Iowa’s only president

Outside of the Iowa caucuses, Iowa is known for our favorite son Herbert Hoover from West Branch. His mark on Eastern Iowa is hard to miss as every time you're on I-80 between Iowa City and the Quad Cities you’ll see Exit 254 where the Hoover Presidential Library, birthplace and gravesite are only a stone’s throw from the exit. Being an avid presidential history buff and having lived in Iowa for the first 16 years of my life, Hoover has played a very important role for me.

A class field trip from Indian Creek Elementary to the Hoover library in 1992 started my love for history. Shortly after this trip was the 1992 presidential election, which was a very tight contest for Iowa’s seven electoral votes at the time.

Indian Creek was a voting site. Every time I’d walk by the lines of people waiting to cast their vote, it piqued my interest that much more. Shortly after came the Scholastic book order forms. They had several books on presidents which were far ahead of my grade level, but I didn’t care. I had to get them — and did, using my allowance.

In January 1993, a series of bad winter storms set in, creating a lot of downtime. Along with my sister, who was home from Iowa State University, I had this wacky idea of creating a presidential scrapbook. I mean, what 9-year-old has a thought like that on a pair of snow days? But that was me!

The process was slow and cumbersome. We started with the tracing of the presidential seal which, was not easy, but we prevailed! After the first storm cleared, it looked like the project would stall and that would be the end of it. But fate had another idea when a major ice storm/blizzard struck on January 20.

At first, it looked like we’d be stuck at school because of how dangerous the road conditions were. Jan. 20 was Inauguration Day. With just a few of us still in the classroom, my teacher put the inauguration of President Bill Clinton on the TV. It was the final clincher. After thankfully being rescued at school by my friend's father I went back to work on my presidential scrapbook, this time with my mom. The following summer, I went on my first family trip to see presidential sites, going through Virginia and then Kentucky on the way home.

Over the years, I would visit the Hoover museum many times. One of my favorite visits was when the museum had a cat by the name of Herbie who would greet you at the door.

Fast-forward to 2024 — I’ve now been to 37 of the 39 presidential gravesites and my one album of presidential history and memorabilia has grown to 42. None of it would have started without Iowa’s native son Herbert Hoover.

I still consider Hoover’s museum and gravesite as among the best sites among all the presidents. Yes, I’m partial, but I doubt I’d be where I’m today without President Herbert Hoover and some events falling exactly at the right times and places.

Tom Babbage of Casa Grande, Arizona is an avid collector of presidential history. He grew up in Marion and was a student in the Linn-Mar Community School District.