By Ruth A. Ringelstetter
Grant Wood was born four miles east of Anamosa, Iowa. One of his best-known paintings is American Gothic, which depicts a man and woman standing in front of a small white house. The man is holding a pitch fork. They look like a typical Midwest couple of the early 20th century when life was hard.
In the summer of 2008, as Joann and I headed to Cedar Rapids to stay the night, we passed a barn with scaffolding set up along the front of it. We both looked to see what the painting was and were surprised to see that it was a replica of the American Gothic Painting.
We stopped and took a few pictures with the scaffolding, fearing that we would not get back to see the barn before something happened to it. I made a note of the approximate location of the barn and we continued on our trip.
In June of this year, we had the opportunity to return to Iowa to hunt up some barns and Joann asked if we might be able to find the American Gothic barn again on the trip. We planned for our circle to take us down to Davenport, then up past Cedar Rapids to Anamosa and then east to Dubuque. We decided that we could definitely make this barn a stop on our trip.
On Saturday night, we checked into our motel at Mount Vernon and then decided to go out in the evening light and check out the barn. The lighting was good, so Joann pulled over on the highway, and then crossed over to the other side to take her photos. The barn now has murals painted on three of its sides.
The following morning, we headed out bright and early as usual. Our first stop was Stone City and as Joann photographed an old stone church from various angles, I read a visitor board about Grant Wood. He had helped to found the Stone City Art Colony near his hometown to help artists get through the Depression. Sitting next to the visitor board was a building that was a replica of the house from the American Gothic painting.
The real Carpenter Gothic style house that Grant Wood used for the background of his painting sits in Eldon, Iowa. The house has a visitor center with vintage clothing and pitchforks available for photos.
As we headed east from Anamosa, we came to the Antioch School, which Grant Wood attended from 1897 until 1901. The school is restored and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Behind the school was the restored outhouse, and Joann can never resist adding another outhouse to our collection.
Grant Wood is one of the Midwest’s most prized artists. He was born February 13, 1891, and died on February 12, 1942. From 1920 to 1928, he made multiple trips to Europe, where he studied different styles of painting. On his return to Iowa, he was widely quoted as saying, “All the really good ideas I’d ever had came to me while I was milking a cow. So I went back to Iowa.”
You never know what you’ll find along the unassuming backroads, so keep your eyes open.
Happy Shunpiking!
Ruth
Shunpiking To Heaven Backroads Blog
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Double the Pleasure
By Joann M. Ringelstetter
Yesterday morning as I was wondering what to write about, I looked out my window as I often do when I’m thinking. And suddenly, the perfect topic showed up a few feet from my window. Ask and you shall receive!
As I glanced towards the stone steps that go up into the woods, I saw a doe walk from one side of the steps to the other. So I waited and watched to see if she had a fawn or two with her.
And, sure enough, a little spotted fawn popped out of the weeds and cautiously crossed, following in the footsteps of his mother. And then another little spotted fawn popped out of the weeds and crossed the steps, quickly disappearing into the vegetation on the other side.
This isn’t the first time I have had the privilege of enjoying twin fawns outside my dining room window. Over the past few years, I’ve seen a doe with twin fawns almost every summer. A couple of times, they have been brave enough to come close to the house in order to drink from my birdbath and scavenge birdseed from below the feeders.
I have read that a doe will typically have a single fawn the first time and then twins the following years. I have also read that the mothers usually stay away from their fawns for a few days so that their scent doesn’t rub off on the fawns (who are born without a scent). This is nature’s way of protecting the fawn, along with giving them spots to help camouflage them.
One of my favorite children’s books is “Lost in the Woods,” featuring the wonderful photography of Carl R. Sams II and Jean Stoick. It’s about a new-born fawn whose mother has left him in order to protect him until he is strong enough to follow her. As the little fawn awaits the return of his mother, all the other forest animals wonder if he’s lost.
