Official State Crap: Iowa
I haven't gone back to look at earlier installments of this for-some-reason-long-running series, but I'm pretty sure that Iowa has the fewest official state things of any state we've yet covered. The Official State Register, at least, lists only a few (along with other semi-official facts about the state).
Official state flag: see above. Iowa apparently didn't have an official state flag until 1921. The story is that Iowa National Guardsmen stationed on the Mexican border during World War I (they weren't part of our invasion of, I mean expedition to Mexico) saw that other states' Guard units had flags and decided Iowa should have one too. The state legislature still didn't take action, though, until the Daughters of the American Revolution got interested. The rest is history. Which is a weird saying, because people say it after telling a story about the past, and that part was also history, so really all of it was history. And now on to the official state motto.
Official state motto: I like mine (We Squat Atop Missouri") better, and it'd be easier to fit on the flag, but the official state motto is Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain."
Official state flower: the wild rose. Chosen in 1897 because it was one of the decorations on the silver service which the state presented for use on the [b]attleship U.S.S. Iowa that same year," and I guess that's as good a reason as any.
Official state bird: the eastern goldfinch, a.k.a. the American goldfinch and the wild canary. Though small, the eastern goldfinch is dangerous in large numbers. Hordes of these have been known to carry away small children and can devour an adult male in seconds ... you know what, sorry, I was just bored. This is a little yellow bird with black markings, okay? It's fine.
Official state rock: the geode, which in 1967 was chosen as the official rock in an effort to promote tourism in the state." And if you don't think tourists would go to Iowa to see rocks, I encourage you to look at a map. You could draw a pretty big circle around Iowa and not hit anything that's likely to be a significant tourist draw. Note: the Official Register says that geodes are shaped like the earth," so at least this isn't one of those states where people aren't sure how the earth is shaped.
Official state tree: the oak, which is abundant in the state," or at least in the parts of the state that have trees.
Official state song: The Song of Iowa, or Iowa Corn Song, or maybe something else, or maybe none?
There have been many aspirants to the honor of writing the state song of Iowa," the Iowa Official Register claims, implausibly, but only three or four of these songs have received noteworthy official or popular recognition." It only mentions two. The Song of Iowa was supposedly written in 1897 by a Civil War veteran who said he had spent 33 years dreaming of writing different lyrics to the music of My Maryland, the song a Confederate band allegedly played to torment him after he was captured at the battle of Lookout Mountain. Iowa Corn Song was supposedly written for the 1912 Shriners convention in Los Angeles, by a man who accepted the challenge of writing a rousing marching song, which should advertise the chief product of the state: corn." (It is said to have hundreds" of verses.) So, no, neither of these stories sound remotely believable.
Official presidents who lived in Iowa at some point, however briefly: Ronald Reagan, said to have worked as a sportscaster for radio stations WOC in Davenport and WHO in Des Moines between 1933 and 1937; and Richard Nixon, who was stationed at the Naval Air Station in Ottumwa" in 1942-1943. These extensive ties evidently render them honorary Iowans as far as the Official State Register is concerned.
Nixon was indeed stationed at Ottumwa, Iowa, from October 1942 until May 1943, where he served as an aide to the commander of that strategically placed naval air station, just 920 miles from the Atlantic and 1,500 miles from the Pacific. Seeking more excitement," Wikipedia says, Nixon asked for sea duty, and managed to get himself transferred to the South Pacific. Nixon survived to become the second worst president in U.S. history.
Official Iowa-born presidents: Herbert Hoover. (Who is generally ranked around No. 36.)
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