For the last few weeks, we had been meandering through the “Midwest”. What is this? Well, it turns out to be a pretty dumb name for the central northern states. The US has four census regions – the West, the South, the Northeast, and the states in the central northern area called the Midwest. This region is actually further broken down into the states that make up the Great Lakes (Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota; hosting the bulk of the Midwest’s population) and the Great Plains (Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and the two Dakotas). Driving west out of Chicago, through Illinois, and into Iowa, I definitely felt the transition from the Great Lakes into the Great Plains, or from the “rust belt” into the “corn belt”. What do you see? Unsurprisingly, corn fields, red barns, and blue sky. It is beautiful!
(After a while, it really starts resembling a sea of corn)
Going from Illinois into Iowa was the first time we crossed the mighty Mississippi River. It defines the eastern border of the state, while the western border with Nebraska is defined mostly by the Missouri River. With about 3.1 million people, Iowa makes up a little less than 1% of the US population, but produces 19% of the nation’s corn, 17% of its soybeans, and a massive 30% of its pigs. But among all these millions of corn fields, there was one particular field we were headed for… the Field of Dreams.
If you haven’t seen the 1989 classic film “Field of Dreams” this whole section won’t make sense, and you should stop reading, buy it online, and watch it. It is bizarre, inspirational, and heart-warming. Many years back, just outside the very small Iowan farming town of Dyersville (population: 4,000), the director found his choice field for the film’s location. They paid the farmer to convert part of his field into a baseball field and to use (and slightly convert) his house for filming. After the film was done and dusted, the farmer continued to live and farm there, but left the baseball field in tact. Fast forward to a few years ago, and the farm house and field was converted into a museum of sorts. As predicted in the movie, throughout the day people rock up and play or watch baseball in the field. There’s also a tour of the house and grounds. Having rewatched the film the night before in preparation, we took the tour, and it was awesome.
This is me doing my best Kevin Costner impression.
Ella walking out of the corn fields like Shoeless Joe Jackson, with a touch more elegance.
The corn was about the same height as in the film. Interestingly, the movie was filmed when this part of northeast Iowa was in a severe drought. The production company had a field of fake corn ready in case they couldn’t get the real thing. In the end, after a lot of water-related logistics, the corn grew well. In fact, it grew too well and Costner had to walk on an improvised wooden stand during the first scene in the field when he hears the voice.
Food processing is a naturally a big part of Iowa’s manufacturing activity, but the state is not all about agriculture. The state seems extremely business-friendly, earning top marks for its low cost of doing business. The state capital of Des Moines is the home base for a number of insurance and financial services firms. The second biggest town of Cedar Rapids, where we spent a night, is the home of Rockwell Collins, a giant in avionics and aircraft IT systems. It also supposedly has five seasons, with the fifth being the time to enjoy the other four (corny?). Randomly, this town of 250,000 is also the hometown of some successful Hollywood actors like Elijah Wood, Ashton Kutcher, and Ron Livingston. It seemed like a pretty nice place.
Iowa also has a lot of this:
And a little of this:
The name Iowa comes from a Native American tribe in the region. The first Europeans here were actually the French. But after the Louisiana purchase, which is something I’ll have to go into detail in a later post, it started a path to statehood. A lot of the towns still have French names, like another place we stayed spelled Dubuque but pronounced De-Byuke. We stayed in an old and slightly spooky guest house. Check it out.
Onwards and westwards to Omaha…