Iowa - The Tall Corn State

Don Radda of Washington, Iowa, put all arguments to rest in the 1940s when officials from various Midwestern states claimed they were the tall corn state. In 1946 Don grew a stalk of corn 31 feet and 7/8ths inch tall. It still stands as the world record.

Hence the Washington (Iowa) County Fair this year has erected an appropriate tribute to the area native -- an exact size replica. The 31-foot-7/8th-inch metal sculpture was erected Thursday in time for the Washington County Fair July 19-24. (See today's Ramblin' column in The Gazette.)

Don Radda began his quest to grow the tallest stalk of corn ever in 1938 after he heard claims that the tallest corn was grown in Kansas. While his first effort only reached 15 feet 7 3/4th inch tall and finished  third in the state, he wasn't about to give up. By the 1940s he was regularly growing stalks more than 25 feet tall using a special method that included attaching them to stakes, hand watering, fertilizing, removing all but two ears and covering the tassel with a wire/canvas bag to fool the plant into reaching for more sunlight.

Don was so successful and won so often that contests were discontinued because nobody would compete against him. He didn't really mind competition, though, selling kernels of his top growing corn at 10 for a buck.

One of his daughters, Julia Zieser, and her husband, Wayne, who now live on the home place and farm its 380 acres, along with another 300-plus acres they rent, resurrected Don's competitive nature in 1983 when the Washington County Fair once again held a tall growing contest. Julia and Wayne won it that year and then in 1984 with a stalk of corn 19 feet, 7 1/2 inches tall. The contest was discontinued again.

According to a research work by J. Karl, Don grew the first, fifth and 10th tallest corn stalks ever. His 372-inch effort in 1946 bested a 360-inch stalk grown in the West Indies in 1899. A New York grower is third with a 347-inch stalk in 1999. The most recent entry, from 2007, was a 307-inch stalk grown in Ontario, Canada, that ranks 20th.

So, as Julia says, "It's still alive in people's hearts and minds."

In fact, Julia reports that the Iowa State Fair has requested its own replica of the tall corn. She says Wayne will build this one.