Two days ago in our look at Stone City, Iowa we explored the career of Grant Wood, the Depression-era painter best known for his masterpiece, American Gothic. Wood was a member of the faculty of the Stone City Art Colony. The American Gothic home is not in Stone City, the home on the right is a reproduction. Sorry, I forgot my pitchfork. The real house is in Eldon, and late in my visit to the Hawkeye State I was presented with a choice: American Gothic House or Fairfield at sunset. I chose the latter and you will learn a lot more about that town next month. 
Stone City in an unincorporated town of fewer than 100 residents that began whithering away when the demand for limestone plummeted a century ago. As you can see by the ruins, it's an almost-ghost town, although on the Sunday afternoon I visited, there were more than 100 people at its General Store Pub.
I tend to shy away from politics in my travel writing--although it was impossible for me to do so in California Collision. But it's important to note that Iowa is on the front line of the gay marriage debate. Last year the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that the state's ban on same-sex marriage violated the its constitution. Of course the occasion was marked by some American Gothic parodies. Three members of the Iowa high court who voted in favor gay weddings, were thrown off the bench by Iowa voters. Lest you think the Hawkeye State has turned right-wing, it hasn't. Besides Nebraska, which has a unanimous Republican House caucus, Iowa was the only Midwestern state not to flip a U.S. House of Representatives seat from Democratic to Republican.
R. Tripp Evans paints Wood as a closeted homosexual. Perhaps he was. The Rag Blog agrees with this premise, although I am skeptical of biographies that "out" long dead men. The most egregious offense, in my opinion, is The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln,
written by the coincidentally-named C.A. Tripp.But as you can see in the entries in this series, there is more to Iowa, as Louis Gossett, Jr. quipped in An Officer and a Gentleman,
than "steers and queers." Sorry, I couldn't resist.
The Wapsipinicon River flows through Stone City.
Related posts:
- My Mississippi Manifest Destiny: The Natchez Trace Part Four, Ghost Town
- My Kansas Kronikles: Smoky Valley Scenic Byway
- Upper Peninsula Upventure: Keweenaw National Historical Park, Quincy, Part One
- Upper Peninsula Upventure: Keweenaw National Historical Park, Calumet
- Chicago Marathon 10/10/10: Boystown
- California Collision: The Castro
- California Collision: Harvey Milk's Camera Shop
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