Iowa

Being that Iowa is in the middle of the Corn Belt, it is sometimes called the Tall Corn State. Corn-on-the-cob, popcorn, kettle corn, cornbread, sweet corn are all mighty tasty. But word on the street is: corn could disappear from grocery store shelves if you don't take action and solve the Iowa breakout locks. Do your best and save this important food source. Your 30 minutes starts NOW.

Iowa is the only state that begins with 2 vowels. Iowa became the 29th state on December 28, 1846. It is located in the Midwest and is in the heart of the Corn Belt.

Iowa is the only state whose east and west borders are formed entirely by rivers. Plus, six states border Iowa: Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and Minnesota.

The capital and most populous city is Des Moines. Its nickname is the Hawkeye State.

The Iowa flag is patterned after the flag of France, as it was once part of French Louisiana and Spanish Louisiana.

Winnebago Industries is the largest motorhome manufacturing facility in the world. Winnebago is headquartered in Forest City, Iowa. It is known as the most productive 60 acres in North Iowa.

This company was founded by John K. Hanson in 1958. Winnebago manufactures motor homes, sometimes they are called a RV (recreational vehicle).

The Iowa State Capitol building is located in Des Moines. It was constructed between 1871 and 1886. How many years did it take to construct the only five-domed capitol in the country?

Most of the 50 states start with a consonant letter. But we do have a few that start with a vowel. Do you know which states begin with A, E, I, O, & U? Do the state abbreviations only contain vowels also?

Iowa is one of the greatest farming states in the U.S.A. Iowa's main agricultural products are hogs, corn, soybeans, oats, cattle, eggs, and dairy products.

Iowa raises more hogs and pigs than any other place in the world!

Iowa gets it nickname from Black Hawk, a famous Indian chief who led a group of Sauk and Fox Indians in the Black Hawk War of 1832.

Burlington, Iowa is home to Snake Alley. This street built in 1894 is certainly one of the crookedest streets in the world.

It was built to move traffic up and down a hillside too steep for a straight road. Horses had difficulty climbing its curves, so the street was made one-way down, which still remains to this day.

Have you heard of another famous crooked street in San Francisco? Lombard Street.

If you want the highest number of turns in your crooked street, Lombard Street wins.

If you want the most extreme turns, Snake Alley is the winner.

You can walk on Snake Alley year-round, but the street is closed down during the winter months. Remember if you are brave enough to drive a car down this street, you can only go 3 mph on those left and right hairpin curves.

Check out the Snake Alley photos to the right.

The first bread-slicing machine was invented by an Iowan, Otto Frederick Rohwedder in 1928.

If something is new and improved, you might have heard this saying, " best thing since sliced bread.”