I need to explain what sparked today’s travel adventure.
When we were just into Iowa yesterday, I saw green metal road side sign that
read “Freedom Rock 4 miles” with an arrow down a road. I thought to myself …
the famous Freedom Rock of Iowa is off I-80 somewhere … what is up with that
sign? We we in Southern Iowa, in Amish country. I knew the Freedom Rock was just not there!
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| picture from Sioux City Journal |
Let me explain, but first a bit of history. The artist, Ray "Bubba" Sorensen II, created the
original Freedom Rock in 1999. He was inspired to create it by the movie “Saving
Private Ryan.” He has always wanted to give back to veterans and was looking
for a unique way to do it. It is a 60 plus ton boulder located in Adair County,
Iowa. Sorensen paints The Freedom Rock on his own with the incredible
support of family and friends. He was not “commissioned” to paint it, but he
does every May. He repaints it with a different Thank You for our nations
Veterans and to honor their service to our country. He is able to paint it each
year with the generous help of donations. While painting murals across the country Sorensen had the
idea of spreading the message of The Freedom Rock to other small communities
across Iowa. The idea in part came from
the 99 county tours that both Sen. Grassley and journalist Kyle Munson took part
in, and so the Freedom Rock Tour was born. In the summer he travels the state
of Iowa, with his family, to put a smaller and unique to their area Freedom
Rock in each county. He wants to boost tourism and spread the message of thanks
to our Veterans for all 99 counties in Iowa. He never dreamed that years later
he would use his artistic skills to honor those who have served throughout the
state of Iowa, with 98 of 99 counties either already having a rock or waiting
for completion of their rock.
Our first stop is the Keokuk County Freedom Rock, in What Cheer ... yes, quite the town name. We could
not get an address, all it told us was the rock is located next to the historic
Opera House.
I figured that it could not be too big of a town and we could find
it. Well, I was right … it is a small town. So, the fact that they could get
the rock here is a pretty big deal!
Here is how they did it … In April of 2014, the city clerk Melanie Vermillion
convinced Mayor Mike Danner and council to let her apply for What Cheer to be
the location of the Keokuk County Freedom Rock. She could never imagine all of
the community outpouring support she would receive.
Just a month later,
Vermillion was informed that her application had been accepted and the forming
of a committee took place shortly after. At the site, you will notice all of
the time and details put into the project, from the setting of the rock to the
bricks that display the names of many area military personnel that live in the
county and the bricks show the community members who have helped support the
project along the way.
Vermillion has taken the time to paint the concrete
pillars as well as maintain the flowers that line the rock and make sure that
the rock remains a token of appreciation in the community.
We headed to Montezuma, Iowa next. That is where the Poweshiek
County Freedom Rock is! Before we got to Montezuma, we saw them constructing many
wind turbines. What is up with that? MidAmerican Energy Company is building a
new wind farm in Poweshiek County. It is the third site in Iowa selected for
construction as part of the Wind XI project. MidAmerican Energy has begun
construction activity on the North English wind farm, with completion scheduled
for December 2018.
The North English wind farm is part of MidAmerican Energy’s
Wind XI project and will add up to 170 new wind turbines with a combined
capacity of 340 megawatts of new wind generation. MidAmerican Energy expects to
pay up to approximately $137 million in county property taxes and up to approximately
$114 million in landowner lease payments over the 40-year lifespan of the
project.
MidAmerican Energy is excited to continue development of our
Wind XI project and come closer to achieving their 100% Renewable Vision. The
benefits of Wind XI are very clear: clean energy produced right here in Iowa,
for Iowa customers, using one of Iowa’s abundant renewable resources, wind! No
matter how many times I see these beasts, they always impress me!
We found the Poweshiek County Freedom Rock on the courthouse
lawn. Each site is very different from the last. I can’t wait until we see
more. Each rock that Sorenson paints, tells a story about veterans.
He painted this Freedom Rock in August of 2016. Every rock
is different and unique. Sorenson doesn’t just pick pictures out the blue. He
asks for suggestions for those to be depicted on the rock and then they work
together to come up with a design.
Some counties want to try and portray all
the services – be a little more politically correct, but he wants to portray
Veterans.
He wants to keep their spirit alive. In Poweshiek County,
Ron Hensel, commander of American Legion Post 169, organized a committee of
members from each American Legion post in the county to come up with
suggestions after the placing of the rock. This Freedom Rock has the Meskwaki
chief painted on it, the county was named after him.
