned the next year to rob the bank in nearby Stuart, just before their final shootout in Louisiana.
Don t leave Dexter I repeat: do NOT leave Dexter without a stop at Drew s Chocolates, which has sold chocolate-covered caramels, truffles and toffees[31] ever since Helen Drew opened the doors in 1927. On our visit, seventh-generation owner Jason Adams showed us a photo of Betty Lenocker and the wire tool she used to dip chocolates in the kitchen for 50-some years.
Old timers tell stories about traveling salesmen whose wives scolded them if they didn t stop here on their trips, Adams said.
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Betty Lenocker made chocolates for 50-some years at Drew’s Quality Chocolates in Dexter. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
Do you suppose the Stuart stinkers know the two grumps from Atalissa? Misery loves company, after all. Maybe they re pen pals.
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Welcome to Stuart, but watch out for some of the locals. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
The Menlo Man[32] greets drivers at an old gas station in Menlo. He lights up with neon at night and waves his arm to passersby.
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The Menlo Man welcomes visitors to an old service station in Menlo. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
Jesse James robbed his first train[33] in 1873 at a site just south of Adair. Too bad for him, the train wasn t carrying the $75,000 shipment of gold he d expected, so he and his gang shook down the passengers for just $3,000.
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The site of Jesse James’ first train robbery, near Adair. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
The welcome signs just keep getting stranger. Consider this one in Anita, a whale of a town. The main drag has a few old shops and watering holes, like the Weather Vane Cafe[34].
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The Weather Vane Cafe in Anita. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
The Highway 6 movie talks up the railroad depot in Atlantic, but we found another pioneer cabin, in the city park. The sign says it was built in 1865 and used as a school, even into the 1960s.
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A pioneer cabin in the Atlantic City Park. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
The Atlantic Bottling Company has been bottling Coke since brothers Harry and Henry Tyler bought the franchise rights[35] in 1929.
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Atlantic’s claim to fame as the Coca-Cola Capital of Iowa dates back to the 1920s. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
A few fun signs greet you in Lewis. This blue arrow is a little more touristy than the one with changeable letters that currently says Welcome to Lewis: Property Taxes Are Due Now.
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Lewis is that-a-way. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
Head north out of Lewis to find the Hitchcock House[36], tucked at the end of quiet gravel road. It was a station on the Underground Railroad.
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The Hitchcock House near Lewis was a station on the Underground Railroad. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
An old ferry house[37] at at the East Nishnabotna River near Lewis is reminder that travel wasn t always so easy.
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A ferry house on the river near Lewis. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
So here s the sign for Oakland. Get it? An acorn? For Oak-land? Of course you do.
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Welcome to Oakland. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
A big new mural is underway on Oakland s main strip of old storefronts, but look down the sidewalk and you ll find a smaller art installation: a thoughtful bird pottie. (Again I ask: Would you see that on the interstate? No. No you would not.)
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A thoughtful gesture in Oakland. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
Have you ever wanted a house with a big porch and a brick turret? This one in Oakland could be yours for $275,000.
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A house on the market for $275,000 in Oakland. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
You ll cross a spiky sunburst bridge[38] as Highway 6 rolls into downtown Council Bluffs on its way toward the Missouri River, Omaha, the Rocky Mountains and on to Long Beach, Calif. Enjoy the ride.
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Old Highway 6 rolls across a bridge in downtown Council Bluffs. (Photo: Michael Morain/The Register)
See the show
Screenings of the documentary “River to River: Iowa’s Forgotten Highway 6” are scheduled for the next few days and weeks across Iowa before it airs on public television next year. Here are the events that have been scheduled so far:
2 p.m. Sept. 27 at the Western Historic Trails Center in Council Bluffs. $8.
7 p.m. Sept. 28 at the Dexter Roundhouse in Dexter. $7.
7 p.m. Sept. 29 at the Spaulding Center for Transportation in Grinnell. $7.
6:30 p.m. Sept. 20 at the Putnam Giant Screen in Davenport. $8.50.
Oct. 23-25 at the Phoenix Theater in Neola.
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