Iowa’s state motto is Our Liberties We Prize And Our Rights We Will Maintain. The first Iowa General Assembly adopted it in 1847, just 58 days after Iowa achieved statehood. At 53 characters, it is the longest state motto in the United States.
The motto appears on the Great Seal of Iowa, carried on a scroll by the bald eagle at the top of the seal’s design. It also appears on the Iowa state flag, designed by Dixie Cornell Gebhardt in 1921. Iowa is one of the few states whose motto is clearly visible on both the seal and the flag.
The motto divides into two parallel statements joined by And. The first half — Our Liberties We Prize — is a declaration of value: Iowa’s citizens hold their civil liberties dear. The second half — Our Rights We Will Maintain — is a declaration of commitment: those rights will be defended. Prize and Maintain are carefully chosen words. To prize something is to hold it in high regard; to maintain it is to actively keep it intact.
The phrase is written in the first person plural. It is not a statement about abstract ideals or distant government. It is a statement from the people of Iowa about what they themselves value and intend to protect. For a state founded on the frontier in 1846, that directness was deliberate.
The word rights carried specific weight in 1847. Iowa entered the Union as a free state, and the question of what rights citizens could claim and defend was central to American political life in the years leading to the Civil War. The motto’s language is assertive rather than decorative.
Trip Advisor recommends these places to see if you’re going to Colorado!
Garden of the Gods
Jam-packed with dramatic rock formations, the Garden of the Gods is a prime spot for hiking amid beautiful scenery. Stop for a photo by the Steamboat Rock, then set out to trek the 21 miles of trails within the park. The 1.5-mile-long Perkins Central Garden Trail is wheelchair accessible and runs between all the major sights like the Kissing Camels. On your way back, grab a snack and shop for souvenirs at the gift shop. Located on the outskirts of Colorado Springs, the Garden of the Gods can be visited for free—parking included.
Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad and Museum
Hop aboard a coal-fired, steam-powered locomotive that travels along the same railroad tracks that miners, cowboys and the early settlers of the Old West used over a hundred years ago. The route winds in and out of canyons and past open wilderness affording great views. The price of a ticket also includes admission to the D&SNGRR Museum and the Silverton Freight Yard Museum.
Red Rocks Park & Amphitheatre
Naturally formed, open air Amphitheatre consists of two, three-hundred-foot monoliths serving as a “stage” for musical performances.
Denver Botanic Gardens
Spanning more than 24 acres, Denver Botanic Gardens at York Street presents a wide range of gardens and collections that illustrate an ever-widening diversity of plants from all corners of the world. Distinctive gardens define and celebrate our Western identity and a unique high altitude climate and geography. We are passionate about connecting people to plants through botanical beauty, education, art, events, conservation and sustainable living.
Pikes Peak – America’s Mountain
Welcome to Pikes Peak – America’s Mountain! The Pikes Peak Highway entrance is conveniently located 15 minutes west of Colorado Springs on Highway 24. The beauty of being so close to the city is that you can spend your time enjoying the mountain instead of getting to the mountains. Plan for your round trip journey to the summit to take 2-3 hours. The safe, scenic highway provides you the opportunity to enjoy Pikes Peak at your leisure. From the gateway at an elevation of 7,400 feet, you’ll encounter some of the most breathtaking scenery in the world as you wind your way through an alpine wonderland of scenic beauty, mountain reservoirs, beyond timberline, overtaking the clouds…All along the way to the 14,115 foot summit of America’s most famous mountain. Along the way, you’ll discover the North Slope Recreation Area, Crystal Reservoir Gift Shop, Historic Glen Cove Inn, and the Summit House. There are three lakes for fishing, picnic areas, hiking trails, and breathtaking views.
South Dakota: Fireworks approved to help with farming
Farmers in South Dakota have the green light to set off fireworks or explosives to protect their sunflower crops … as long as they are at least 660 feet away from the nearest church, home or schoolhouse.
Tennessee: You can’t lasso a fish
It should come as no surprise that if you’re fishing, you can use a rod and reel, hook and line or trotline. But in Tennessee, “use or possession of any other instrument for the killing, catching, or taking of fish or other aquatic life is expressly forbidden,” meaning a lasso, a basket, your hands or any other method is a no-go. You may get a warning, a written citation or a small fine if you’re caught (pun intended).
Texas: Keep litter on aircraft
It is illegal in Galveston, Texas, to throw litter out of an aircraft. Besides, using the blue bins is so much easier.
Utah: No missiles in bus terminals
Hurling a missile into a bus terminal is a felony in Utah—unless you are an appointed officer of the peace or commercial security personnel (see: mall cop).
