Southwest Iowa Trivia

• Avoca is the birthplace of E.T. Meredith, founder of Successful Farming magazine.
• The golden spike that marked completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869 is located in Council Bluffs.
• Oll Coomes, a Wiota farmer, was one of the most popular dime novel writers in the late 1880's.
• Carbon owes its name to a large coal deposit in the area.
• Every house in Stanton is painted white, thus earning it the nickname "Little White City".
• Hastings farmer Otha D. Wearin was Iowa's youngest Congressman and an author.
• Jessie Field Shambaugh of Page County was the founder of 4-H.
• Henry A. Wallace from Greenfield formed the first company to produce and distribute hybrid seed, Pioneer Hi-bred Corn Company, and he served as the vice president of the United States under Franklin Roosevelt.
• Earl May Seed Company, one of the largest seed and nursery companies in the nation was started in Shenandoah by Earl E. May.
• Sidney is home to one of the country's largest outdoor rodeos where many professional cowboys compete in this four-day event.
• The hamburger was devised by a Clarinda restaurant owner and named by his chef, who was from Germany.