Sibley, IA: Osceola County (Our 69th County)

Roadside America comes in all shapes, sizes, colors, and elevations. Through all the back roads, miles on top of miles of wanted and unwanted detours, you will always find the historic landmarks of our country. Team Goodvin inched our way down the gravel, past the farms, and, surrounded by the harvest season crops, we had our walk in the skies at Hawkeye Point. Here’s where Iowa’s air is the thinnest. And I have absolutely no data to back that up.

We were road tripping through Northwest Iowa and we noticed we were close to Osceola County and living over 5 hours away from this landmark, I thought we needed to take the long way to get this checked off the ol’ family adventure detour list. We saw the colorful sign and pulled in. Look kids there’s….Oooooooooooo! A kitty! Iowa’s most friendly barn cat was the unofficial welcoming committee at Hawkeye Point.

We hear it all the time from folks that have never been to or really explored Iowa. “Isn’t it really flat there?” When I hear this I always tell them to spend a week on a bicycle with RAGBRAI. Basically I’m saying…..it ain’t. Iowa may not have purple mountain majesty, but our home state has some of the best roller coaster county roads in some of the greatest off the beaten path places you can find. And at 1670 feet above sea level, Hawkeye Point towers over 8 other states (DE, FL, IL, IN, LA, MS, OH, RI) thank you very much. And when you get to Hawkeye Point you can see just how many miles you’re away from the rest of America’s summits.

The circular mosaic that marks the exact location of Iowa’s highest point isn’t the only sight to see here. Your classic Iowa landscape can be explored here with a barn that has a mini museum and a silo with its own observation deck. From the deck you can see the inspiring land that is feeding the entire world.

Where are you traveling to in the future? What path are you taking? Put Sibley, IA on the route someday and see Iowa from a point you can’t experience anywhere else. We can say we’ve been there now and not everyone can say the same. Oh, you’ve scaled Mauna Kea, Hawaii and observed the Pacific? That’s wonderful. We found a point where the fields roll in the prairie wind as the soy bean and cornstalk waves crash into the Iowa skies. It’s a land where the farmer’s kitties lead the way.