Iowa Town Pins Hopes on ‘American Gothic’ Tourism
Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 08.06.07 | 12:05 PM ET
Photo from The Art Institute of Chicago.Grant Wood’s American Gothic hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago, but the house in the iconic 1930 painting still stands in Eldon, Iowa, a town of 975 people in the state’s southeast corner. To boost its struggling economy, Eldon used government grants, bake sales and raffles to fund a $1 million visitors center it hopes will help keep travelers in town for longer than it takes to pose in front of the house with a pitchfork.
More than 2,000 people have visited the center since it opened in June, the AP’s Nafeesa Syeed reports. Eldon hopes it will lure as many as 20,000 annually. The main draw will likely continue to be a kitschy snapshot in front of the old house—the center offers costumes for visitors to wear—but a close second, I bet, will be the parodies housed in the visitors center. Images of Mickey and Minnie Mouse and Bill and Hillary Clinton are among those on display.
Why is “American Gothic” such an icon?
“I imagine for a lot of tourists or potential tourists that seeing the real thing is about getting to some quintessential American heartland that the painting represents,” Steven Biel, a history and literature professor at Harvard Universit,y tells Syeed. “So to get to the essence of something is potentially the draw of going to Eldon.”
Either that or to snap an image to go on a holiday card.
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Michael Yessis is the cofounder and coeditor-in-chief of World Hum.
michael davis 07.18.08 | 8:39 PM ET
Eldon, Ia. A great little town to visit. Lived on the outskirtes of town back in 1970’s. Another town to visit would be Ottumwa, Ia. About 1/2 hr. away.
Roy Dixon 09.10.08 | 4:10 PM ET
I recently visited Eldon. It’s a quiet, unassuming place. On the highway is a small sign that says “American Gothic House” It’s just what you expect.
Great Post