WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - State Facts: Iowa

Episode Date: October 8, 2024

Nate is joined by Owen Ferguson to talk all about Iowa.

You're listening to State Facts on Radio for Hillsdale 101.7 FM. I'm your host, Nate Gallagher, and I'm joined by Hillsdale's resident Iowa, Owen Ferguson. How you doing today, Owen? I'm great. How are you? Pretty good. Where are you from in Iowa? I am from Johnston, Iowa, which is a suburb of Des Moines. Well, this question should be easy, then. What's the capital of Iowa?

It's Des Moines. You know, it's a great city on two rivers. That has a beautiful capital, and lots of great stuff happens there. So I'm very happy to live there. What are the two rivers? They are the Des Moines River and the Raccoon River. And they converge in the southern part of the city. And right in between where they come together is our baseball field for our minor league team.

Do people like sit out on the water in boats and try and catch the balls? Not that I know of. That happens on Long Island if there's a stadium by the water. Someone, they'll often sit out and try and catch them. I don't, I don't think you can. I don't know that you can do that in the Des Moines River. They're rushing rivers? Are they calling them?

Yeah, I mean, people drown in them. Oh. And like, yeah, you don't want to go in there. When was Iowa admitted to the Union? Oh. 1850s, something like that. 1846. 1846.

What number was it admitted to the Union? 28th. 29th. No way. Very, very close. All right. How about the population? I think there's three million.

But I know that there are more pigs in Iowa than humans. Really? Yep. How do they count that? I'm just... Farmers know how many. any pigs they have, they probably have to report it to the government. To the government.

Big regulations? I don't know. Taxes or something. How about the nickname of the state? We're the Hawkeye State, which is unfortunate for Iowa State University sports fans because the University of Iowa, their mascot is the Hawkeyes. but the Iowa State University's mascot is a cyclone and so the whole state is like biased

towards the University of Iowa. Why is it called the Hawkeye State? I have no idea and I've never really thought about it either. Fair enough. How about the state motto? Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain. How about the state bird? Ah, the goldfinch. Tiny little yellow bird.

Like a neighborhood bird, or is it more like a... No. I've never seen one in the wild, I don't think. Only in like a little bird. What do they call those? Aviary. Yeah. How about the state flower? Ah, the wild rose.

And, you know, I was in a choir once that sang, the world premiere and the only time this piece has ever been sung it's called See How the Rose Unfolds and it's all about like resilience in the wild rose and how it

just sticks around no matter what is thrown at it very resilient in Iowa does it like look like a regular rose or does it look different? I've never seen one in the wild either I don't know.

I always assumed that it looked like a regular rose, but that sort of in a prairie context. How about the state rock? Ah, the geode. And the geode is so great, you know, because on the outside it looks like a rock, like just a random rock. But on the inside, you crack them open,

and it's like all shiny on the inside. And I feel like that is Iowa. Like a lot of people think, oh, it's just a boring state, a flyover state. state. So plain and just boring. But you know, once you get to know it, and if you live there all your life like I have, it is truly a treasure on the inside, just like a G-Ode. Well, I think that's all the time we have for today. Thank you for coming on the show, Owen.

All right. Thanks for having me. I've been Nate Gallagher with State Facts on Radio for Healsdale 101.7 FM. See you next time.