Hello byway travelers! You may be wondering where we have been (unless of course, you follow the “Where Was I on the byway” series on social media).
We have been very busy in the byway department. Our former Lincoln Highway Coordinator and now Special Projects Consultant, Shellie Orngard, finished a two-year study on historical structures in the Lincoln Highway Corridor.
“Many historic properties have been lost over the years, and it is critical that this work be undertaken to avoid losing more… Surveys are a point-in-time snapshot of properties and to ascertain their preservation needs. The end product provides information gathered and includes recommendations for preservation.”
We were fortunate to have a student working with us the past several months and we kicked out some “to do” list items.Our student spent time editing a new series, “Tales on the byway.”
This is an oral/video history project we are experimenting with to record conversations with people who have lived and worked along the Lincoln Highway Corridor. The video was recorded for the Colo Historical Association and will be played at the Reed Station Museum during open hours.
The Iowa Valley Scenic Byway Audio Tour App is something we have been spending time getting up and going, and learning about future capabilities. We needed to change the name and online location of the App so that we can expand with future tours featuring recreation areas and the Lincoln Highway once funding can be secured. The new location is: https://seeyouonthebyway.stqry.app.
Be sure to use the share icon (square with an arrow) to choose “save site to home screen.” We continue to make changes and updates to the app as we gather updated information, photos, and links. A great new “Quiz” section will be added in the coming months.
“Where Was I on the byway” continues to be the Lincoln Highway Byway theme for Wednesdays on social media and we have added a series to the Iowa Valley Scenic Byway called, “Where Was I on the App”. This series encourage exploration of the App, the audio tour, and ultimately to visit the communities.
We made much-needed route updates in our source map for the Lincoln Highway Heritage Byway. Recently, the Iowa Department of Transportation completed the Hwy 30 four-lane from Lisbon to Ogden. With this construction, there were a few changes with how the Lincoln Highway enters and exits the four-lane. We are patiently awaiting new signs to complete the sign updates in Lisbon, Chelsea, and the Ralston Corners area where the route was incorrectly signed several years ago. Continue to reference the Lincoln Highway Map until we can update these sign inconsistencies.
Speaking of road construction (after-all it is spring in Iowa), we have just linked a map to our Lincoln Highway Heritage Byway website that has most of the summer/fall road construction locations marked along our updated route. We have been experimenting with the My Google Maps and trying to see how we can add information with a limited number of layers, so note that the layers in this map are still a work in-progress.
Those are the highlights of what the byway team has been up to since January. We continue to be involved with the Reed-Niland Corner’s progression with developing preservation guidelines and the development of the Reed-Niland Corner non-profit. We are working with the City of Tama regarding the Lincoln Highway Bridge. An alternate vehicular route has been constructed around the bridge. We need an inspection to move forward.
June will keep us busy again with the Preserve Iowa Summit, where Shellie and Jeanie will be a part of the round-table presentations and discussion on June 7th.
We will be hosting a viewing of the Iowa PBS Road Trip Iowa Lincoln Highway episodes on June 19th at the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre with special guest, Kelsey Kramer. Kelsey is the producer of the eastern Iowa episodes. This event is FREE to attend and is open to the public. Shows begin at 9:30 with a discussion with Kelsey to follow.
Also during the tour, the Iowa Lincoln Highway Association President, Mary Preston, will be at the Cedar Rapids evening Tour stop and Joyce Ausberger is hosting lunch at the Lincoln Highway Museum on June 21st. All are welcome to travel along; only those on the tour can attend meals.
And then it is off to Ogallala for the Lincoln Highway Association Conference, where we will be taking the traveling exhibit, “Promise Road, How the Lincoln Highway Changed America.”– There is still time to register!
In November, the EPA partially approved Iowa’s 2024 Impaired Waters List, adding six additional river segments where drinking water use is impaired by high nitrate levels. I think EPA was right to do this, but I have some concerns. This is the letter I submitted during the public comment period.
Dear Water Division Staff,
I agree with the EPA’s decision to add seven river segments to Iowa’s impaired waters list. I hope that this change will lead to greater transparency about how nitrate pollution of surface waters affects the cost and safety of drinking water, but am concerned there will be unintended consequences.
Iowa’s Credible Data Law has sometimes been a convenient excuse to assess fewer waters, and thereby discover fewer problems. However, that doesn’t seem to be the issue here. Each of the water bodies on this list had at least one “credible” nitrate sample exceeding the 10 mg/L drinking water standard during the three year assessment period.
