Interesting Facts about Iowa

• When the Fox Indians refused to do a favor for Julian Dubuque, he threatened to burn the Mississippi. At the mouth of Catfish Creek, Dubuque set fire to oil poured into the creek upstream by an assistant. The frightened Indians quickly came to terms, and Dubuque called on the fire to die just as the oil gave out.
• The honey trees of a region disputed between Iowa and Missouri were so prized that the two states almost came to blows in a territorial dispute called the Honey War.
• Iowa's Civil War Greybeard Regiment, made up of men over the legal age of 45, was the only one of its kind ever authorized.
• The first "road" in Iowa consisted of a furrow plowed by Lyman Dillon from Dubuque to Iowa City, thought to be the longest continuous furrow ever plowed.
• James "Tama Jim" Wilson of Traer holds the all-time record for service in any cabinet office--16 years as secretary of agriculture.