A few months back I cruised around Buchanan County and harvested their town signs. Buchanan County is a beautiful county and there was many things there to photograph. This is the first collection of auxiliary images from that trip. They were all taken in Independence.
I really liked Independence. I will definitely go back there again in the future. They have a mental health museum that I would like to visit at some time. There still are more images to share from this road trip.
I’m kicking the decision on Formal Portrait Sunday down the road for at least one more week.
I wasn’t necessarily pleased with the overall body of work I put in during September for the Fat Mum Slim Photo A Day Challenge. I tried to make October a better month for the Fat Mum Slim Photo A Day Challenge. I believe at the aggregate level, I accomplished just that.
Here are the October images:
October 2 – Black
October 3 – Green
October 4 – Red
October 5 – Orange
October 6 – Blue
October 7 – Yellow
October 8 – Purple
October 9 – Aqua
October 10 – Pink
October 11 – Grey
October 12 – Brown
October 13 – Pop of Colour
October 14 – Stripes
October 15 – Floral
October 16 – One Colour
October 17 – Two Colours
October 18 – Pattern
October 19 – Black and White
October 20 – Rainbow
October 21 – My Fave Colour
October 22 – Matching
October 23 – Natural
October 24 – Dark
October 25 – Light
October 26 – Pastel
October 27 – Bright
October 28 – Gold
October 29 – Fresh
October 30 – Mellow
October 31 – Dots
I should thank Elizabeth, Flat Earth Joe, Scottie D. and Logan for assists on at least one of these pictures for the month. My lack of doing much in October didn’t hurt this project. I will probably have a pretty lazy November as well, but I hope to do some good work this month as well.
Remember you can follow along with this project on the daily by following my Fat Mum Slim Insta:
Here are the November themes:
1. A Collection
2. A Book Cover
3. A Shop Front
4. A For Sale Sign
5. A Bridge
6. A Fence
7. I Didn’t Make This
8. Throw It
9. An Unmade Bed
10. Power Lines
11. An Arrow
12. In My Pocket
13. A Closed Sign
14. A Flock of Birds
15. Hand Shadows
16. Running Water
17. Wrinkles
18. An Empty Table
19. Rocks
20. Afternoon Light
21. Half Full
22. Graffiti
23. An Ugly Food
24. A Tall Building
25. A Spider Web
26. A Funny Shape
27. A Splash
28. Something Hidden
29. A List
30. A Family Member
I think there are some interesting themes in there.
This is the final collection of pictures I took on my trip around Chickasaw County and Howard County harvesting their town signs. These pictures are kind of taken all over the place. Winneshiek County. Howard County. Chickasaw County. Bremer County. Franklin County. It was a great trip!
Protivin
New Hampton
Fredericksburg
Bremer
Waverly
Hampton
If you are wondering about the memorial about the young woman who was murdered in 1992, here are some details:
Early on Monday, September 7, 1992, Rhonda Anette Knutson was murdered while working the 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. shift at the Phillips 66 convenience store in Williamstown, Iowa, in Chickasaw County.
The store manager found Knutson’s body Monday morning around 4:45 a.m. in a room near the back of the store.
The Williamstown store was open 24 hours a day and located six miles south of New Hampton on U.S. Highway 63 and one-quarter mile north of highway junctions 63, 18, and 346.
An autopsy concluded Knutson died after being bludgeoned to death, and there were no signs of sexual assault.
According to the Chickasaw County Sheriff’s Office, Knutson suffered severe traumatic head injuries from a beating with a blunt object. Robbery was not considered a motive in the slaying.
Knutson seemed to thoroughly enjoy working the overnight shift at the store and had met her current boyfriend, Al Wolf, three years earlier while working there. The couple had moved in together two years before Knutson’s death, and lived in rural Tripoli, about 16 miles southeast of the Phillips 66 store.
Wolf drove a local creamery truck, and Rhonda enjoyed accompanying him to motocross racing events and local demolition derbies.
The investigation into her death included hundreds of interviews by deputies and agents from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI), along with employing a private investigator and several psychics.
Reward and Hunt for Two Suspects Hits Dead End
A Cedar Rapids Gazette article published the day after Knutson’s murder identified a suspect — a trucker — sought for questioning in the case.
Three days later on Sept. 11, the Gazette published composite sketches of two suspects — both believed to be truckers — whom witnesses allegedly saw in the convenience store the morning Knutson was killed.
