Snope’s Best (and Most Ridiculous) Iowa Fact Checks
So it seems Iowa falls victim to urban legends and misinformation quite a bit. An afternoon spent going through the Snopes archives presented me with all sorts of crazy stories that had been falsely attributed to random Iowans. Crazy stories of contaminated food, shady ex-lovers with morbid new tastes in romantic partners, haunted houses so scary no one can complete them, and so many more. Does Iowa seem to the rest of the country like some mythical place where anything can happen? Who knows.
However, the rest of these claims have some sort of Iowa-related truth to them. Maybe we do live in a mythical state. Crazier things have happened. Have you heard about any of these stories or seen any of them circulating Facebook? If so, don't worry. We're here to help figure out fact from fiction.
Claim: Newspaper reporters fall for the old "Heywood Jablome" funny name gag.
True - Our very own Quad City Times fell for this as recently as 2009. But hey, reporters have a lot to do and are trying to be as accurate as possible. Why should they question you when you tell them what your name is? Maybe cut them some slack. This joke is so old anyway.
Claim: During the Iowa caucuses, delegates are sometimes awarded through coin tosses, and Hillary Clinton won six coin tosses in the 2016 caucuses (awarding her a narrow victory).
Mixture - It's true that under certain circumstances, Iowa uses coin tosses to declare a winner. The number of coin tosses in this election's Iowa caucuses is uncertain, as well as whether the reported number of coin tosses won by Hilary Clinton is evidence of a rigged election.
Claim: The father of Chelsea Clinton's husband is a former congressman who pled guilty to fraud charges.
True - Chelsea Clinton, daughter of Hilary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton indeed married Marc Mezvinsky, the son of former Iowa congressman Edward Mezvinsky and former Pennsylvania congresswoman Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinksy. The families have been connected for decades despite the recent controversy. Keep in mind though that father and son are still different people.
Claim: Photograph shows a tornado that killed four Boy Scouts in Iowa in June 2008.
Mixture - This impressive photograph was indeed shot in Iowa and those poor Boy Scouts were killed in an Iowa storm, but this picture is not connected to that incident. Meteorologists have determined that this popular photograph isn't even of a tornado; it's of a mesocyclone with a wall cloud.
Claim: Photographs show a rock painted with patriotic scenes alongside an Iowa highway.
True - Photos circulated of this patriotic tribute are real. This rock, once plagued by graffiti, was given a make-over by an Iowa State University student to honor American soldiers, and it hasn't been touched since. You can still visit it today.
Claim: Video clip shows a music-playing "farm machine" built at the University of Iowa.
False - This machine, supposedly made entirely out of repurposed John Deere equipment, does not exist. The video is computer animated. It's kinda sad that so many people feel for this one. The video looks like a clip from a Pixar movie.
Claim: Photograph shows U.S. soldiers forming a giant Statue of Liberty figure.
True - This popular photograph, taken in 1918 at Camp Dodge in Iowa, shows about 18,000 soldiers standing together to form the Statue of Liberty. The photograph was used to encourage people to by war bonds during World War I.
Claim: A photograph shows President Obama wearing an Aleister Crowley shirt.
False - The original photo was taken in Decorah, Iowa. Then the internet got ahold of it. The picture was edited to suggest that President Obama supports Aleister Crowley, a "recreational drug experimenter, bisexual and an individualist social critic." Team Rehab in Decorah provided other pictures to help discredit the edited one.
Claim: Teddy Stoddard, an objectionable little boy, gave his teacher old perfume and a bracelet in gratitude for her kindness, and the resulting friendship turned his life around.
False - Though the story is touching and it's easy to see why it's popular, it's entirely fiction. Part of the reason it's so popular with Iowans is that some versions of this legend attribute the Stoddard Cancer Wing at Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines to Teddy, when in reality the wing was named for a Mr. John Stoddard who donated money to the center.
Claim: A couple who return to the hotel where they honeymooned are shocked to discover their wedding night activities were videotaped and made available to other guests.
Mixture - The specific story referenced in the legend is made up as a cautionary tale for young traveling couples, but it has some roots in truth. In the 1980s, before hidden cameras, a couple sued after finding a peephole behind a two-way mirror in their room at the Canterbury Inn in Coralville, Iowa. To this day, it is one of the most prominent tales of invasion of privacy at hotels, and many cautionary tales stem from this example and others.
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