Curious Iowa: Why is ‘Star Trek’s’ Capt. James T. Kirk from Riverside?

In a movie based on the “Star Trek” television series, fictional character USS Enterprise Capt. James T. Kirk says, “I'm from Iowa, I just work in space."

But how did it get to be that the character’s “future birthplace” in Iowa came specifically to be Riverside, a town of about 1,000 people in Washington County? Cliff Fry of Kalona wondered how it was chosen, so he wrote to Curious Iowa, a Gazette series that answers readers’ questions about our state, its people and culture.

We set out to look into this intergalactic question and found answers from a fellow Iowan, who predates the fictional captain by 200 years.

How was the future birthplace established?

During his senior year of high school in Iowa, Steve Miller became a big fan of the original “Star Trek” TV series, which aired for three seasons from 1966 to 1969.

“That was so imaginative for its time,” Miller said. “Back in the ‘60s, there was a Vietnam War, there was a bunch of agitation and things like that, when this was all kind of coming about. And this basically just took you away from that, you know, you were able to sit and relax and watch something to show there was a future, and that the future was actually pretty bright for the world.”

In 1985, over 15 years after the series last aired, Miller was a member of the Riverside City Council. The body was looking for a new way to promote the city.

Miller recalled reading in “The Making of Star Trek” that Kirk supposedly was from a small town in Iowa. The book, which was written by one of the show’s creators, Gene Roddenberry, and Stephen Whitfield, never specified which town Kirk was from.

“To me this was just kind of sitting out there and nobody had ever used it,” Miller said. So he did. In the Riverside City Council’s March 1985 meeting, Miller made a motion to declare the city the future birthplace of Kirk — which passed.

How did the world react?

The following day, Miller contacted his friend, Tom Walsh, who was a feature writer with The Gazette, and asked if the declaration was worth a news story. It ran on the front page the following day — and the city received phone calls from news outlets around the world, including the BBC’s London office.

“The mayor had to take a week's vacation to stay at the City Hall and answer the phone because the city clerk couldn't keep up with the phone calls and get her work done,” Miller said.

The Riverside community was “thunderstruck” and “didn’t know what to think,” Miller recalled, as the city had not prepared to answer the calls or handle the global publicity.

“One of my old friends had suggested that the best thing they could do for me was to run me out of town on a rail,” Miller joked.

As time passed, Riverside residents grew more fond of the concept, and the economic value it would provide.

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“I had another friend who is now a business owner in town who accosted me basically and said, ‘Are you happy now that you made us the laughing stock of the state?’” Miller recounted. “And the next year, the same guy was dressed as Capt. Kirk in the parade and giving the ‘Vulcan Salute’ as they went through town.”

Why did ‘Star Trek’ creators choose Iowa?

Miller attempted to get hold of Roddenberry “for years,” but was unable to “get past his secretary.” In an news interview around the time, Roddenberry stated that the future birthplace idea was an enterprising notion and the first volunteer had it, according to Miller.

Following a visit years later from William Shatner — who portrayed Capt. Kirk in the series — Miller asked an aide to the widow of Roddenberry, who died in 1991: Why Iowa?

“She told me that it came out of Gene’s imagination,” Miller recalled. “But she went on and said that their era in the ‘50s and ‘60s in Hollywood and California, if someone said they were from Iowa, you generally assume they have a pretty good education and they knew how to work.”

When will Kirk be ‘born’?

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The March 22, 2228, birthplace marker is located outside Riverside’s City Hall after being relocated one block east in 2021.

Riverside chose the year 2228 based on information from Paramount Television, which Miller said some fans suggest is 2232 instead. The date of March 22 was selected, but Miller didn’t learn until years later that was the real birth date of Shatner.

Whether the date on the marker is “correct” is ultimately something that Miller said will have to wait. “We’ll know in 200 years,” he said.

How does Riverside celebrate?

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A few months after its declaration, Riverside held its first TrekFest. The tradition has continued, June marked the city’s 39th festival.

“We got lucky that ‘Star Trek’ was a continuing saga, and that there were multiple revisions, reversions and extensions of the program, I can’t even name all of them,” Miller said.

The last iteration of the festival included an intergalactic pet show, live music, a parade and more activities. The headliner guest was Terry Farrell, who played Jadzia Dax, the chief science officer on six seasons of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.”

“It is remarkable that it has continued on like this,” Miller said.

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Comments: (319) 265-6828; cleo.westin@thegazette.com