Grant Wood Country

At O'Dark-Thirty this morning, I took Barbara to the airport for her flight to join her girl friends from Colorado and California in Las Vegas for a birthday party (at least that's the story!)

Having my wake-up coffee while looking over the paper, I saw that this afternoon there would be an "Art and Culture Tour" along the Grant Wood Highway Scenic Trail, with artisans showing their ware at their studios, galleries, etc. Sounded like a nice Sunday drive as the skys were clear and it wasn't going to be hot and muggy, so I took off in the car for Stone City, the western start of the Grant Wood Scenic Byway.

American Gothic not only made Grant Wood internationally famous (after the Mona Lisa, it's the most reproduced and parodied painting in the world,) but it also allowed Wood to bring wide recognition to Eastern Iowa. His art goes far beyond this painting, but he is forever linked with it. Here is an excellent Grant Wood website: Going Back to Iowa.

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It was spring, and the farmers in the hills of Eastern Iowa were preparing and planting their fields.

This is fairly rural country, spotted with innumerable family farms with their barns and silos, and scattered bits of history such as the Antioch Church, above, with the first headstone dated 1860.


Not far from the Antioch Church is the one room Antioch School. This is where Grant Wood attended first through fourth grade.


Stone City, a village of 200 residents on a good day, is named for the stone quarry, from which the stone for many buildings, large and small, has come. Several local buildings remain such as the church above and the tavern below. During the summers of 1932 and 1933, Grant Wood created the Stone City Colony and Art School. The Colony was headquartered in the large, limestone mansion of the Green Estate, overlooking Stone City. There was a lot of art produced by the attendees of this colony. Many of the artists became well known, at least in “art circles.”

The quarry is still quite active, and continues to supply "Indiana" limestone for commercial buildings as well as residential construction (This is a particularly nice example, inside and out.)


The old Stone City Tavern, on the Wapsipinicon river, is a weekend destination for Bikers stopping for a beer, families out for lunch, and senior citizens on a Sunday Drive. All three groups were there today.


In the later stages of the floods of '93, Barbara, her dad, and I had a bite and a beer on the lower deck, with the water pretty close to our feet.


Close to Stone City is the home of Sharon Burrows and her "A Glass Act" stained glass studio. This was the first (and only) studio I visited on the tour. Her stained glass is beautifully exhibited throughout her home.


Historic, large, and built with Stone City stone the Anamosa State Penitentiary is still an active prison in Iowa. Here is an interesting little website with the history of the ASP. There is a museum in the old cheese factory that is open for visiting 3 days a week.


Inside these stone walls, is a large open gallery of steel cells three tiers high. It is not as bucolic on the inside as it is on the outside.


The administration building, as the rest of the prison, was built with prisoner labor using the local stone.


Not far from town is the Anamosa State Penitentiary Cemetery; on a hill next to a quiet byway .


The headstones in the foreground are recent, and of marble. The older ones are concrete, but are holding up fairly well.

It is hard to contemplate the people who lived and died in the prison (one here at age 77 and the other at only 25), with no one to claim their remains for burial. Very sad thoughts.

Perhaps the most personally disturbing finding in this prison cemetery, particularly with the recent burial of Barbara's dad in Arlington, was this official US Military marker for a prisoner who was a veteran of WW II, but now is buried here on this somewhat forlorn hillside.

Another final resting place, a bit less depressing, is the municipal cemetery just West of Anamosa, with this Civil War Memorial near its entrance.

It is here that Grant Wood was burried after a full and exceptional life.

This closed the circle for my Sunday afternoon drive.
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