August 10, 2022
The World's Largest Wooden Nickel
"What?!?!" you ask, "The World's Largest Wooden Nickel? In Iowa, of all places?? How can that be??"
Yes, it's true. It's one of the many novelties you'll see in today's ride. But I'm saving The Nickel for the end, because I want to keep you in suspense, but mainly because it's at the end of the ride.
First up: the Devonian Fossil Gorge. Although I didn't stop today (it's just around a few corners from my house), the Gorge is fun if you like hunting for fossils. You can find all kinds there, but not me. I don't count as a fossil, because I'm not 375 million years old.
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I stopped for a cider and an apple turnover at Wilson's Cidery. It's a weekday so I have the place to myself, and the scenery out here is peaceful and relaxing.
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Heading into Iowa City, I ride on one of the many cobblestone roads. Cobblestones are quaint in pictures and old movies, but riding on them isn't particularly enjoyable unless, like me, you like to vocalize to hear the funny sound your voice makes as you bounce along the road.
Many of you might not be old enough to remember one of my favorite cartoon strips, Bloom County, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1987. It ran during the 1980s and the characters lived in an old Queen Ann boarding house. The author, Berkeley Breathed, lived in the Linsay House from 1981 to 1985 and used it as the model for the characters' boarding house.
Breathed said the old house was "one of the ugliest houses in the five-state area... Six different architectural styles in one house is a milestone at least and at most a landmark to bad taste.” It's actually supposed to be the "Lindsay House," but it was misspelled when it was listed on the Historic Register.
Next up, and just a mile away: this is the house that Kurt Vonnegut rented while writing Slaughterhouse Five and teaching at the Writer's Workshop in the 1960s. My wife's book club met there when that was their selected book of the month a few years ago.
Speaking of the Writer's Workshop, should anyone be interested in becoming a famous author, this is the place to start. A short list of the many illustrious graduates includes Flannery O'Connor, John Irving, Wallace Stegner, Raymond Carver, and T. Coraghessan Boyle.
You can't have a great Writer's Workshop without an equivalent bookstore, and the Prairie Lights Bookstore is ranked as, literally, one of the best in the world... right here in this small Midwestern town. Click here to see. The Writer's Workshop and Prairie Lights probably contributed to Iowa City being named a UNESCO City of Literature.
I rode across the Iowa river and, looking back, took some pictures of a Gehry building. Another surprising find in such a small town, the highly-acclaimed architect Frank Gehry has designed buildings all over the world, including the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and (my favorite) the Marques de Riscal Hotel. His designs are easily recognizable, and starkly beautiful. Click here to read about Gehry, and make sure you scroll to the Gallery section to see some of his works.
Continuing down the road, I pass the Hancher Auditorium. Weirdly, Iowa City has a very large endowment for the arts, thus enabling it to procure artists a town this size wouldn't normally be able to acquire. It's not uncommon to see advertisements stating, "[insert popular and difficult-to-get show here]! Coming to New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Iowa City!!"
I started not to include the Globe Theater, but it's on the way home so I snapped a picture of it. Each summer, the local theater company does free Shakespeare plays. We go every year, and have enjoyed all of them.
I know most of you have just been skimming so you can get to the Main Event, The World's Largest Wooden Nickel. Well, after a mere two and a half miles of additional pedaling, I stop for some pictures.
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It was built in 2006, a couple of years before we moved to Iowa City. The World’s Largest Wooden Nickel is more than 16 feet (4.8 meters) in diameter and weighs 4,000 pounds (1800 kilograms). It was erected by Jim Glasgow during a time when locals were protesting the widening and redevelopment of the road beside it.
It took about six months to build, and is supported by eight stainless steel rods drilled through the centers of the Southern yellow pine beams. According to the Iowa City Press-Citizen, Glasgow called the Historical Wooden Nickel Museum in San Antonio, Texas, after the project was finished to let them know that he had built a bigger wooden nickel. This nickel outweighs theirs by 1,500 lbs (680 kg) and extends another 3 feet (4 meters) beyond the Texas coin.
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All of this in a mere 24 miles. Stay tuned for other parts of Iowa, a weird and interesting place. What's weird and interesting in your state (or country)? I'd love to read about it.
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Thanks for reading!
https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/markonabike09/
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