I still remember the "couch" ordinance to this day (for those that didn't know, it was once very popular for students who lived in Ames to have indoor furniture out on covered decks, etc. Ames City Govt. decides to pass an ordinance that made it illegal for furniture to be outside, even if covered. Many of us believed it was targeted at us). I tend to think Ames Government has a case of EIU-envy...
Actually, Ames came up with that one before Iowa City did. The Iowa City government only passed a similar couch ordinance three years ago. If I remember right, that was after there were eight or ten porch fires in the span of a month due to people accidentally (and/or drunkenly) setting furniture on fire.
DaddyMac said:
I like Ames - alot. Especially now that I'm not living there, although my wife and I talk about moving there someday. But I do remember how dumpy a good portion of the community would treat the students or look upon the school. Maybe things have changed - I don't know. But I always found it curious those who seem to think that ISU is fortunate to have Ames, somehow. Lemme think, which is it? Is ISU there because of Ames? Or is Ames there because of ISU? I've long maintained that if ISU wasn't there, I-35 goes through Marshalltown and Ames is a suburb of Nevada.
Nope. I'm out of town for the weekend, so it'll be Sunday or Monday before I can get to Parks to find the reference information, but neither Ames nor Iowa State exist because the other did. Again, I'll have to get the exact dates, but Ames was founded as a stop for the Cedar Rapids-Missouri Railway. The location was chosen because it was a good crossing point over the Skunk River. (There aren't many sites for quite a ways upstream or down suitable for a railway crossing in 1863.) The town was officially founded in either 1863 or 1864, I don't recall, and was named Oake (Oakes?) Ames, a member of the US House from Massachusetts who was extremely influential in building the Transcontinental Railroad. (Incidentally, Ames never visited the town named after him.)
Iowa State was founded in 1856 (but you all knew that, right? Right?) and was placed in Ames after proposals were submitted by Story, Polk, Marshall and Johnson counties. (And maybe Kossuth, too- not sure.) (Also, wouldn't that have been interesting- having ISU and UI in the same county...) When the Morrill Act passed in 1862, ISC became a land-grant school, meaning the state controlled the land ISC was built on, rather than the federal government, and could choose to not tax that land, etc.
Hope that clears stuff up for everyone. Personally, I think Ames and ISU are moderately symbiotic now, but when they were founded, they had absolutely nothing to do with each other. Ames is there because of the Skunk River's banks, and ISU is there because of Story County's "benefit package".
Also, about the I-35 thing: wrong again. I-35 was originally planned to run parallel to US 69 from Des Moines all the way to the Minnesota border (where 69 ends, south of Lamoni). Mason City raised a ruckus, lobbying to get the interstate moved closer to their city. The government eventually agreed, and made 35 parallel US 65 through northern Iowa (Franklin and Wright counties, I think). So no, no matter what the circumstances, 35 would never have gone near Marshalltown.