Happy Birthday Hawkeye State!

  


   Don't ever accuse WannaskaWriter of being from Iowa. He's liable to bite your head off. As was his mother before him, WW is a Palmvillian through and through. It was only by her chance meeting with WW's father while she was cooking for a threshing crew near Osnabrock, North Dakota that fate brought WW into the world in Des Moines, Iowa.
   All through WW's childhood, his parents brought him to Palmville to breathe his true native air. As soon as he was able, he bought a piece of Palmville and, shaking the dust of Iowa from his boots, considered himself home at last.
   But it's not easy to forgot the place that nourished you, and even WW will admit that Iowa played a part of shaping him. Take WW's accent for starters. People who grew up in Des Moines speak the North Midland dialect, while native Minnesotans speak what linguists call North Central American English. There's a subtle but telling difference.
   But enough about WW.  It's Iowa's birthday after all. On this day in 1846, Iowa became the 29th state. The first  Iowans had either arrived by crossing the Bering land bridge 13,000 years ago, or had simply popped out of the earth and had been there forever. It depends on whose story you listen to. No matter, all agree these early natives were hunter-gatherers.
   By the time Jolliet and Marquette arrived in 1673, the inhabitants had settled down and were growing corn and making pottery. The natives were happy to trade with the newcomers, but could not contend with the new diseases and hordes of well-armed settlers. By the 1850s all the Indians had been removed from the state, though a small remnant of Meskwaki were allowed to  return and buy land at Tama northeast of Des Moines.
   With statehood established in 1846, settlers flooded in to farm the prairies.  They came from Ohio and the mid-Atlantic states, mostly of German stock. By the start of the Civil War, Iowa had a large enough population to send 75,000 soldiers to fight for the Union. In fact Iowa sent a greater proportion of its men to the war than any other state, north or south. There were no battles in Iowa, but some of the shells from the battle of Athens, Missouri flew across the Des Moines river and landed in Iowa.
   The Great Depression and the Farm Crisis of the 1980s hit Iowa hard, but by the time of the Great Recession of the 2000s, Iowa had diversified its economy so that it suffered less than the rest of the country. Manufacturing is now a larger part of the state's economy than farming.
   It's a myth that Iowa is flat. It's mostly rolling, and there are areas in the northeast along the Mississippi that appear almost mountainous. The Loess Hills along the Missouri River in the west are considered highly scenic.
   Iowa is said to be one of the best states to do business. On the other hand, pollution from farm runoff and coal burning power plants is a concern, as is the brain drain of educated youth seeking better pay in other climes.
   WW was part of that drain, but it had to be. I have travelled to Iowa several times with him and it was most illuminating to see the scenes of his youth: the houses where he almost blew himself up and the venues where he came close to incarceration.  Despite its calm demeanor, Iowa can be a dangerous place. We are all happy that he has removed to the safety of Palmville Township.

HA (HollywoodActor); another Iowan who left home.