forgotteniowablog:
This project can give you a deep itch if you are forced to take a break from it. Such was the case when we decided to venture over to Iowa County at 3:30PM last week. We were saving this county specifically for that feeling, knowing that it was both fairly close and pretty small, and also knowing that the itch was inevitable. In total, there were only seven incorporated towns in the entire county (11 if you include the unincorporated towns). It seemed totally plausible to get there, explore, and finish before the sun fell below the horizon.
We ended up being dead wrong.
The day started in North English, Iowa; a small but charming town atop a large hill on the southern edge of Iowa County.
I was blown away at this old arcade and the astounding amount of games that sat just out of reach inside. Kat and I peaked through every available window and pointed out the various arcade systems that we remembered from our youth.
And that’s when I saw it.
There was once an arcade in the Keosippi (now River City) Mall in Keokuk, Iowa. In it, there was this Simpsons bowling game that I would play every time my family made a trip to the mall. One day, I hit the jackpot on that game and won a ridiculous amount of tickets (enough of them to buy a bicycle).
Eventually that arcade closed and I’ve occasionally mentioned this story to people. To my surprise, literally nobody I’ve talked to has remembered the Simpsons bowling game at the mall. They didn’t remember it existing AT ALL, or that it sat at the left end of the store and right in front of the store window.
This bothered me a lot and I started to wonder if, maybe, this game didn’t actually exist. Maybe it was a Simpsons game, but not a Simpsons bowling game. Maybe I crossed the wires somewhere. I didn’t know specifically; I just seriously doubted my own memory as a result.
You can imagine the surprise when I saw it sitting there, almost poetically on the left side of a large window – The Simpsons Bowling Arcade Game.
IT DOES EXIST.
I was floored. Later that night, I found the owner of that old arcade after a brief search on Facebook, and I sent him a message asking him where he obtained that machine. I don’t know why, I guess, I was just insanely curious. He told me that he picked it up in a town pretty close to Keokuk, so there is a real possibility that not only is that the same arcade game, but it may be the exact one I played that day. There are times when this project makes Iowa seem immense. This was one of the few times that it made the whole place seem small.
Williamsburg is the most populated town in Iowa County with a total population of 3,068 people. We had a quick dinner at a restaurant called Pizza Haus and walked around the park while the sun continued its downward descent. I was already starting to worry that we weren’t going to make it through the entire county. We still had a lot to get through, after all, and I didn’t want to halfway complete any single town. We had to hit the road.
But not before taking a short walk. There was a lovely park sitting directly in the center of Williamsburg’s business district, and it was full of young kids hanging out and discussing their school day. Iowa has its fair share of city squares, but most of them have a large building in the center; usually a courthouse, but occasionally a series of small, local businesses. It was nice to see a park being utilized instead, and it was nice to see families and teenagers actually utilizing it. This town wasn’t dying at all. It was thriving.
Conroy was when the sun started to make my work difficult. It was nearing 5:00 PM and the sun was casting giant, unappealing shadows on all the buildings. Hilton Hall had an interesting design, but there was no way to capture it with the equipment I had available to me. I began to worry that I was going to keep running into this problem.
We saw signs for the Amana Colonies immediately after leaving Conroy. It threw a huge wedge into our plans, too, because those towns were not listed on any official county town list I’d come across. Worse yet, when we finally arrived to South Amana, we realized that there were several separate towns comprising the Amana Colonies. There was just no way we could get to all of them before sundown, so we did the only thing we could do in that moment: we hit the road. On our official town list, we added an asterisk to South Amana that read: Spend a day exploring the Amana Colonies. We would have to come back.
Victor, Iowa was strange. It felt like we’d already done this town, but I knew that was impossible. I stared at the county map and Victor was clearly in Iowa County.
“Hmm, that’s strange.” I thought aloud.
“It’s kind of in Iowa County, but it’s kind of in Poweshiek county, too. Maybe we have done this town?”
It turns out that we had already tackled Victor, but strangely enough, we’d only been to the Powesheik side of the town. It seemed especially odd to me because the town is incredibly small (Population: 893). I have no idea how we ended up being so precise, but there was a wealth of new buildings there to photograph.
The final moments of direct sunlight happened just as we were leaving Ladora, Iowa. We sped down the highway and dipped beneath and above the rolling hills on Historic Highway 6.
Have you ever noticed how everything gets a little more scary at night? I’m sure Millersburg is a beautiful town full of beautiful people, but it creeped me out to walk up and down that small strip as the sun finally disappeared completely. That vibe was only intensified when I looked down the street and saw two obviously drunk people shooting beer bottles with handguns. I momentarily considered approaching them, but I inevitably decided against it.
It was almost 9:30 PM by the time we finally arrived in Parnell.
Almost without exception, with every county we travel to, there is always that one town we can’t seem to find. We’ll drive north to south, then east to west, and we’ll somehow miss it three or four times before eventually discovering it in a fit of pure, unadulterated confusion.
Parnell was that difficult town. It took us nearly an hour to find it, and when we did, it was nearing total blackness. The town, small as it was, was totally vibrant. People were gathered at the local tavern, and a few of them were having heated discussions in the beer tent attached to it. They were discussing the merits of organized fighting, and who was the best professional mixed-martial-arts fighter. From my vantage point, there didn’t seem to be a decisive conclusion.
We left Parnell by 10:30 PM and would end up getting home just before midnight. It was a fun experiment, but I definitely think I prefer to wake up bright and early (even though the night sky makes the buildings so evenly lit).
19 counties down…about a zillion more to go. Which one should we tackle next?