Raccoon River near Des Moines: 38 of 755 samples collected by Des Moines Water Works exceeded 10 mg/L
Cedar River near Cedar Rapids: 1 of 36 samples collected by the USGS, and 7 of 151 samples collected by Cedar Rapids Water Works
As I understand it, the issue is the threshold for impairment. Since fewer than 10% of the samples (accounting for some statistical correction factor) exceeded 10 mg/L, IDNR says these sites meet the standard. EPA says they do not.
The Iowa DNR’s position is not defensible. In the draft 2024 assessment, Raccoon River near Des Moines was shown as fully supporting its designated use for drinking water because
A) Nitrate in the Raccoon River exceeded 10 mg/L nitrate less than 10% of the time during the 2020-2022 assessment period
B) Nitrate in finished drinking water at the Des Moines Waterworks never exceeded 10 mg/L.
This makes no sense. Even one sample exceeding the Maximum Contaminant Level for nitrate would constitute a violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act, requiring public notice. To avoid this, the Des Moines Waterworks had to run its nitrate removal facility for weeks in 2022 at a cost of $10,000 a day, as well as blending water from other sources and asking residents to reduce water use. Clearly, poor water quality is limiting that beneficial use of the river water!
However, the South Skunk River no longer supplies drinking water to the City of Oskaloosa. The City now gets its water from an alluvial aquifer, and is able to achieve low levels of nitrate in finished water (1.17 mg/L, in the latest Consumer Confidence report) without expensive treatment. I understand that the Clean Water Act does not allow designated uses to be removed if restoring them is still achievable. However, I hope that in prioritizing and writing TMDLs we can be cognizant of facts on the ground. In the unlikely event that a TMDL for the Skunk Skunk River is written and it leads to stricter effluent limits for upstream point sources, we might be imposing real costs on Ames, Story City, and Nevada without achieving real benefits for Oskaloosa.
I am also concerned that disallowing the 10% binomial rule might lead to further politicization of funding for water monitoring. Water quality in rivers is highly variable, and daily or weekly monitoring might pick up on a short-term spike in nitrate that is missed by monthly monitoring. If a single sample can trigger impairment but there are no rules on how often a site has to be monitored, cutting budgets for monitoring programs becomes a tempting way to evade regulation and controversy.
BELLE PLAINE — Little boys love Big Boy. Big boys love Big Boy. On Thursday, hundreds of people turned out to see Big Boy.
“Big Boy” is the nickname of the 25 huge trains built in 1941 for the Union Pacific Railroad. The Omaha World-Herald introduced it as a “mastiff among puny terrier locomotives.” There are seven remaining in museums. That number used to be eight, but No. 4014 was pulled out of a California museum and restored in the 2010s. Five years after its initial excursion in 2019, the last Big Boy returned to Iowa as part of an eight-week, 10-state “Heartland of America Tour.”
John Sutherland, 75, of North Liberty was seeing Big Boy for the first time. “Railroading runs in my family’s blood. My grandfather worked for the Pullman-Standard Steel Car Co. and my great-grandfather was the line superintendent for the Michigan Central Railroad.” He’s not much of a train spotter, but the opportunity to see Big Boy was too good to pass up.
The Iowa-Illinois portion of Big Boy’s 2024 trip followed trackage that was originally part of the Chicago & North Western Railroad and closely parallels U.S. Highway 30 and the Lincoln Highway. Its public stops were in Carroll, Belle Plaine and Grand Mound. Those stops doubled as service periods, since the world’s largest operating steam locomotive requires a high degree of maintenance.
George Kornstead of Iowa City was wearing a Hawkeye Model Railroad Club shirt. He grew up around the rail hub in Duluth and Superior. “Steam is incredible, it really is, to watch how back in the day when people were working on railroad, how hard it was and how intensive it was to keep steam available on the locomotive. Lot of work. The fireman really makes his money.”
The World-Herald in 1941 said at the first Big Boy’s launch, “A single tender loading of coal would heat a six-room home for three years.” This Big Boy has been converted from using coal to using oil.
Steven Ritchie, 6, wore a “Big Boy” T-shirt. His father, Roger, said Steven has seen a lot of train videos and sings “the Big Boy song.” Andrew Schamberger of Hudson wore a C&NW T-shirt. His sister, Becca Scott of West Branch, loves the old steam engines.
According to the UP’s website, No. 4014 racked up a million miles of travel in its 20 years of original service in Wyoming and Utah. It’s nearly twice as long as a standard diesel locomotive and more than half the length of a Boeing 747 jet. The Big Boys “had a 4-8-8-4 wheel arrangement, which meant they had four wheels on the leading set of ‘pilot’ wheels which guided the engine, eight drivers, another set of eight drivers, and four wheels following which supported the rear of the locomotive,” the website says.