The Gazette described both men as heavy-set Caucasians with dark hair, and between the ages of 35 and 45. Witnesses described the first suspect as having a beard and mustache, and pulling a white and silver trailer behind a conventional tractor.
They described the second suspect as clean-shaven, though couldn’t link him to any specific vehicle.
Chickasaw County Sheriff Tom Bernatz printed and mailed out over 1,500 news bulletins about the case to truck stops throughout the US in efforts to generate more leads.
By December 21, the reward for information leading to an arrest in the case had reached $9,000; the Gazette reported that eight banks in northeast Iowa had pledged $7,500 toward the reward, with another $1,500 coming in from private citizens.
Special Prosecutor assigned to review case
Seven years after Knutson’s murder, Chickasaw County Attorney Rich TeKippe assigned Thomas H. Miller, assistant attorney general, as a special prosecutor to review information in Knutson’s murder investigation.In a Mason City Globe-Gazette article published September 3, 1999, Robert Brammer, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office, said Miller — who’d successfully prosecuted many murder cases in the state — was one of the most experienced homicide specialists working in the AG’s office.
TeKippe said local law enforcement’s interest in solving Knutson’s murder has never waned, but that the lack of progress had frustrated them.
Still, TeKippe expressed hope that a “particularly damning piece of evidence might still be found that would allow the complexion of this investigation to change for the good.”
On the 20th anniversary of Knutson’s death, family members lovingly remembered the young victim known for her creative, free spirit.
“She was just a great person. She would do anything for anybody,” Knutson’s sister Renae Engel said in a New Hampton Tribune article dated September 7, 2012.
Engel said the anniversary of her sister’s death is always a difficult reminder.
“It’s one of those days when you have no ambition and you don’t want to do anything,” she told the Tribune.
The convenience store no longer exists, and the Chickasaw County Sheriff’s Office continues to seek information related to Knutson’s death.
Iowa Cold Cases website founder Jody Ewing said when she began researching Iowa’s unsolved murders for inclusion on the site, the Chickasaw County Sheriff’s Office was one of just a handful of law enforcement agencies that listed unsolved homicides on its website.
Rhonda’s case remains listed there yet today.
When the Iowa DCI established a Cold Case Unit in 2009, Knutson’s murder was also one of approximately 150 cases listed on the Cold Case Unit’s new website as those the DCI hoped to solve using latest advancements in DNA technology.
Although federal grant funding for the DCI Cold Case Unit was exhausted in December 2011, the DCI continues to assign agents to investigate cold cases as new leads develop or as technological advances allow for additional forensic testing of original evidence.
The DCI remains committed to resolving Iowa’s cold cases and will continue to work diligently with local law enforcement partners to bring the perpetrators of these crimes to justice for the victims and their families.
About Rhonda Knutson
Rhonda Anette Knutson was born October 19, 1969, in New Hampton, Iowa, the daughter of Mary Virginia (Marvin) and Nels Harvey Knutson. She died September 7, 1992.Rhonda attended school in New Hampton and graduated from New Hampton High School in 1988.
She enjoyed working with people, loved art, and had many friends.
Rhonda was one of seven siblings, and her sister Renae described her as a “great aunt” who always seemed to have something going on.
Memorial services were held on September 11, 1992, at the Trinity Lutheran Church in New Hampton. More than 500 family members and friends attended the services to pay tribute to Rhonda.
Rhonda was survived by her parents Mary and Nels Knutson; four brothers, Robert Alan, Roger Arthur, Richard Alvie and Rodney Ahern Knutson; and two sisters, Renae Arlene and Rochelle Ann.
Nels Knutson passed away on Nov. 28, 2006, without ever seeing his daughter’s killer brought to justice.
This information was taken from iowacoldcases.org and was compiled by Jody Ewing.
The next time we hit the open road for auxiliary images from THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT, we will hit the open roads of Buchanan County.
A few months back I cruised around Chickasaw County and Howard County harvesting their town signs. The majority of the pictures from today’s collection were taken in Howard County in Cresco. Which is a cool little town, despite being so into wrestling. The Old Stone Church pictures were taken in Winneshiek County. It is in the middle of the country just across the border from Howard County.
I will have to go back and photograph that Old Stone Church again some day. It is very photogenic. Stone ruins out in a beautiful Iowa countryside. What isn’t to love?