Our next stop was Jasper County. The Jasper County Freedom
Rock is located in the Sully City Park, Sully Iowa.
The Jasper County Freedom
Rock, is the 17th of the 99 county rocks in the Freedom Rock Tour. It was
dedicated on July 4th, 2013.
The Jasper County Freedom Rock includes the sketch based on
Sgt. William Jasper rallying the troops at Fort Sullivan, SC.
The landmark to find the rock was the Coffee Cup Café. So,
we decided to do lunch there. There is a big Dutch presence in this area and
one item on the menu showed that! Dutch Lettuce. We had it as kids all the
time! We called it potatoes, eggs and lettuce … but it was the same! Even the
hot butter gravy … they added bacon to their gravy, so it was unhealthier yet!
But it was good, oh so good!
Then we were off to Knoxville, Iowa to see the National
Sprint Car Museum & Fall of Fame. It is a Hall of Fame and museum for
sprint car drivers, owners, mechanics, builders, manufacturers, promoters,
sanctioning officials and media members. The museum is located at the Knoxville
Raceway.
Its sole purpose of preserving the history of the sport of
sprint car racing and honoring its greatest achievers. The $2-million facility,
located on the Marion County Fairgrounds in Knoxville, officially opened on January
4, 1992.
The first floor of the four-story structure features the
Donald Lamberti National Sprint Car Museum, a museum store and the
administrative offices. The museum currently has twenty-five restored ‘big
cars’, super-modifieds and sprint cars on loan. The exhibit space also contains
displays of trophies, paintings, photos, plaques, helmets and other memorabilia
of the sport of sprint car racing.
The Hall of Fame honors outstanding achievers in the sport
of ‘big car’ and sprint car racing, including those in the driver,
owner/mechanic and promoter/sanctioning official/media member categories. The
entire nomination and election process is carried out by the 72-member National
Induction Committee, which consists of media members, historians and
representatives of the major old timers organizations from across the United
States.
The facility also include a library and research center, a
40-seat theater, a kitchen, a conference and banquet facility, and a 150-seat
clubhouse for race-viewing on individual nights. These seats would provide an
awesome view of the races!
We missed the Marion County Freedom Rock the first time we tried
to find it. There is a bunch of construction around it. I braved the
construction and got to it to take a few pictures. Marion County’s Freedom Rock
is at Young’s Park and was dedicated on July 26, 2013.
These Freedom Rocks are
a beautiful, lasting tribute to Veterans for their service and their sacrifice
to our country. They do serve as a constant reminder to everyone, of our
veterans and their solemn duty they have carried out to protect our freedom.
There are four basic parts of the Freedom Rock and they all
are significant to veterans. The front is the Iowa Flag and Knoxville’s Dixie
Cornell Gebhardt, who designed it. The back pictures Iowa’s sixth Governor and
Knoxville’s own William Milo Stone. Stone also had ties to Abraham Lincoln,
which is represented on the rock. The building on the same side is the Capitol
building in which Stone reigned as Governor.
The third, the top of the rock, is the American Flag.
Finally, there is an actual scene from the door of a helicopter with men
carrying a wounded man to safety. A Knoxville man, Clifford DeMoss, who won many
medals for his service to his country, has some of his ashes added to the paint
in the scene of the helicopter. He passed away in August of 2010. Respect and
admiration. Those were just two of the feelings that I feel when I see these
rocks.
The final rock we saw was the one in our current county, Mahaska
County. It is totally inaccessible because of construction. The construction site
is for the Mahaska County Conservation Board's Environmental Learning Center.
The Mahaska County Freedom Rock closed on August 7, 2017 and is still closed
now, July of 2018.
The top of the rock features a draped flag. The side panels
include seven of the admirals and generals from Mahaska County. The county has
a rich history of high-level serving commanders with these seven the more
prominent ones.
Another panel features bugler Harry L. Anderson, for which
the American Legion Post in Oskaloosa is named. Mahaska County had a number of
men in the Battle of Manila and a panel honors those men and the prisoner of
war. The final panel depicts Women’s Auxiliary Army Corp member
Billie Davis, who served in World War II.
The cool thing is Sorenson tags each rock with a "hanging tag" that identifies the rock. Too bad, we could not get close enough to see all the sides of our "home" rock!
Oh well, another day is another chance to find more Freedom Rocks!
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