Description: Midwest Wanderer explores history, nature, and culture through road trips along scenic and historic U.S. highways, byways and trails
Heading west on I-80 toward Iowa City, we noticed a sign at the West Branch exit for the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site. Hmm… side trip? Let’s do it! So, that afternoon on our return trip we did just that.
This national historic site, honoring the 31st president of the United States, is home to a visitor center, several buildings from Hoover’s childhood—either original or reproduction—and the grave site of President and Mrs. Hoover. Not part of the national historic site but on the same property is the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum.
Some people called him eccentric. Others claimed he was downright crazy. George Ohr was a talented potter. But with his brash mannerisms and mustache so long he tied it together behind his head, he became known as “The Mad Potter.” Today, along the Gulf Coast in Biloxi, Mississippi, Ohr has an entire art museum named for him, the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art.