I’m curious what highway they are portraying going through Des Moines. My guess is 6.
Great name for an ice cream shop!
I’ve seen lots of towns with tanks or planes or helicopters or big guns, but WWI Mine?
Old Stone Church
I would definitely like to visit Cresco again and spend some more time there. It is on the list!
This is the third and final collection of auxiliary images I took while harvesting the town signs of Appanoose County.
Here is the final collection:
Little Flock Chapel
Mystic
Rathbun
Lake Rathbun – Some of these future edits are kinda sarcastic edits. Photoshop editing jokes, everybody gets those, right?
Jester Park – Polk County
The next time I share the auxiliary images from a THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT harvesting road trip, we will visit Keokuk County. Which mean, I probably should start thinking about sharing the Renaissance Fair pictures I took on that day. Wow. That was over 5 months ago!
Another month done in the Fat Mum Slim Photo A Day Challenge. I have to confess that I spent some time on the struggle bus this month. I don’t know if I lost some steam or if I just want feeling some of the themes. Being sick for a few days in September didn’t help either. With that being said, I think there is still some good work in there.
Here are the September images:
September 2 – Plastic
September 3 – Paper
September 4 – Somewhere I Went
September 5 – Hobby
September 6 – Green + Blue
September 7 – Before Bed
September 8 – An Emotion
September 9 – Opposites
September 10 – I Can Hear…
September 11 – Paint
September 12 – Symmetry
September 13 – Tasty
September 14 – Odd One Out
September 15 – A Food Shop
September 16 – 12:34
September 17 – Lucky
September 18 – Car Park
September 19 – What’s on TV
September 20 – Texture
September 21 – Nature
September 22 – Tree Trunk
September 23 – Crunchy
September 24 – I Can Smell…
September 25 – Laneway
September 26 – The Moon
September 27 – Open Door
September 28 – My Culture
September 29 – Not My Style
September 30 – Sentimental
As you can tell, the woman who runs this challenge is Australian and there were some terms in there I had to look up, cause I had no clue what a laneway is.
Remember, you can follow on for my daily posts on the dedicated Instagram Account.
These are the themes for October:
1. White
2. Black
3. Green
4. Red
5. Orange
6. Blue
7. Yellow
8. Purple
9. Aqua
10. Pink
11. Grey
12. Brown
13. Pop of Colour
14. Stripes
15. Floral
16. One Colour
17. Two Colours
18. Pattern
19. Black and White
20. Rainbow
21. My Fave Colour
22. Matching
23. Natural
24. Dark
25. Light
26. Pastel
27. Bright
28. Gold
29. Fresh
30. Mellow
31. Dots
Some good ones in there. Should be a good month!
A few months back I cruised around Appanoose County harvesting their town signs. Found quite a few other things to photograph while I was there. Including, in this collection, a few outhouse pictures. I find the outhouse pictures to be poignant, moving, and funny. But some people might find them disagreeable. But they are not gross. All that being said, you have been warned.
Moravia
I’ve also read that this is a myth. More research might be needed.
There are 100 official Freedom Rocks, but there are a few not quite Freedom Rocks out there too.
Udell – This bank still has better hours and customer service than my bank.
Unionville
Heart shaped!
The picture of the Buxton sign is located in Monroe County. Buxton is a fascinating bit of Iowa history. I meant to visit the Buxton ruins once, but I just didn’t trust the road. Some day soon though.
Time for another collection of images from my road trip to Mitchell and Floyd County back in April. This is the final collection of images from this road trip. A few counties are covered in this collection. Mitchell. Floyd. Franklin. Hamilton. All covered. Well at least there are pictures from all of those counties in this collection.
Interstate Park
Mitchell
Osage
Colwell
Charles City
Floyd
Rockford
Fossil & Prairie Center
Marble Rock
Roseville
Franklin County
Ellsworth
I really love some of the auxiliary pictures from this collection. If my tentative plan to create a book from the auxiliary images comes to fruition (have to get the THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT book finished first) there is definitely some pictures from this trip that will make the book.
The next county we will visit for auxiliary images is Johnson County. It will be a smaller collection. This isn’t because Johnson County is full of Hawkeye fans. Truth is I love Iowa City and will one day make a trip to better photograph its campus town area. It is just because it was a weird, strange and abbreviated trip. I might explain later.