The Union Pacific’s “Big Boy” glistens during a light rain shower in downtown Belle Plaine, Iowa, on Thursday, September 5, 2024. Engine No. 4014 was built in 1941, decommissioned in 1961, and restored in time for the 150th anniversary of the transcontinental railroad in 2019. Photo by author.
Big Boy’s visit was a way to connect with railroad history. Paul Duffy, 85, is from “Tama, really,” but now lives nearer Belle Plaine. He worked for the C&NW and then with UP after the two railroads merged. He had been stationed at multiple points along the railroad in Iowa through his career. His oldest of five daughters, Laurie Duffy, remembers going to the station in Tama with her children to wave at Paul as his train went by.
As Big Boy finally pulled into Belle Plaine 55 minutes after its scheduled arrival, the only rain in a week’s worth of weather showed up with it. It did not dampen the spirits of those who waited, although busloads of elementary school students were only able to get a short glimpse of the train before leaving.
On the other track, a modern UP train with a long line of double-stacked shipping containers prepared to resume its trip west. Freight trains have been going through Belle Plaine for more than a century and a half, and Thursday was no exception.
After the wheels had been greased up and spectators got their fill of pictures, Big Boy’s engineer pulled the whistle and rang the bell. The 83-year-old engine began to chug its way toward Cedar Rapids for the night.
The Meskwaki Nation located in Tama County has celebrated the end of summer every year for over 100 years with the Meskwaki Annual Powwow. Family and friends travel from all over the country every year to participate in the Annual Powwow which features dancing, singing, handcrafts, food, games, and fun. Dance styles and content have evolved over the years but the reminiscing, reconnecting, and celebrating unity remains the focus of the event.
Meskwaki Powwow Facebook page
Before 1900, the Meskwaki Tribe would gather every fall during harvest to celebrate the harvest of the crop with a feast. The village was centrally located and the people would celebrate while making final preparations for the storing of the crop for the coming year. They called this celebration the “Green Corn Dance.”
Then in the early 1900s, the smallpox epidemic ran through the village and the federal government burned the village homes to eradicate the disease. The government then built the settlement houses that were spread out across the land in hopes of preventing future diseases. This caused a separation of the population and the arrival of individual crop lands and various harvest times instead of a central common harvest.
CW Wright, State Historical Society of Iowa
Meskwaki Powwow Facebook Page
To fill the missing sense of celebratory community, from 1902-1912, the Meskwaki Tribe gathered at the old village site and a new event was created but without the harvest. “Field Days” had replaced the “Green Corn Dance.”
“Field Days” became popular with more and more people from outside the settlement. The Meskwaki realized that they could share their culture with the outside world and possibly provide income for the settlement during this festive event and so in 1913 the Chief appointed 15 men to plan the celebration. These men changed the event name to “Powwow” and moved it to the current Powwow Grounds.
The Meskwaki Annual Powwow is now the largest event of its kind in the nation. It has only been canceled during World War II and during the Covid-19 outbreak of 2020/2021.
Meskwaki Powwow Facebook page
All are invited and encouraged to attend the Meskwaki Annual Powwow with open minds and open hearts to learn from the Meskwaki culture during this festive event. Various games, activities, and food vendors as well as traditional foods are available to all. Powwow etiquette is an important way to show your respect and to ease your comfort in an unfamiliar cultural environment. The celebration begins on Thursday August 8 and last for four days with Grand Entry beginning at 1 pm and 7 pm daily.
Meskwaki Powwow Facebook page
Meskwaki Powwow Facebook page
The Grand Entry can now be livestreamed if you can’t make it in person. New this year is the Bible’s Fatboy Powwow Highway Ride benefiting the Meskwaki Band Florida Trip; grab your cars and bikes and meet at the Meskwaki Travel Plaza 9:30 am Aug 10th and ride the gravel-to-grounds route. What a way to celebrate the end of summer!
Coming from the east along the Lincoln Highway through the town of Jefferson, there is a location where the car seems to be drawn to a stop and the traveler is compelled to get out and explore. On the north side of the road is a beautiful, landscaped area with plants and sculptures while on the south side there is the restored and welcoming Milwaukee Railroad Depot (along with the county Freedom Rock!). Both sides of the road are part of the Raccoon River Valley Trail (RRVT) trailhead.
