Pick up a copy of the November issue and turn to page 40 (the centerfold). You can also download a PDF of the Iowa Odyssey game board, or play the game virtually with friends.
- Find a pair of standard six-sided dice OR two hexagonal pencils. If using pencils, mark the sides with the numbers 1-6.
- Lay the board game flat.
- Select pawns. Each player should find a distinct small item (such as a coin, bead or small bauble) to serve as their pawn.
- Place all player pawns on the start space, “YOUR JOURNEY BEGINS”
- Play begins with the youngest player and proceeds clockwise.
Movement: On your turn, roll ONE die or marked pencil. Move your pawn forward that number of spaces.
Pencil Rolling Rules: The pencil must be rolled off an open palm and dropped from a height of approximately one pencil length. The pencil must roll. If the pencil falls straight down and comes to rest without any noticeable rotation, it is considered an invalid roll and a re-roll is necessary.
Action Spaces: If you land on an action space, immediately follow the instructions on that space, which may require you to roll again. If that action causes you to move to a new action space, take that new action immediately. Continue chaining actions until you land on a non-action space or an action ends your turn.
The “Lose a Turn” penalty also ends your current turn; A “STOP!” space ends your turn immediately, even if your movement roll would normally take you past.
Winning the Game: The first player to land on the final space: “YOU’RE OUTTA HERE!” (i.e. Davenport) by exact count wins the Iowa Odyssey! If you overshoot the space, you must move back the remaining number of spaces. You must land exactly on Davenport to win… and relax…
Alternate Gameplay: Speed Run Rules
For a faster game, use the following modifications:
Movement Roll: Roll TWO marked pencils for your base movement and sum the result (2 to 12 spaces).
Express Route: All “STOP!” spaces become non-action spaces.
Game design by Rodney Arthur. Space concepts by Little Village staff. Visual design by Kellan Doolittle. Play-tested by Nolan Petersen and Sean Finn of Diversions Tabletop Game Lounge, additional play-testing by Little Village. Footnotes below by Paul Brennan. Read the article that inspired the idea.
Start space: Your Journey Begins
Snacking has deep roots in western Iowa. Twin Bings were invented by Sioux City’s Palmer Candy Company in 1923 as its lump-shaped entry in the growing candy bar market. By that time, Cloid Smith, also a Sioux Citian, had already been selling his Jolly Time Popcorn for nine years.
1. Pink Quartzite Ridge
Gitchie Manitou State Preserve in far northwest Iowa is known for its outcroppings of pink quartzite, a hard metamorphic rock formed from sandstone that is, as the name suggests, pink and sparkly.
2. Hog Wild
Thanks to Iowa’s embrace of environmentally-destructive ag practices, the state achieved “peak pig” in 2018, surpassing every other state in the number of pigs confined on industrial farms. In 2018, Little Village wrote about Iowa’s peak pig moment, and in 2019 about the fecal consequences.
3. The Legend Coaster
Long before it was known as the Legend, the Arnolds Park Amusement Park wooden roller coaster was called the Speed Hound. The Legend is believed to be the 13th oldest surviving wooden roller coaster in the country, taking its first passengers for a ride in 1927.
4. Cullen’s Art
Art Cullen co-founded the Storm Lake Times in 1990, and since then has become an icon of Iowa journalism, an important voice on environmental matters and a Pulitzer Prize winner. In the October issue, Little Village interviewed him about the ways in which Iowa has crapped its nest.
5. Sgt. Floyd Obelisk
The Floyd Monument sits atop Floyd’s Bluff in Sioux City. Both the monument and the hill are named for Sgt. Charles Floyd, the only member of Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery to die on their expedition. The obelisk marks the spot where Floyd’s companions buried him, after he succumbed to “bilious colic” (Clark’s diagnosis). Floyd is also memorialized in Iowa by the names of the Floyd River, Floyd County, Sergeant’s Bluff and the bridge between Sioux City and South Sioux City.
6. Squirrel Cage Jail
It’s a museum now, but from 1884 to 1969, the unusual three-story jail — one of just 18 rotary jails ever built in the U.S. — was a panopticon of misery. Little Village wrote about the strange and dangerous jail in 2024.
7. Miller Makes Music
Glenn Miller, one of the biggest bandleaders of the Big Band era with hits like “In the Mood,” was born in Clarinda in 1904. In 1942, Miller received the first gold record ever awarded, for his band’s recording of “Chattanooga Choo Choo.” Later that year, he and members of his band joined the Army to perform for troops during WWII. On Dec. 15, 1944, the C-47 transport flying Miller and his band to a performance in France disappeared over the English Channel.