Way back in April, I cruised around Mitchell and Floyd County harvesting their town signs. The weather and the lighting was great for photography and I took as much advantage of it as I could. There will be three collections of auxiliary images from this road trip.
Here is the first collection:
Otranto
Fort Severson
Saint Ansgar
Fort Severson. This is a fascinating bit of history to me. For starters, it isn’t a fort. It is a barn. A cool barn. But not a fort.
Here is what the inscription says on the historical marker outside of the barn:
Built in 1867 by Nils Severson on his land with help of neighbor’s using limestone and mortar of lime & sand from Deer Creek. Severson’s design was a typical fort with small openings for rifles and larger openings for gatling guns. The Spirit Lake Massacre and uprising at New Ulm Minnesota prompted the building of forts across North Iowa. This is the only one left standing. Although Indians never came there were some scares. Settlers would come from as far as ten miles to stay here. The building was later used as a stage coach stop on a route between Northwood and St. Ansgar on the Kansas City, Rochester Minnesota stage line. As many as 20 people would sleep on the top floor, meals were served on the first floor. Immigrants would stay while looking for land to settle on. It became a farm building in the 1870’s after the railroad came through. Restored in 1972 by local people as a United States bicentennial project. Use of fort & site donated by David & Judy Goplerud. Placed on the National Register of Historic Sites in July 1976.
Seems straight forward. They were scared of the indigenous people in the area. They built a fort. Where they had gatling guns. This is the inscription that is on the historical marker. However, the Mitchell County Historical County calls BS on this marker. According to their website:
Actually, it’s just a barn but where’s the fun in that? It’s long been called Fort Severson by Mitchell and Worth County residents. Actually, the term “Fort” was a common designation on the American frontier for larger secure structures built by early pioneers. These included some churches, a remote farm house or other safe place to stay when needed. People often found themselves away from more populated areas on the prairie and needed good shelter. Sadly, it never actually acted as a “fort” for protection.
But that takes away nothing from the structure itself. Solidly and skillfully constructed of local limestone and timber from surrounding woodlands, it has survived since the mid 1850s.
The website goes on:
Rumors of the structure being used for Indian protection and being a stagecoach stop have made for good stories over the years. Many will say the small openings were for defense of the “Fort” during anticipated attacks but that was not the case- No rifles or Gatling guns (as one account speculates) ever extended through those openings. The Spirit Lake Massacre in 1857 and the New Ulm Massacre in 1862 were over long before the “Fort” was built and the Indians that passed through the area, scouting along Deer Creek, were not a threat but were known to approach the settlers’ homes seeking food. These framed openings were in fact for ventilation of the barn. Not near as exciting as the rumors. The stage line to Northwood did pass by the Seversons. Tradition said that the “Fort” was used as a stop with the wagon teams staying below and the passengers stayed above on the loft space. Again, another good story. There was no chimney or heating source in the “Fort” and this was not a regular stage stop but weary travelers were likely accommodated in a nearby frame structure, now long gone, that was the actual inn and only the teams would have been sheltered in the Nels Severson Barn.
I assume the historical society is correct, but makes me wonder why the historical marker is so completely inaccurate.
More from this trip still to come.
This is the second and final collection of auxiliary images I took while harvesting the town signs of Dickinson and Emmet County. A few are taken in Humboldt County and the final picture is taken in Greene County. Some of the trips to harvest town signs are very long and sometimes I don’t eat or barely eat on these trips. While I was harvesting town signs out west and northwest, I would consistently hit up the A&W drive-thru in Jefferson. So delicious! I would gladly trade Boone’s Evil Clown Empire Outpost AND the Burger King that is allegedly opening back up in a couple months for an A&W. No regrets. The last picture is from that Jefferson A&W drive-thru. Miss you! I will come see you again soon.
Here is the final collection of images from Dickinson and Emmet County:
I can only imagine putting 32 quarters in the slot to get my 1000 gallons of water.
Estherville
Little known fact – Meteors aim for Iowa.
Actual chunk of the meteorite.
Wallingford – He-s looking to see where the rest of his hat went.
Gruver
Armstrong
Bradgate
Mmmmmm… Fried Cheese Curds (Not available at B-Bop’s, for the record)
The next time we hit the open road to view some of the auxiliary images I took while harvesting town signs for THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT, we will visit Mitchell and Floyd County.