The Railroad Years
The Chicago & North Western Railroad brought the railroad tracks to town in 1866, and by 1906 the Milwaukee and St Paul routes ran through Jefferson as well connecting Des Moines and the Iowa Great Lakes Region. Replacing smaller versions of a depot, the current depot was built from a standard Milwaukee plan between 1906 and 1909. There was once a cast iron horse trough that was attached to the building. Because Jefferson was the county seat of Greene County, the depot here was larger than most with two waiting rooms, indoor plumbing, and an express and baggage room. Greater ornamentation was also given to the structure.
The Lincoln Highway Cruises In
By 1913, the Lincoln Highway was proposed and its paving across Greene County came soon afterward from local and city funding. The city square was just a few blocks west of the Milwaukee Depot, and in 1918 a grand Classical Revival style building made of limestone was built to replace the brick county courthouse. In that same year, resident E.B. Wilson donated a statue of Abraham Lincoln to honor the Lincoln Highway and the new courthouse. This new ease and popularity of automobile travel became the preferred way to get from place to place. By 1952 the passenger service on the Milwaukee RR was discontinued. By the middle of the 1980s freight service ceased operation as well.
A New Use
It was time for a new use for the old railroad right-of-way. Through a vision of the Iowa Trails Council and the Conservation Boards from Dallas and Guthrie counties, the Raccoon River Valley multi-use Trail (RRVT) was born in 1987, with the first paved trail in 1989. The 12-mile addition from Jefferson to the south was completed in 1997 after Greene County joined the group. Today, the trail is an 89-mile paved surface running from Jefferson to Waukee, with plans to connect to the High Trestle Trail by the end of 2024.
One of the goals of the Raccoon River Valley Trail Association was to keep the history alive in the towns along the trail and to give new life to the communities. There are signs noting historical points of significance along the entire route, several restored or remaining train depots, and signs that remain from the railroad days.
The Jefferson Trailhead
The addition of the Milwaukee Depot Trailhead in Jefferson has been significant to telling the story of the Lincoln Highway. Thousands of bicyclists, joggers, walkers, skaters, campers, cross-country skiers, birdwatchers, hunters, fishermen and naturalists from all across the state are drawn to the Raccoon River Valley Trail. The Lincoln Highway interpretive signs at the trailhead are only the beginning to how Jefferson tells the Lincoln Highway history.
Jefferson and the Lincoln Highway
Adjacent to the Raccoon River Valley Trail is the Greene County Freedom Rock, the 53rd in the state, and completed in 2016. The Lincoln Highway is one of four subjects painted on the rock. In the Greene County News, October 28, 2016, artist Bubba Sorensen states that the rocks are to thank veterans for their service and to tell the unique stories of each county. The Lincoln Highway scene depicts the 1919 U.S. Army motor transport corps convoy across the Lincoln Highway and then LTC Dwight D. Eisenhower looking toward the convoy.
Approximately one block to the west of the RRVT is the Deep Rock Gas Station. Built in 1923, the building was in use until the 1990s. The site was given to the city in 2007. Using federal EPA “brownfield” funds, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources removed the station’s seven underground tanks. Using other grants and fund sources the station was restored and rededicated in 2014. An interpretive sign is located at the station to provide more insight on the historic Lincoln Highway.
A few blocks farther to the west is the Greene County Museum and Historical Center housing Lincoln Highway memorabilia. A sidewalk painting of the Lincoln Highway roadway leads from the museum to the Thomas Jefferson Gardens and ends at the town square. An interpretive sign along the sidewalks speaks of the Lincoln Highway.
At the center of the town square is the Greene County Courthouse, the Abraham Lincoln Statue, a 1928 Lincoln Highway Marker, and the Mahanay Memorial Carillion Tower. The tower allows for elevator rides to a 128-foot-high observation deck with views to rooftop art, to the surrounding counties and to… the Lincoln Highway.
The Raccoon River Valley Trail is nationally recognized as an exceptional rails-to-trails conversion and was a 2021 inductee into the rail-trail Hall of Fame. It has the longest paved loop trail in the nation and connects 14 Iowa communities with a unique outdoor recreational experience. Visit their website to plan your next railroad biking adventure and to support the communities built along railroad and Lincoln Highway history!
The Lincoln Highway Cruises In
At the center of the town square is the Greene County Courthouse, the Abraham Lincoln Statue, a 1928 Lincoln Highway Marker, and the 
The Raccoon River Valley Trail is nationally recognized as an exceptional rails-to-trails conversion and was a 2021 inductee into the rail-trail Hall of Fame. It has the longest paved loop trail in the nation and connects 14 Iowa communities with a unique outdoor recreational experience. Visit their 
