Here is the balance of images from my road trip with Jesse to harvest the town signs of Cerro Gordo and Worth County:
Rock Falls
Plymouth
Grafton
Legend has it this place has great chicken!
Bolan
Kensett
Northwood
Manly
I love the part about the town of Bolan being on David Letterman. Even the people of Bolan’s suburbs. Bolan is an unincorporated community, for the record.
A few weeks back I made a solo trip to Kossuth County to harvest their town signs. Kossuth County is the largest county in Iowa covering 972 square miles. Pottawattamie County is second, covering 950 square miles. It was twice split into two counties with the northern section broke off into a second county. Giving Iowa 100 counties. First Bancroft County was established in 1851, but then abolished in 1857. It was joined to Kossuth because Bancroft County was determined unusable as farmland. Then in 1870 the same area was designated as Crocker County, but in 1871 the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that this creation violated the constitution because no county can be less than 432 square miles. The area was returned to Kossuth County.
Here are some facts about Kossuth County:
+ The population is 14,828. Making it the 52nd most populous county in Iowa. Below Hamilton County and above Harrison County.
+ The largest town and county seat is Algona.
+ Founded on January 15, 1851.
+ Named after Hungarian politician Lajos Kossuth.
+ Home of Nativity Set carved by Nazi prisoners of war.
+ Major highways are US-18, US-169, IA-9, IA-15, and IA-17.
+ Adjacent counties are: Winnegabo, Hancock, Humboldt, Palo Alto, and Emmet.
+ Population peaked in 1940 at 26,230.
Kossuth County has a pretty nondescript courthouse:
The Kossuth County Freedom Rock is located in Whittemore, Iowa.
Something I think is cool about the Kossuth County Freedom Rock display is that the rock is in the middle of a concrete path that makes out a purple ribbon.
With Kossuth County conquered, this is the updated Photography 139 Conquest Map:
48 counties completed. 48.5% of the Cyclone State conquered!
Here are the town signs of Kossuth County:
Bancroft, Iowa
Bancroft
Garden Spot of Iowa
Population: 699 (-33)
Swea City, Iowa
SWEA CITY
est. 1895
Population: 566 (+30)
Titonka, Iowa
TITONKA
EST 1898
Population: 511 (+35)
Whittemore, Iowa
Welcome To Whittemore
ESTABLISHED 1878
Proud of our past… Excited for our future
Population: 497 (-7)
Burt, Iowa
WELCOME TO BURT
EST. 1881
Population: 418 (-115)
Wesley, IOwa
WESLEY
Quality Life in the Heartland
Population: 391 (+1)
Fenton, Iowa
FENTON
A GOOD TOWN FOR A HOME TOWN
Population: 271 (-8)
Lakota, Iowa
WELCOME TO LAKOTA
Population: 267 (+12)
Lu Verne, Iowa (Partially in Humboldt County)
WELCOME TO LU VERNE
COME AGAIN
Population: 258 (+33)
Lone Rock, Iowa
Lone Rock
Population: 146 (0)
Ledyard, Iowa
WELCOME TO LEDYARD
A PLACE TO COME BACK TO
Population: 121 (-9)
West Bend is also partially in Kossuth County, but since the majority is in Palo Alto County, I will wait to share that sign when I share the signs of Palo Alto County.
I don’t know there is a truly terrible town sign in Kossuth County. I guess I’ll give it to Algona for their sign being mostly corporate, but also hard to read.
As fro Best in Show for Kossuth County? I really like the sign for Lone Rock, but believe it or not, that rock isn’t “the” Lone Rock. Which means there is actually more than one rock in Lone Rock. I like the signs of Whittemore and while I’m not a big tombstone looking town sign guy I like the town signs for Swea City and Titonka. However, it is well known that I am partial to signs that have animals on them. So I’m giving it to Titonka. But Swea City is a really close second.
There are a couple of towns with alternate signs:
Lone Rock Alternate
Bancroft Alternate
Algona Alternate
Best in Show – Adams County
Best in Show – Audubon County
Best in Show – Benton County
Best in Show – Boone County
Best in Show – Bremer County
Best in Show – Butler County
Best in Show – Calhoun County
Best in Show – Carroll County
Best in Show – Cass County
Best in Show – Cerro Gordo County
Best in Show – Clarke County
Best in Show – Crawford County
Best in Show – Dallas County
Best in Show – Franklin County
Best in Show – Fremont County
Best in Show – Greene County
Best in Show – Grundy County
Best in Show – Guthrie County
Best in Show – Hamilton County
Best in Show – Hancock County
Best in Show – Hardin County
Best in Show – Humboldt County
Best in Show – Ida County
Best in Show – Jasper County
Best in Show – Kossuth County
Best in Show – Lucas County
Best in Show – Madison County
Best in Show – Marion County
Best in Show – Marshall County
Best in Show – Mills County
Best in Show – Monona County
Best in Show – Montgomery County
Best in Show – Page County
Best in Show – Pocahontas County
Best in Show – Polk County
Best in Show – Poweshiek County
Best in Show – Ringgold County
Best in Show – Sac County
Best in Show – Shelby County
Best in Show – Story County
Best in Show – Tama County
Best in Show – Taylor County
Best in Show – Union County
Best in Show – Warren County
Best in Show – Webster County
Best in Show – Worth County
Best in Show – Wright County
The next time we hit the dusty trail for THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT, we will visit Winnebago County.
