50 States of Wonder
4 Pop-Culture Marvels in Iowa

The 1971 song “American Pie” by Don McLean, beloved by dads everywhere, is indubitably a bop. Its reference to “the day the music died” nods to this Iowa field, where, on February 3, 1959, a plane carrying three of rock music's greatest rising stars crashed. Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “the Big Bopper” Richardson all died, along with the pilot of the tiny aircraft. 

Holly's unlucky choice to charter a plane that night cemented all three young artists as musical legends lost before their time. To McLean, the event symbolized a loss of innocence for young Americans, leading him to mention it in “American Pie.”

A signpost on the roadside indicates the way to a stainless-steel memorial for the trio. It depicts a massive pair of thick black glasses, Holly's defining accessory. (Read more.)

On a happier note, in a little white house in Winterset, Marion Robert Morrison was born in 1907. You might know him better as John Wayne, the ultimate movie cowboy and star of films such as The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and True Grit. Morrison wasn't a cowboy himself—he received a football scholarship to the University of Southern California, and lost it after a body-surfing injury. That’s when he turned to acting instead. 

His childhood home is now a museum, and visitors are greeted with a statue of the Duke himself. On display are movie props, such as a cannon from the film The Alamo and his eyepatch from True Grit, as well as a number of the actor’s own belongings. (Read more.)

A baseball diamond surrounded by waves of golden corn isn't just a film fantasy. Said diamond, where key scenes of the sentimental, fantastical 1989 movie Field of Dreams were filmed, has been enshrined as a tourist destination. The field can be rented for special events, and a Major League Baseball game between the New York Yankees and the Chicago White Sox was even planned for August 13, 2020, before it was cancelled due to COVID-19. (Read more.)

In Riverside, Iowa, there's a monument to a fictional person. The thing is, he hasn't even been born yet. 

Captain James Tiberius Kirk, captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise, will be born here in the year 2333. So says Star Trek canon, and it's all thanks to a member of the town's city council. In 1985, Steve Miller proposed that Riverside ought to declare itself Kirk's birthplace.  The idea was approved with a unanimous vote and, later, the blessing of Gene Roddenberry, the Trek creator. The town now hosts a yearly Trek Fest, and an engraved monument, next to a barbershop, honors the future starfarer. (Read more.)