One of my favorite movies is Walt Disney’s “Bambi,” the story of a young deer as he grows, makes friends, and finds love. Millions of drawings were produced for this movie and the final movie is made up of roughly 400,000 drawings. The film opened in theaters in 1942 and was a box office flop. However it began to make money when it was re-released and today it is considered a classic.
If you like hiking in the woods, keep your eyes open and you might just spot a new-born fawn.
Happy Shunpiking!
Joann
Yesterday morning as I was wondering what to write about, I looked out my window as I often do when I’m thinking. And suddenly, the perfect topic showed up a few feet from my window. Ask and you shall receive!
As I glanced towards the stone steps that go up into the woods, I saw a doe walk from one side of the steps to the other. So I waited and watched to see if she had a fawn or two with her.
And, sure enough, a little spotted fawn popped out of the weeds and cautiously crossed, following in the footsteps of his mother. And then another little spotted fawn popped out of the weeds and crossed the steps, quickly disappearing into the vegetation on the other side.
This isn’t the first time I have had the privilege of enjoying twin fawns outside my dining room window. Over the past few years, I’ve seen a doe with twin fawns almost every summer. A couple of times, they have been brave enough to come close to the house in order to drink from my birdbath and scavenge birdseed from below the feeders.
I have read that a doe will typically have a single fawn the first time and then twins the following years. I have also read that the mothers usually stay away from their fawns for a few days so that their scent doesn’t rub off on the fawns (who are born without a scent). This is nature’s way of protecting the fawn, along with giving them spots to help camouflage them.
One of my favorite children’s books is “Lost in the Woods,” featuring the wonderful photography of Carl R. Sams II and Jean Stoick. It’s about a new-born fawn whose mother has left him in order to protect him until he is strong enough to follow her. As the little fawn awaits the return of his mother, all the other forest animals wonder if he’s lost.
One of my favorite movies is Walt Disney’s “Bambi,” the story of a young deer as he grows, makes friends, and finds love. Millions of drawings were produced for this movie and the final movie is made up of roughly 400,000 drawings. The film opened in theaters in 1942 and was a box office flop. However it began to make money when it was re-released and today it is considered a classic.
If you like hiking in the woods, keep your eyes open and you might just spot a new-born fawn.
Happy Shunpiking!
Joann
Monday, July 4, 2011
The Lincoln Highway in Iowa
By Ruth A. Ringelstetter
A mere 100 years ago, the only roads that existed in the US were around cities. There were no planned routes between cities, and very few “improved” roads. A road was considered improved if it was graded and only a few in those days were gravel or brick. If you find any pictures of cars traveling on those first roads, you will often see them axle deep in mud and ruts.
In 1912, Carl Fisher had an idea for a coast to coast rock highway. He tried to get the interest of both private citizens and automobile companies. Henry Joy of the Packard Motor Company became the spokesman for the idea. He was the one who suggested the Lincoln Highway name. In 1913, the Lincoln Highway Association was created and Henry Joy was elected president. In the years following, the Lincoln Highway slowly took shape.
In March of 1925, the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) began planning a federal highway system that was to consist of a series of numbered highways. All of the existing named roads, including the Lincoln Highway were ignored in their planning. The Lincoln Highway Association wanted the same highway number to be associated with the highway across the country. This was not to be in the new federal plan, so the last major activity of the association was to mark the highway with small concrete markers as a memorial to Abraham Lincoln. On September 1, 1928, thousands of Boy Scouts fanned out along the highway. At an average of about one per mile, they installed small concrete markers with a small bust of Lincoln and the inscription “This highway dedicated to Abraham Lincoln.”
Many businesses had sprung up along the Lincoln Highway especially in the towns the highway passed through. It is those businesses that Joann and I find fascinating. We have less interest in driving every mile of the original highway than in those businesses that did business along the highway, and in some cases still do.
If you read our post “When it Rains, It Pours”, you know that our first trip along the Lincoln Highway was to visit Belle Plaine, Iowa. We are fascinated by old gas stations and their signage, and you can’t find more of this history than at Preston’s Station in Belle Plaine.
