Iowa's Tall Corn Contest

Iowa has been known as the corn state for decades, even though it was the musical "Oklahoma" that touted corn growing as high as an elephant's eye.

And Iowa has been known as the tall corn state since the 1940s when Don Radda (left) of Washington, Iowa, began nursing special corn seeds to new heights. He set the world record in 1946 with a corn stalk that grew 30 feet and 7/8ths inch tall. I've got a postcard of it by my computer given to me earlier this summer by his daughter, Julia Radda Zieser. The postcard shows a dozen young women, six on each of a pair of ladders, flanking the stalk that stands about three stories tall.

I talked to Julia because a replica of that corn stalk was being erected at the Washington County Fairgrounds. A similar replica was later installed at the Iowa State Fair.

Because Don Radda did such a good job each year raising such tall corn, the tall corn contests died out. Certainly some folks continued to raise tall corn, but it wasn't like it had been.

Then this year "Our Iowa" magazine and Edward Jones, financial advisors located in dozens of communities in Eastern Iowa, teamed up to promote a tall corn growing contest. The magazine mailed out packets of special tall growing corn seed from Brazil and Mexico to its 50,000 subscribers. Edward Jones offices handed them out to clients who wanted to give growing tall corn a shot.

The contest, at least from what I've been able to ascertain, has been a "big" success. In my Ramblin' column in today's Gazette, we meet Michael and Tracey Myers of Williamsburg who have grown corn more than 17 feet tall. (See photo at left.) They hope one stalk reaches 18 feet by tomorrow (Oct. 1), the official last day of the contest when all entries must be submitted.

I understand that about 50 people in Iowa County participated in the contest this year. If you multiplied that by Iowa's 99 counties, that would be nearly 5,000 entries.

WOW. What a great way to put Iowa, the tall corn state, back on the map.