8. Lyric Theatre
The 500-seat theater in Osceola dates from 1922. Remember: this is a board game, not a public health advisory. As far as we know, no one at the theater has COVID.
9. Limestone Tunnel
In addition to covered bridges, Madison County has the Harmon Tunnel, Iowa’s only highway tunnel. Alas, the tunnel is currently closed, so you’ll have to bore your own way forward.
10. Train Derailed
Just west of Adair, Jesse James’ gang derailed a train in July 1873, to steal a shipment of gold. But the shipment had been delayed and the train wasn’t carrying gold, so they robbed its safe and passengers instead.
11. Albert the Bull
The scale of Albert the Bull in Atlantic is something any bovine could be proud of. Albert is the world’s largest bull statue; made of steel and concrete, he stands 28 feet tall and weighs 45 tons. His location near the old Rock Island Railroad spur line — built to speed up the shipment of cattle to the meat-packing plants of Chicago — is less bovine-friendly.
12. Donna Reed’s Denison
Donna Mullenger was born in Denison in 1921. After moving to Los Angeles for college, she was “discovered,” the Mullenger was dropped, the Reed was added, and she became a movie star and then starred in the one of the most popular TV shows of the ’50s and early ’60s. In 2023, Little Village wrote about Reed, the high school teacher who encouraged her to start acting and their connection to the atomic bomb.
13. Medical Emergency
At almost five tons, Sac City’s popcorn ball is a world-record holder. It’s the fourth in a series of popped giants going back to 1995, when the city’s big ball was barely more than one ton. Little Village wrote about Sac City’s giants, including how the locals tried to retire the first one using dynamite, in 2024.
14. 47 Bronze Bells
Floyd and Dora Mahanay dreamed of bequeathing a belltower to their hometown of Jefferson, and left the plans and money for a 168-foot, 32-bell tower in their wills. Why? Why not?
15. Antique Bowling at the Hotel Pattee
When Perry’s Hotel Pattee opened in 1913, it had all the modern luxuries, including a bowling alley in the basement. When Roberta Green Ahmanson and her husband Howard bought what remained of the Pattee in 1993, they wanted to restore it to its former glory – and bring back bowling. The hotel’s Arthur “Oley” Olson Bowling Alley is named for a local champion bowler of the 1920s (who was also Roberta’s grandfather).
16. Van Meter Visitor
Spotted in 1903, the horned, red-eyed, winged monster is Van Meter’s claim to cryptid fame. In 2022, Little Village recounted the tale of the “luciferian winged creature” who could erase your memory “with its ungodly stench.”
17. Electroinsomnia
Iowa is giving big tax breaks and other goodies to massively wealthy corporations to get them to build resource-devouring, limited job-generating data centers here. Ask Siri if that makes sense.
18. Funnel Clouds
“Struck by a Cyclone” was the Chicago Tribune’s headline for an 1895 story about how the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm’s football team pulverized Northwestern’s team. The nickname stuck, even as the school in Ames’ name changed to Iowa State College of Agricultural and Mechanic Art, before becoming Iowa State University of Science and Technology in 1959.
19. The Most Erotic Statue in the Nation
Many states have official Civil War memorials, but only Iowa has one that’s been called “erotic.” There’s a tangled story behind why the most prominent figure on the monument to the service and sacrifice of more than 76,000 Iowans during the Civil War at the State Capitol is “a seated woman, who is holding her bare breasts in her hands, cupped from beneath in a startlingly provocative manner,” as Bill Bryson put it in his memoir of growing up in 1950s Des Moines. Little Village untangled the story 2023.
20. The Cardiff Giant
Wanna see a dead body? Or rather, a genuine copy of the fake dead body of a fake giant that was one of the great hoaxes of the 19th century? Then get to the Fort Dodge Museum and Frontier Village. In 2022, Little Village explained the hoax, the motive behind it and the innocent part Fort Dodge played in the whole thing.
21. Grotto of Redemption
The folk art grotto in West Bend, made of stone, shells and fossils, was built over the course of 42 years by a German immigrant priest to fulfill a promise he made to the Virgin Mary.
22. World’s Biggest Bullhead
It’s giant. It’s a catfish. It’s the world’s largest bullhead catfish sculpture. What more do you want? It’s at Crystal Lake in Hancock County.