Vermont: You can’t get rid of clotheslines
Vermont passed a dumb law just to say there would never be a law prohibiting the use of clotheslines. With the aim of preserving energy use from dryers, the law says that any landlord or homeowner who breaks the law may be subject to a citation or fine. Good to know.
Virginia: No skunks as pets
It’s illegal to have a pet skunk in more than 30 states in the U.S., and Virginia is one of them. No matter how sweet and cute they might be, you may get a visit from animal control if your neighbors see you feeding a skunk or walking it around on a leash. Man, this dumb law in the U.S. really stinks.
Washington: No Sasquatch poaching
It is illegal to poach a Sasquatch in at least two Washington counties. In 1991, Whatcom County declared its roughly 1 million acres of land an official Sasquatch Protection and Refuge Area, giving our nation its first Bigfoot sanctuary. While you may want to capture a Sasquatch if you manage to spot one, hunting Bigfoot is “punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 and/or a year in jail.”
West Virginia: No drones for bird hunting
Though a new law passed in West Virginia allowing hunters to use drones and hunting dogs to find wounded animals, this strictly applies to wild game and is prohibited for birds. Using a machine bird to hunt a real bird will most likely result in a hefty fine or a temporary suspension of your hunting license.
Wisconsin: Better make that butter delicious
Giving credence to its reputation as “America’s Dairyland,” Wisconsin’s bid for the dumbest law in the states demands that all cheese and butter produced in the state be “highly pleasing.”
Wyoming: Don’t buy junk from a drunk
Like Mama always said, “Don’t buy junk from a drunk.” In Wyoming, purchasing scrap “metals, rubber, rags or paper” from an intoxicated person is prohibited. The junk dealer may be fined a minimum of $50 or receive a sentence of no more than 60 days in jail. Take that junk to the junk yard!
The mystery of what happened to union leader Jimmy Hoffa has baffled the public ever since his disappearance from a Michigan parking lot 42 years ago.
Now, CBS Detroit reports that James Buccellato, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at Northern Arizona University, has a new theory that Hoffa was murdered at a home in Bloomfield Hills near where he disappeared on July 30, 1975.
He believes that Hoffa was lured from the parking lot where he was to meet with mafia leaders and taken to a nearby property owned by mafia member Carlo Licata. Buccellato claims that Hoffa was then murdered at that property before he was transported to a nearby crematorium.
“I believe he was taken immediately, his body, to either a funeral home on the east side — I don’t want to mention it because it’s still a prominent funeral home on the east side that was once upon a time owned by the mafia,” Buccellato said, “or possibly to a sausage factory in Detroit.”
These scenarios would account for the fact that Hoffa’s body was never recovered.
However, long before Hoffa made headlines because of his mysterious disappearance, he did so for other reasons altogether. Hoffa was a Detroit labor union leader and activist who was well known for his involvement in the Teamsters Union as well as the criminal charges that he faced while president of the organization.
These crimes originated from Hoffa’s involvement with organized crime, and consisted of improper use of union funds, and then attempting to bribe a grand juror when he was indicted for that first crime. Nevertheless, Hoffa’s criminal convictions, as well as the growing political power of his union, fueled his rise to prominence and fame.
However, his connections with the mafia were what would ultimately bring him down.
The FBI investigation of his disappearance failed to find his body, or to identify his killers, and the exact nature of his fate remained a mystery.
But nature abhors a vacuum, and in the absence of evidence, conspiracy theories, urban legends, and rumors filled the public’s imagination.
One famous theory claimed that Jimmy Hoffa was dismembered and that parts of his body were buried underneath Section 107 of the New York Giants’ stadium in New Jersey. This theory was disproven by the Mythbusters in 2010 when the TV show investigated the newly razed New York Giants’ stadium and found no evidence of a body.
Others believed that Hoffa was buried in the foundation of Detroit’s Renaissance Center, which was being built around the time of Hoffa’s disappearance.
Unlike these outlandish ideas, Buccellato’s theory seems much more plausible, albiet far less exciting. However, if his theory is correct, there would be little to no evidence available to prove it, as there would be no body to recover.
This ensures that even if Buccellato is right, the mystery of Jimmy Hoffa’s disappearance will continue to endure.
This is a most unusual home, Garden of Eden, in Lucas, Kansas.
The following is from the Garden of Eden website:
Samuel Perry Dinsmoor…
…was born on March 8, 1843, in Ohio. He served in the Civil War as a nurse in the Union Army. After the war, Dinsmoor returned to Ohio and soon joined the Masonic Lodge. Joining this organization was a significant development in his philosophical outlook on life. He had grown up in a very religious home, but, like many who witnessed the inexplicable slaughter of the Civil War, began searching for other ways to understand humankind.
