Meet Cedar Rapids

Google Earth shot of Dale & Thomas Popcorn Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium. This stadium opened in 2002. Here's your trivia fact. The Timber Rattlers played the final game ever at the old vet in August 2001. Derrick Van Dusen threw a 9-inning no-hitter in the second to last game ever at the Vet.

There has been baseball in since 1891 when the team was called the Cedar Rapids Canaries.

Both the Appleton and Cedar Rapids baseball clubs joined the Midwest League in 1962. Cedar Rapids teams have been known as Red Raiders, Cardinals, Astros, Giants, Reds, and -- since 1993 -- the Kernels.

Rob Dibble and Trevor Hoffman both played in Cedar Rapids.

The Timber Rattlers and the Kernels have been affiliated with their parent clubs the longest in the Midwest League. The Rattlers and Mariners and the Kernels and Angels have been together since 1993.

From the Chamber of Commerce website:

Cedar Rapids is the manufacturing capital of Iowa and the state’s second largest city. More than 120,000 people live in Cedar Rapids and the surrounding towns make Linn County a community of more than 190,000 residents. The 2000 Census showed this area as one of the strongest growth areas in Iowa.

A few seasons ago, area artists created sculptures of the Grant Wood painting American Gothic. These statues were placed throughout the city of Cedar Rapids.

Why?

Grant Wood’s home and studio was located at 5 Turner Alley from 1924 to 1934.

Near downtown Cedar Rapids the studio is owned and operated by the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, which houses the world’s largest collection of works by Grant Wood.

Grant Wood (1891-1942) was a prominent member of the Regionalist movement. His most famous painting, American Gothic, was painted in this studio in 1930.

There is also a small replica of the Statue of Liberty on one of the bridges across the Cedar River.

From a Picasa Web Album

And the Quaker Oats Plant is right across the river from the team hotel.

Mount Mercy College and Coe College are both located in Cedar Rapids along with the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library. They currently have a display on the pivotal year of 1968, which included the "Prague Spring" and the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia.