Iowa - Day 2 - in Des Moines

Newton/Des Moines East KOA, Newton

Wednesday, 2 November 2022

Actually, we did all this on Thursday the 3rd, but I'm putting it here on the 2nd to make writing these chronological posts easier.

I saw online that the same situation regarding parking at the state museum that I had in Lincoln was what I'd find here in Des Moines, so we left the campground at 7:45 to get to town in time to find an on-the-street parking space.  Which we did.

today's route
I didn't cover the city by a long shot,
but I did see quite a bit in the north part of town.

This time I was lucky to find another bank across the street from the museum (like in Lincoln) and they too were willing to give me quarters in change for a few dollar bills.  I fed the 2 machines for the places I was taking up and had most of 2 hours for the museum.

State Historical Museum of Iowa

I started on the 2nd floor just because it seemed easier to take the elevator up and walk down on the stairs.  But that might have not been the best route to take through their exhibits because I got the dessert first and the history lesson later, which was a little confusing.

The 2nd floor had exhibits about the Iowa/Hollywood relationship and about Iowa's love for bicycles, which was news to me.  I'll start with Hollywood, which they called Hollywood in the Heartland.  I'm sorry that some of these photos are a little fuzzy - they wouldn't allow a flash and the light levels were sometimes quite awkward, so I moved the camera too soon for a clear picture.  Believe it or not, I chucked a lot of those I took because they were even worse than what you see.

Hollywood in the Heartland

She doesn't look like the
stereotypical Iowa farm girl.

I think they included this because of the
local reactions, rather than because
of any film connection to Iowa.

He seems to have almost
no connection to Iowa.

She's born and raised in Des Moines.

Fuzzy but it gives an idea of the show, for those who haven't seen it.

I don't agree that the scene mentioned shows folks
as narrow-minded because they change their minds
pretty easily when presented with an alternate view.
That's a great scene, by the way.

one of my favorite character actors

text enlarged at right

Looked different when he was young,
didn't he?

Bridges of Madison County

The act in this last entry didn't make it to Hollywood, but they were on Broadway.  And one result of their performance there was a history-making opinion by the Iowa Supreme Court regarding libel.

Text enlarged below.

Riding Through History

The rest of this exhibit - which covered a lot of space - was given to RAGBRAI, which I'd never heard of but is extremely popular here.  It stands for Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa - "Register" referring to the newspaper Des Moines Register.  The RAGBRAI name is trademarked, and they claim it's the "oldest, largest and longest bicycle touring event in the world."

Eight days, river to river.  Apparently they change the route each year - maybe to spread the economic benefits among a number of small communities in the state?

The museum has that pie/hat on display.

And apparently a good time is had by all.

On the 1st floor of the museum, they had a section on state history, another on the people and towns here, and another on Iowa and the Civil War.

Iowa History 101

Today's Iowa is wholly within the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.

showing the Wisconsin Territory,
created in 1836

Wisconsin and part of Minnesota were
carved out in 1838 and we went forward with
the Iowa Territory.

Given Iowa's territorial boundary questions,
it seems odd that Wisconsin wouldn't gain statehood
until 2 years after Iowa did.

Alexander Clark (mentioned above) did more than promote educational equality, he engineered the end of racial discrimination in voting.

And speaking of unequal rights, as one of those signs did, these next 2 concern a part of women's rights.

Iowa and the Civil War

text enlarged at right

text, enlarged

I just thought some of the shapes
of the western states were interesting.

some text enlarged below

text enlarged - views from both sides

The bloody battle of Shiloh.
Eleven regiments of Iowans fought here.

These next displays aren't in any order, and I'm not sure they were in any order in the museum, because they come right after each other on my camera.

Bounded as it is by 2 great rivers, and crisscrossed by many others,
Iowa is subject to severe flooding at times.

I don't remember seeing anything at the museum that explained that the
Meskwaki people, mentioned here, are Iowa's only federally recognized tribe.
This reference to them seems sort of thrown into this sign, and I'm not sure why.

These next 2 were photos in the African American Migration section, and this was another important point in history that I don't think the museum explained at all.  But the photos are interesting: they're the same family of sisters, taken 25 years apart.

I think frontier life must have been hard
on women.

There was an exhibit about the life of early European settlers in Iowa, and my photos are mostly about the work that women did because I've seen plenty about the work that men did - plowing and so forth.  A few of these are really fuzzy, but if you can decipher them, they're interesting.

They had to make the fabric before they
could make the clothes.

This woman is making candles.

A pot on the fire.
I'm so spoiled with today's microwaves
and crock-pots.

This quilt was made in the 1830s.

Incredible how tough those women had to be.  I wonder how many of us today would survive long if we had to live like this.

Finally, I'm not sure what section these next items were from, but they're all related to Iowa, one way or another, and I found them interesting.

Tiddly Winks, Tinkertoys, Pick-Up Sticks,
Lincoln Logs and Chinese Checkers -
all straight out of my childhood.  I'd forgotten
Tiddly Winks existed.

Iowa dairies

Take a look at that speed limit sign.
"Reasonable and proper?"

They had a large display of old typewriters.

I don't remember ever seeing a museum
displaying a list of items they want donated.

Of course they had many many more items and sections, but this is a representative sample.

The state capitol was a block away from the museum - and that block was the huge front lawn that this time of year doesn't look so inviting.  It's a beautiful building and I'm sorry I couldn't see it at its best.

Completed in 1886, this is the only 5-domed capitol in the US.
That's 23-carat gold leaf on the center dome.

Here's a photo from online that shows a little more detail.

I'd like to see it in the summer.

From there, we drove by the Basilica of St. John, dedicated in 1927 and considered a Minor Basilica of the Catholic Church (I'm not familiar with these distinctions but in case you are, there you go).

I went to 2 pet stores, trying to find more kitten food.  One was a local chain called Bone-A-Patreat.  Really.  They were nice folks and had some of what I was looking for, and I went to a PetsMart for the rest.

I stopped for gas and for groceries (not related stops), and finally went to a recycling drop-off.  I couldn't tell online if they'd even take me, obviously not being a local resident.  But when I got there I found my only problem was trying to stay out of the way of the guys driving heavy machinery to shift dumpsters and other heavy items around.  It was nice to get rid of all the stuff that had been filling up my bathroom in the last couple of weeks.

I passed a sign directing me to the "Heritage Carousel" which I hadn't known was there.  Just as well, though, because it's open only during the summer - late May to mid-September.  Definitely something to go on the list for my next trip here.

I crossed the Des Moines River and passed by Drake University, one of the oldest private universities in the country, dating back to 1881.  It has about 3,000 undergraduates plus several graduate schools.

On the 40-mile ride back to the campground, I had to contend with very strong wind and heavy traffic, making it hard to hold the RV in its lane.  I was glad to get off the road.

Back in the campground, I bought propane and got permission to change my campsite to one that wasn't up on a hill, and was therefore more level.  That was a relief.

And finally, 2 photos I took that show the relative sizes of the kittens - there really is a difference.

Bucky and Jimmy

They're really cute, aren't they?