These were the days when the free-thought movement and a multitude of secret societies proliferated throughout the United States. Lectures on free-thought and scientific theory often were held in Masonic halls. Ohio was considered a “hotbed” of free-thought activity. Free-thought was the end point in the evolution of deism, a philosophical movement that developed in Europe in the eighteenth century. Deism gained a strong foothold on North American thought from about 1790 to 1840. Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Ethan Allen, among others, were adherents of its tenets. Freethinkers, although widely divergent in individual group focus, believed that any issue in life should be dealt with in a rational manner without resorting to emotional responses or to the dictates of tradition or religion.
Late in 1866, Dinsmoor moved to Illinois, where he taught school. In 1870, he married Frances Barlow Journey, a widow with two children. Frances and S.P. had five more children. In 1888, the Dinsmoor family moved to Lucas, Kansas, area and began to farm southeast of town.
When Dinsmoor Retired…
… from farming and moved to town, he build a house, the Cabin Home, intended to be both a residence and a source of income. For the exterior, he chose postrock limestone, the fine-quality building stone used in many commercial buildings, houses, barns, and fence posts in the area. His construction technique was unique, however. He had the stone quarried in long narrow lengths, some up to twenty feet long. The stone was then laid up with dovetailed corners in the manner of a log cabin. He designed the main floor with a mind to entertaining visitors, incorporating 3,000 feet of oak, redwood, and walnut to elaborate moldings and baseboards. To add to the unique look, he built no two windows or doors the same size.
Dinsmoor, the artist and social commentator, spent the years between 1907 and 1928 creating the Cabin Home and the Garden of Eden. He located his sculptural environment in a residential area, within walking distance of Main Street businesses and visible from the principal railroad track. It appears that Dinsmoor selected the location with the public in mind. The environment was a popular attraction; income from visitors’ admission fees provided a degree of financial security for Dinsmoor and his family. He welcomed visitors and led tours of the site while the work was in progress.
The state tree of Indiana, also known as the tulip poplar or yellow poplar, however, is actually more closely related to the magnolia family than the poplar family. It is easily identified by its large, simple tulip shaped leaves held alternately on long leaf stems. The leaves, which feature three lobes, including the top lobe which is widely notched in the middle, turn from glossy green to a golden yellow in the fall.
The bark on young trees is smooth and gray with streaks of white between the ridges, while the bark of older trees is gray-brown and features deep, long running ridges. The trunk is very straight and column-like as it grows toward the sunlight and the tree self-prunes lower branches.
In the spring, the tulip tree produces colorful green and yellow, tulip like flowers with an orange band at the base of each petal, which bloom in May or June, but are often found high up on the tree.
The cone-shaped fruit is a collection of winged seeds that resembles a small, dry pineapple, approximately two-inches in length, which sits upright on the branches.
Tulip trees, which grow 70 to 90 feet tall, are often among the tallest trees in Indiana woodland areas as they are shade intolerant and prefer to grow toward the light. They can often be found in woodlands as large as three to four feet in width on the trunk. Tulip trees prefer acidic, moist, well-drained soil, but can tolerate alkaline soil.
The natural range of the tulip tree is the eastern United States. Its western reach extends from spots in central Louisiana across the eastern edge of Missouri and Illinois up through Indiana and the southern part of Michigan, and reaches eastward across the gulf states and the panhandle of Florida. It can be found throughout much of the Atlantic coast, reaching northward to Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut.
The Morton Arboretum warns that tulip trees are highly susceptible to ice damage and are marginally hard with weak wood and branch structure.
If you’re planning a trip to the Garden State, here’s some sites you don’t want to miss, according to Trip Advisor!
Atlantic City Boardwalk
Opened on June 26, 1870, the world-famous Boardwalk stretches along six magical and glittering miles of Atlantic City beachfront.
Lakota Wolf Preserve
Ocean City Boardwalk
With its quaint storefronts, amusement rides and Music Pier, Ocean City is everything you’d expect from the real Jersey shore. This family-friendly town boasts a two-mile boardwalk dotted with amusements, pizza parlors, and seaside stores.
