Playing Cards - IOWA

Unless you are an avid fan of the movie BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY, you may not immediately think of Iowa as a tourist destination. You'd be wrong. Iowans have a lot to be proud of . . . the birthplace of John Wayne, Donna Reed, Glenn Miller and President Herbert Hoover . . . all in Iowa. Are you familiar with the painting, AMERICAN GOTHIC by Grant Wood? Yeah . . . the house is actually in Eldon, Iowa. Oh, and those Madison County covered bridges . . . Holliwell Bridge is the longest and Imes Bridge is the oldest. Ames is home of the World's Largest Concrete Gnome. Clear Lake, Iowa is where "the music died". It is both the location of Buddy Holly's last gig and the location of the field where the plane went down that was carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and "The Big Bopper". The "Field of Dreams" created for the Kevin Costner movie is located in Dyersville, Iowa. So much to see. Iowa derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many Native American tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. The state nickname, "The Hawkeye State", is a tribute to chief Black Hawk, leader of the native American Sauk tribe. Iowa is also called "The Corn State" - 90 percent of the land in Iowa is devoted to agriculture which may be why it is sometimes called "Land Where the Tall Corn Grows" and "Land of the Rolling Prairie". The state flower for Iowa is the Rosa Arkansana or "Wild Rose". I was delighted and surprised to find some growing over by the barn. I was also truly astonished at how intense the fragrance, easily two or three times as intense that of a cultivated rose. Without the scent, I would never have considered this lovely bloom a rose. The single petal layer more closely resembles a cosmos but, again, the scent is unmistakably rose. This design pays homage to our wonderful 29th state. An outline of the state is filled with lovely "wild roses". This is layered with the a deep rose "Iowa". This delightful deck of cards is a lovely way of paying homage to this wonderful state or of commemorating that unforgettable Iowa vacation.