Along with the station itself, sits an old Rumely Oil Pull tractor. Rumely OilPulls were a line of tractors built by the Advance-Rumely Thresher Company of LaPorte, Indiana beginning in 1910. They seem to have more in common with old steam engines than regular tractors.
Over the years, the route of the Lincoln Highway was marked in various ways. Sometimes the colors of red, white, and blue were painted on telephone poles and sometimes other methods of marking the highway were used.
During my research, I found a picture of the Youngville Station, which was located along the Lincoln Highway. Had Youngville been a town at one time? I searched everything I could find and could not come up with a location. As Joann and I headed home after one of our trips to Iowa, we were flying down a divided Highway 30 west of Cedar Rapids when we looked at each other with a “did you see that?” expression, and Joann screeched the car to a halt along the wide shoulder of the road.
We managed to turn the car around and pull into the parking area where we spent some time walking around the building and taking photos. As Joann often does, she even ran out onto the highway to get the best photo. (Her gravestone in the end will probably read something about being smucked on the highway, doing what she loved.)
So, as you travel the byways and backroads of this great country, take photos and make memories, but try to stay out of the middle of the road.
Happy Shunpiking!
Ruth
A mere 100 years ago, the only roads that existed in the US were around cities. There were no planned routes between cities, and very few “improved” roads. A road was considered improved if it was graded and only a few in those days were gravel or brick. If you find any pictures of cars traveling on those first roads, you will often see them axle deep in mud and ruts.
In 1912, Carl Fisher had an idea for a coast to coast rock highway. He tried to get the interest of both private citizens and automobile companies. Henry Joy of the Packard Motor Company became the spokesman for the idea. He was the one who suggested the Lincoln Highway name. In 1913, the Lincoln Highway Association was created and Henry Joy was elected president. In the years following, the Lincoln Highway slowly took shape.
In March of 1925, the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) began planning a federal highway system that was to consist of a series of numbered highways. All of the existing named roads, including the Lincoln Highway were ignored in their planning. The Lincoln Highway Association wanted the same highway number to be associated with the highway across the country. This was not to be in the new federal plan, so the last major activity of the association was to mark the highway with small concrete markers as a memorial to Abraham Lincoln. On September 1, 1928, thousands of Boy Scouts fanned out along the highway. At an average of about one per mile, they installed small concrete markers with a small bust of Lincoln and the inscription “This highway dedicated to Abraham Lincoln.”
Many businesses had sprung up along the Lincoln Highway especially in the towns the highway passed through. It is those businesses that Joann and I find fascinating. We have less interest in driving every mile of the original highway than in those businesses that did business along the highway, and in some cases still do.
If you read our post “When it Rains, It Pours”, you know that our first trip along the Lincoln Highway was to visit Belle Plaine, Iowa. We are fascinated by old gas stations and their signage, and you can’t find more of this history than at Preston’s Station in Belle Plaine.
Along with the station itself, sits an old Rumely Oil Pull tractor. Rumely OilPulls were a line of tractors built by the Advance-Rumely Thresher Company of LaPorte, Indiana beginning in 1910. They seem to have more in common with old steam engines than regular tractors.
Over the years, the route of the Lincoln Highway was marked in various ways. Sometimes the colors of red, white, and blue were painted on telephone poles and sometimes other methods of marking the highway were used.
During my research, I found a picture of the Youngville Station, which was located along the Lincoln Highway. Had Youngville been a town at one time? I searched everything I could find and could not come up with a location. As Joann and I headed home after one of our trips to Iowa, we were flying down a divided Highway 30 west of Cedar Rapids when we looked at each other with a “did you see that?” expression, and Joann screeched the car to a halt along the wide shoulder of the road.
We managed to turn the car around and pull into the parking area where we spent some time walking around the building and taking photos. As Joann often does, she even ran out onto the highway to get the best photo. (Her gravestone in the end will probably read something about being smucked on the highway, doing what she loved.)
So, as you travel the byways and backroads of this great country, take photos and make memories, but try to stay out of the middle of the road.
Happy Shunpiking!
Ruth
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