8 Roadside Stops Iowans Send Every Out-of-State Visitor To

The Twins and the Phillies played a nationally broadcast game in August on a temporary 8,000-seat ballpark built a quarter mile from a cornfield outside Dyersville.

The original diamond is still there, free to visit, and open sunrise to sunset.

These are the roadside stops Iowans send every out-of-state tourist to.

1. Iowa 80

Iowa 80 in Walcott bills itself as the World’s Largest Truckstop.

The numbers back that up: 220 acres, 900 truck parking spots, and a 130,000-square-foot main building holding more than 62,000 items.

Locals just call it that.

About 5,000 customers pass through on an average day, truckers and road-trippers stopping for the same reason.

Iowa 80’s free Trucking Museum next door displays more than 100 antique trucks.

The museum is in the middle of a 25,000-square-foot expansion this fall that will push its total exhibit space past 121,000 square feet.

It stays open through the construction, Wednesday through Sunday, and you won’t pay a dime to walk through.

2. Field of Dreams Movie Site

Field of Dreams Movie Site outside Dyersville still opens the same cornfield diamond and white farmhouse from the 1989 film, sunrise to sunset, every day of the year.

You won’t need a ticket.

The office keeps separate hours, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the on-site Baseballism store closes at 4 p.m.

You’ll never find a locked gate at the field.

In August, the Minnesota Twins and Philadelphia Phillies played a nationally broadcast game on a temporary 8,000-seat ballpark built a quarter mile from the original diamond.

The matchup marked the third Major League Baseball game played at the movie site.

3. Grotto of the Redemption

West Bend’s Grotto of the Redemption calls itself the largest man-made grotto in the world, nine separate scenes built from stones and gems gathered from six continents.

Admission costs nothing.

Father Paul Dobberstein began building it in 1912, and construction continued after his death.

Builders set amethyst from Brazil and the Andes into the walls, along with petrified wood hauled in from Montana, North Dakota, and Arizona.

The shrine takes only donations.

It’s been on the National Register of Historic Places since 2001.

You’ll hear Iowans call it the Eighth Wonder of the World, though nobody’s put that to an official vote.

4. American Gothic House

The farmhouse behind Grant Wood’s 1930 painting, American Gothic House in Eldon, still stands on a residential street exactly as he sketched it.

A visitor center next door hands out overalls and a pitchfork so you can pose for the exact same photo.

Bring your camera.

It’s open Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., plus Sunday afternoons.

Tickets run $5 for ages 13 to 59 and $4 for anyone 60 and older, and kids 12 and under don’t pay at all.

The house’s interior only opens for prearranged group tours of ten or more, so the yard and the famous upstairs window are what you’ll see.

5. Snake Alley

Five half-curves and two quarter-curves make up Snake Alley in Burlington, packed into 275 feet of hillside street.

It’s one steep block.

Builders finished it in 1894 to connect the business district below with the residential neighborhood on top of Heritage Hill.

Three German immigrants designed the winding grade, borrowing the idea from vineyard paths back home, and you can only drive it one way, downhill.

Ripley’s Believe It or Not! ranked Snake Alley #1 in its Odd Spots Across America campaign, dubbing it “Unbelievably Crooked!”

6. Effigy Mounds National Monument

Effigy Mounds National Monument protects 2,526 acres along the Mississippi River in Iowa’s northeast corner, land the National Park Service says holds more than 200 ancient mounds.

Thirty-one of them are animals.

Ancient moundbuilders shaped those 31 into birds, bears, deer, bison, a lynx, a turtle, and what the park service calls a panther or water spirit.

Every one of them sits along marked hiking trails you can walk from sunrise to sunset year-round, and it won’t cost you a cent.

7. Amana Colonies

Amana Colonies sit east of Cedar Rapids, seven villages German religious settlers built starting in 1855.

Residents ran them as one shared community for more than 80 years.

People still live there.

Amana, East Amana, High Amana, Middle Amana, South Amana, West Amana, and Homestead each still run shops today.

You’ll find house-smoked meat, hand-poured wine, and fresh bread made from recipes the villages never fully dropped.

The Festhalle Barn taps its kegs for a four-day Oktoberfest running October 1 through 4 this year, complete with a parade and live music.

8. Danish Windmill

Danish Windmill in Elk Horn is a genuine 1848 grain mill, built in Denmark and shipped across the ocean in pieces to a town of about 700 people.

Denmark doesn't export these anymore.

More than 300 volunteers dismantled the mill in Denmark in 1975 and rebuilt it in Elk Horn by 1976.

Denmark banned windmill exports in 1977, and the windmill's history page says it's the only one still working in the country today.

The windmill in Elk Horn opens daily, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays, and a $5 ticket buys you the climb inside.

The Windmill's Double Duty as Welcome Center

Danish Windmill doubles as Elk Horn's welcome center, and the same building that grinds flour into a working mill also hands out Iowa road maps to first-time visitors.

The maps are free.