Jersey Shore Alpacas
IMPORTANT: OPEN BY APPOINTMENT ONLY. PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT US FOR AVAILABILITY WITHOUT VISITING OUR WEBSITE FIRST for complete schedule information. Closed Sundays. Again, OPEN BY APPOINTMENT ONLY. Fleece and Fun for Everyone! Jersey Shore Alpacas is a small, friendly farm located in Green Creek, just north of Cape May, NJ (about 3 hours from NYC). Please see our website for more information on visiting the farm. 🙂 You’ll love meeting our curious alpacas and browsing in our shop for soft, warm alpaca clothing and cuddly toys! We also carry more than 20 different types of alpaca yarn from Blue Sky Fibers, Alpaca Yarn Company, and farm yarn (when available). We also host occasional adult craft classes in knitting, needle felting, and wet felting! Hope to see you soon!
Liberty State Park
This Park offers stunning views of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and the Manhattan skyline.
This recipe is another bar recipe instead of cookies, but the name ironically is…Cheesecake Cookie Bars…lol.
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup chopped walnuts (or any nuts you prefer)
⅔ cup butter, softened
⅔ cup brown sugar
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
½ cup white sugar
2 eggs
¼ cup milk
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix flour, walnuts, butter, and brown sugar together in a bowl. Line a 9×13-inch baking pan with half the crust mixture.
Bake in the preheated oven until browned, about 15 minutes. Remove crust and leave oven on.
Mix cream cheese and white sugar together in another bowl using an electric mixer until blended. Add eggs, milk, lemon juice, and vanilla extract; mix until blended. Pour on top of the baked crust. Sprinkle with remaining crust mixture.
Bake in the hot oven until set, about 25 minutes.
ENJOY!
NOTES: The notes to this recipe offering the following suggestions: An 8×8 pan will increase the amount of filling per bar which a lot of respondents did and liked the results. Some used pecans instead of walnuts and liked those results as well. One woman said she doubled the filling ingredients AND used a smaller pan and she liked those results. I haven’t tried this recipe yet, but will update when I have.
Let’s take a break to focus on what’s not illegal: walking around with your butt out. In New Mexico, “indecent exposure” is defined as “intentionally exposing [one’s] primary genital area to public view.” Buttocks are nowhere to be mentioned!
New York: Sales tax for sliced bagels
If you order a sliced bagel in New York City, fuhgeddabout getting a square deal: “altered” bagels (sliced, toasted, served with cream cheese) carry an 8-cent sales tax. This is one of the funny laws in the U.S. because the joke is that uncut bagels are typically tax-exempt.
North Carolina: Be careful with your doggie bag
In North Carolina, it’s a felony to steal more than $1,000 worth of grease, and a misdemeanor to steal under $1,000 worth. A USA strange law indeed. Grease theft, it turns out, was a big problem in the state before this law was passed in 2012, with midnight grease-bandits persistently preventing biodiesel companies from purchasing restaurants’ excess oil to convert into fuel.
North Dakota: No non-holiday fireworks
If you want to make a splash with your proposal or celebrate something big, you’d better plan it for the 4th of July or New Year’s Eve, because in West Fargo, North Dakota, those are the only two days in the year when you’re allowed to set off fireworks. Sparking a fuse the other 363 days in the year may result in “a fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000) or by imprisonment not to exceed thirty (30) days, or both.”
Ohio: Toilet paper in coal mines, please!
Operators of underground coal mines in Ohio must provide “an adequate supply of toilet paper” with each toilet. If they don’t, their operation can be shut down and they can receive a fine of up to $2,000. (Too bad the letter of this odd American law stops at coal mines.)
Oklahoma: No cutting your own bangs
Want to help a friend with an at-home haircut? Not so fast. The state of Oklahoma demands that anyone who cuts hair have a cosmetology license. Otherwise, they may have to pay a fine of $50. So put the scissors down!
Oregon: No “tests of physical endurance” while driving
It is considered a speed racing offense in Oregon if you participate in any “test of physical endurance” while on the highway. Sorry, y’all: No more seeing how long you can work the steering wheel with your teeth. While a “test of physical endurance” is subjective, driving laws are pretty strict, so this one may result in you getting pulled over and cited with a ticket.
Pennsylvania: No bingo for kids
Planning a bingo night birthday party? Think again. According to this dumb law, any person “17 years of age or younger may not be permitted to operate or play games of chance.” The same rule applies to anyone who’s been convicted of a felony within the past five years. If you roll the dice, so to speak, you risk up to five years in prison and/or a fine of up to $10,000.
Rhode Island: Don’t impersonate an auctioneer
Rhode Island’s “false personification” laws deem it illegal to impersonate an auctioneer. Choose your Halloween costume accordingly, or you may be fined between $20 and $100.
South Carolina: Kids can’t play pinball
If you’re a kid at the arcade in South Carolina and see a pinball machine, just know that it’s technically illegal to play it unless you’re over the age of 18. Fortunately, this is a rule that’s never enforced.
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Sew Colorful 