23. The Surf
The Surf Ballroom, now the Surf Ballroom and Museum, first opened in 1933, after its owners decided Clear Lake needed a music venue with a South Seas beach club vibe (hence the name). The original building burned down in 1947, and a new one was built across the street the following year, setting the stage for another 77 years of music. But despite that long history, there’s one moment that overshadows all the others when it comes to the Surf: the snowy night in February 1959, when Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper boarded a small plane to fly to the next stop on their Winter Dance Party Tour.
24. The Scavenged Art Garden
Max Weaver’s Rancho Deluxe Z Garden in Mason City is where recycling meets art. “Everything you see here, has been thrown away,” the artist told Iowa PBS.
25. The Hart & Parr Tractor Engine
In 1903, Charles Hart and Charles Parr made history in Charles City when their factory began producing the first tractors with internal combustion engines.
26. Decorah Ice Cave
It’s only fitting that a city with so many connections to Norway is known for a cave where the walls are coated in ice through August each year. You may, however, want to summon your inner viking hardiness if you go to the Decorah Ice Cave State Preserve. “Decorah Ice Cave is open to the public as an ‘enter at your own risk’ attraction, meaning there is no supervision, admission cost, or set hours to visit,” according to Decorah Parks and Rec.
27. A Town Called Motor
Motor Mill, located on the Turkey River near Elkader, is a beautifully preserved example of a small 19th century Midwestern mill. One of the reasons it retains characteristics of the period is that it went out of business just 14 years after it opened in 1870. That bad luck for the owners was good luck for future generations interested in the past.
28. Volga City Opera House
A city with the population of 500 isn’t where you’d expect an opera house, but there were only 500 people in Volga when its opera house opened in 1914. Volga is smaller now, about 200 residents, but it still has its opera house, which is home to a variety of shows and events these days.
29. Tankman
Twenty feet tall, made of 26 propane tanks, the metal giant is the work of Chuck Rottinghaus, a retired propane tank distributor. Tankman stands watch in Rottinghaus’ yard south of Dunkerton. Its head and arms move, thanks to solar-powered motors, which means the giant straddles the line between the fossil fuel past and the renewable green future.
30. UNI-Dome-flation
We won’t comment on how much thought went into naming the domed stadium of the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) the UNI-Dome (Little Village’s HQ is in Iowa City, so we can’t throw stones), but it is fair to question the thought that went into its the building’s original inflatable dome. Just over a week after it first inflated, a severe thunderstorm deflated and damaged the dome. That happened two more times — another thunderstorm and then a snowstorm — before UNI decided to go with a solid roof.
31. The Fatalist Senator
It’s not often you get to see someone wreck their political career with a single sentence, but that’s what people saw at Joni Ernst’s Butler County town hall in May.
32. A Blacksmith’s Time Capsule
Matthew Edel spent 57 years working at his blacksmith shop in Haverhill, from the day he opened it in 1883 until his death in 1940. In 1986, Edel’s family donated the shop, its contents and his tools to the state, so the shop could become a museum where people can get an authentic look at a world that’s largely disappeared.
33. Sullivan’s Jewel Box
The Merchants National Bank building in Grinnell is one of just eight “jewel box” bank buildings designed by Louis Sullivan, widely considered to be the father of modern American architecture. Sullivan’s design is meant to embody elegant simplicity while conveying a sense of safety and stability. The building cost $60,000 when it was constructed in 1913 ($1.9 million in today’s money). The banking stopped in 1999, and the building is now home to the local chamber of commerce and the Grinnell Visitor Center.
34. Tiptoe Through the Tulips
Pella is, of course, the most Dutch town in Iowa. And Pella is at its most Dutch in May, during the Tulip Time Festival.
35. Video Game Capital of the World!
Ottumwa holds this recognition thanks to the work of Walter Day, a resident of Fairfield. In 1981, Day began traveling the country, visiting arcades and compiling the scores displayed on their video screens. Later that year, he opened the Twin Galaxies arcade in Ottumwa (“I got addicted to playing Space Invaders, and that’s why I opened up Twin Galaxies, initially,” Day said in 2014. “It was an excuse to be able to play more video games.”). A few months later Day began publishing the Twin Galaxies National Scoreboard, which was taken to be an authoritative record of video game scores and player rankings. When the Guinness Book of Records folks created a video game category in 1983, they decided to rely on Day’s stats. By that time, the Ottumwa City Council had already passed a resolution declaring the city Video Game Capital of the World.