Here is the final collection of auxiliary images I took while harvesting the town signs of Hancock County. Although I would say about 50% of these pictures were taken in other counties. Like Winnebago County or Cerro Gordo County or Worth County.
Pilot Knob State Park
Fertile
Thornton
Dows
The next county I need to share auxiliary images from is Pocahontas County.
A few weekends back I tooled around Humboldt County and harvested their town sign. Here is a collection of some of the auxiliary images I took on this road trip, including some I took as I went back south threw Calhoun County.
Renwick
LuVerne
Livermore
Ottosen
Rutland
Gilmore City
Pioneer
Somers?
Rinard
Lohrville
The next set of auxiliary images to share will mostly come from Calhoun County.
This is a reminder that if you are interested in entering the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest, the deadline is next Wednesday:
To download the entry form and the rules, click on the link below:
A special thanks to Michelle for modifying the form so you don’t have to print it 6 times.
Also, while I am running the contest, I am not judging it. So don’t worry about me recognizing your images. Doesn’t matter if I do, cause I’m not a judge!
Back in May I cruised around Marion County to harvest their town signs. This was a solo trip and I didn’t take a ton of auxiliary images as I was on somewhat of a time crunch. I had to get to a birthday party at a carousel. Also, I have been to the two biggest towns in Marion County (Pella and Knoxville) a few times, so I didn’t really do much exploring in those towns. Still, I managed to take a few auxiliary images:
Harvey
Bussey
Hamilton
Attica
Melcher-Dallas
Knoxville
It was a good trip and an even better birthday party.
This collection of images is cleaning up some random photos from January and February. The highlight and the majority of these images are taken from when Logan brought Dahlia over see Mom and Teresa.
That was a good day!
This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is COMMUNICATION:
COMMUNICATION! What a great theme for Year 8 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!
But what is a COMMUNICATION image? It is simply any picture that shows a type of COMMUNICATION or people COMMUNICATIONing or things that are used for COMMUNICATION. For example, in the theme reveal there are several things being COMMUNICATIONed. The business is a carwash. The phone number to reach the proprietor is 515-890-1900. Somebody fears the commercialization of Christmas. They also must like fish. Signs are a great form of COMMUNICATION, as just an example.
Happy photo harvesting!
Back in March I made a solo trip up to Franklin County to harvest the town signs that I was missing. Here are some of the auxiliary images I took while I was up there.
Bradford
Hampton
Chapin
Sheffield
Hampton Again
Geneva
Beeds Lake State Park
Coulter
Franklin County is an interesting county. A collection of tiny towns, a nice state park, and a Hardee’s for me to get my Hardee’s breakfast fix.
The folders 2010-09-06, 2010-09-11, and 2010-09-13 were all fairly small, so I decided to combine them into one post. Two of the folders include images that were taken for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE, which back then was known as the RANDOM WEEKLY PHOTO EXPERIMENT. The other pictures are of Dawn’s turtle that briefly lived in my backyard.
By adding these pictures to the Photography 139 Gallery, I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entries to their original glory:
I’m not even sure what the next walk down memory lane will involve. I’d bet that will involve a block party and Iowa State football though.
There weren’t many pictures in the folders 2010-08-25, 2010-08-26, and 2010-08-30 so I combined them with the folder 2010-08-29. Most of the pictures are from a baby shower Sara and I (she really did all the work) for Jen and Derrick when Jen was preggers with Evie. There are also a few full moon images in the other folders.
By adding these pictures to the Photography 139 Gallery, I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entries to their original glory:
Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve a turtle and Shannon. Possibly together.
This is a collection of some more of the first pictures I took with the Tamron wide angle lens. some are at the courthouse. Some around the high bridges. Some around the Kate Shelley Museum:
I do love that wide angle zoom lens!
This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is LIGHT:
A LIGHT image is pretty simple. It is merely a picture where LIGHT plays a major compositional element. A wise person might argue that any picture they take is a LIGHT picture because all photography really is, is the capturing of LIGHT. But warning, when you take a picture of LIGHT, don’t face your camera straight towards a bright LIGHT.. You will surely damage it. The camera. The LIGHT will be just fine.
Think about the following song lyric when you are contemplating your LIGHT image:
I saw the light, I saw the light
No more darkness, no more night
Now I’m so happy no sorrow in sight
Praise the Lord, I saw the light
-Hank Williams
Happy photo harvesting!
