The newest Interstate rest area in Iowa will have a Civil War theme. It’ll open near Dows, in north central Iowa, along Interstate 35. Chief landscape architect Mark Masteller (mass’-tell-er) says the design team went to local
libraries and museums to research the region. Masteller says they discovered Franklin County played a huge role in the Civil War. Franklin County sent more soldiers to the “War Between the States” and had more casualties than any other Iowa county. Masteller says the idea is to give Interstate travelers a sense of the state, since some of them will only set foot in Iowa at a rest area. Masteller says images and text about the Civil War will be on the rest area’s interior and exterior walls. A formal 1870s-style garden will be planted on the rest area site, too. Iowa had more soldiers, per capita, serve in the Civil War than any other state.