Highly disagree with this statement. Northeast Iowa is the most scenic part of the state and a great touristy area with the Mississippi.
"Forgotten Iowa" - photographing all 947 Iowa towns
- Thread starter besserheimerphat
- Start date
Highly disagree with this statement. Northeast Iowa is the most scenic part of the state and a great touristy area with the Mississippi.
I think this project is super cool. Great Pictures. These old buildings are beautiful. It is sad to see such history not being saved. From the old churches and schools to the neat old gas stations. I love the write ups about the history of the areas as well. Thanks for sharing. And that 96 year old man is bad ***.
And home to a lot of communities less decayed than the ones highlighted thus far.
I think he is going for a depressing look but I have been to many of those towns and they aren't much nicer than the pics are showing. A lot of the towns are really neat (Eldon, Bonaparte, Bentonsport, Keosaqua) but there isn't much economic activity happening there.
Yup. Some great baseball communities in the northeastern quarter of the state too.
I can already see where this thread is going. "My part of the state is better than your part of the state".
I am all over the state for some work I do outside of farming and there are very nice and very crappy towns in every part of this state. I find it hilarious when people judge a part of the state based on towns like Sioux City and Council Bluffs but will not acknowledge the lengthy chain of run down towns on the Mississippi river.
What makes Iowa great are the small to medium sized towns that are in great shape and thriving. Each part of the state has towns like this. I'm hoping this guy will also show these types of things instead of just run down buildings.
I am all over the state for some work I do outside of farming and there are very nice and very crappy towns in every part of this state. I find it hilarious when people judge a part of the state based on towns like Sioux City and Council Bluffs but will not acknowledge the lengthy chain of run down towns on the Mississippi river.
What makes Iowa great are the small to medium sized towns that are in great shape and thriving. Each part of the state has towns like this. I'm hoping this guy will also show these types of things instead of just run down buildings.
What is amazing to me is how all these small towns had thriving businesses and genuinely neat buildings. Their collapse is sad yet somehow romantic. There are stories held close to the vest in these towns of good times past.
Somehow we leave these buildings and build new metal buildings and it's called progress.
Somehow we leave these buildings and build new metal buildings and it's called progress.
I think you're inferring too much from a couple of simple statements. I've been all over Iowa and I can confidently say that every part of Iowa has its own local charm that helps make this state great.
I grew up in a cornfield called Rockwell City. I now live in Urbandale, and having everything at your fingertips is nice, but I miss the open spaces and slower pace of rural Iowa. If the opportunity presents itself, I'll move back to a small town.
NE Iowa sound AMAZING. I'm sure all of the unincorporated towns there have a rich culture without any sign of a time gone past.
I wouldn't hold out much hope for that. Read the Vice article. He thinks Iowa is basically dead and is planning on getting out after this is done. His viewpoint definitely has a negative skew to it, and that's what the project would likely reflect.
There's plenty of decay in the unincorporated/smaller towns in northeast Iowa.
He's making the larger communities in SE Iowa look like Detroit. I've never been through Keokuk for example, so I can't comment to it's state, other than what he's shown.
Which is kind of to my point that maybe they aren't as bad he makes it look.
I guess it is all how you look at things.. I saw the pictures of Burlington and thought.. Wow that looks like a cool place to visit....
Same here. Driving through small towns is awesome. So much history to think about.
I don't think he's saying Iowa is dead, I think he's saying that a good portion of rural Iowa is dying. Just looks at the population decline of rural towns in the state and it confirms that sentiment. This is also being done from a historical perspective with respect to "These buildings are still here because they have meaning to those who have lived there during the hey day".
If he depicts Des Moines, Iowa City, Ames, Cedar Falls, etc. in the same light as the small towns, then I could see your point. But for the most part, he's really only been through the crappy parts of SE Iowa that are either dying towns or river toilets. It isn't like there's a beautiful picture to paint from where he has gone thus far.
I'll use Washington as an example. I was there about 2 years ago, and thought it had a pretty well maintained, busy downtown square. Past it's prime I suppose, but far from dead. Now go look at the pictures he took there. If you'd never been to Washington, Iowa and looked at those pics you'd think it was a rapidly decaying **** hole.
Okay, so here's my take on it. He's wanting to document the parts of these towns that people remember as being awesome and a central part of the town's character. Think about something from your hometown that was awesome when you were a kid. Now go back and visit it today, but really look at it. There's probably some peeling paint, or dirty windows, or missing bricks, or what have you. But you still like the place because of the people and the experiences you had in that place. Now it's 10, 20, 30 years later and no one has been taking care of the place but everyone remembers how cool it used to be so they can't bear to tear it down. It's the memory of what used to make those towns great. Those are the places he's documenting, and that's what I see in his photos.