36. Tower of Invincibility
The 70-foot Maharishi Tower of Invincibility on the campus of Maharishi International University in Fairfield celebrates a very particular form of invincibility. According to the tower’s site, “Invincibility means impenetrable strength, strength based on coherence, unity, and peace,” and if every country would build a tower in their capital city, it would create an “opportunity to achieve permanent world peace.”
37. Snake Alley Fire Horse Test
According to local lore in Burlington, in the days when the Burlington Fire Department relied on horse-drawn firewagons, the department used Snake Alley to test whether a horse was wagon-worthy. Snake Alley descends a steep hill and is, many people claim, the crookedest street in the world. It’s also paved with blue clay bricks, which can make for treacherous footing for horses. The BFD would race potential wagon horses down Snake Alley, and if a horse didn’t wipe out, it got the job.
38. Lake Darling Compromise
Lake Darling, which is darling, is named for Ding Darling. Jay Norwood “Ding” Darling began working for the Des Moines Register and Leader (as the Reg was known from 1902-1915) as a cartoonist in 1906, and except for a few years working for papers in New York, he spent the rest of his career there. Ding won the Pulitzer Prize for his editorial cartoons in 1924 and 1943. He was also a strong voice for conservation in Iowa. He helped found the National Wildlife Foundation and in 1960, the National Audubon Society awarded him a medal for his work as an environmentalist. Ten years before that, Iowa honored Ding by naming Lake Darling State Park in Washington County for him.
But darling or not, remember the lake is in Iowa if you plan to go swimming. Over a 14-week period this summer, the Iowa DNR issued 158 advisories for E. coli contamination and 12 for microcystin at the 40 public beaches it monitors.
39. Black Angel
If you’ve been in Iowa long enough to find a copy of Little Village, you already know the legend. If you need a refresher, Little Village recounted the story, and other local ghostly lore, in October 2017.
40. Belle Plaine’s Old Faithful
In August 1886, workers digging a new artesian well on the south side of Belle Plaine in Benton County hit water. More water than they were looking for. A lot more. Instead of a well, Belle Plaine had an out-of-control geyser for 14 months. Nicknamed “Jumbo,” the geyser became a tourist attraction. Little Village recounted Jumbo’s story in July.
41. Mt. Trashmore
Mount Trashmore is a lovely part of Cedar Rapids, and while standing at the top, looking out over the city, it’s easy to forget it used to be the landfill for CR and Linn County. Beneath Trashmore’s green slopes lies 208 feet of buried garbage. All that trash raises the peak of Mount Trashmore to 948 feet above sea level, making it the highest point in Linn County. More about the mount can be found in Little Village’s 2018 story on the opening of its trails to the public.
42. Coggon Campground
Iowa may not have a bear (zoological) population, but it does have a bear (metaphorical) population, and those bears and other LGBTQ folks are welcome at the adults-only L.V. Village Campground in Coggon, where clothing is optional and body-shaming is banned. In 2021, Little Village’s intrepid editor-in-chief Emma McClatchey went to Coggon and brought back a report on life at L.V.
43. Field of Dreams
The only reason your out-of-state friends and relatives know where Dyersville is. The 1989 movie site recently underwent an $80 million renovation in an effort to promote sports tourism and attract MLB teams.
44. Fenelon Place Elevator
Fenelon Place Elevator Company in Dubuque likes to describe its funicular (a real word, look it up) as “the world’s steepest, shortest scenic railway.” As the passengers travel along its 296 feet of track from Fourth Street to Fenelon Place, they gain 189 feet in elevation. Fenelon Place has sweeping views of Dubuque and the Mississippi, and you can see Illinois and Wisconsin as well. The elevator operates daily from April through November, but be advised, just like when it opened in 1882, you’ll need cash to buy tickets.
45. Maquoketa Caves
Beautiful Maquoketa Caves State Parkin Jackson County has more caves than any other state park in Iowa. Don’t believe it? Count them. (And if you don’t get the Bat Babies reference, please see the batty,Weekly World News-inspired Little Village Halloween cover from 2018.)
46. You’re Outta Here!
The “Modern” in Modern Woodmen of America is actually pretty antique, and despite the name, there’s not a lot of wood involved either. Founded in 1883 in Lyons, Iowa, it’s a fraternal group that sells insurance and investment products. Now headquartered in Rock Island, one of the five Quad Cities, it purchased naming rights to the riverside baseball stadium in 2007.
