I found a letter from 1954 addressed to my mom from one of her best friends. She described Wyoming in the above manner to my mom. Her friend was "slaving away", at some plant nearby, and was going off on the locals. She said the locals swept the streets clear at 6 pm, and they rarely went out. If they did it was to grab a "brew".
The friend stated she couldn't wait to come back to Wapello and they all could go out. I guess rat hole is rather subjective. It ended with a passage in French, and was written on stationary from the Hurst Hotel. Seemed like a lot of spite for a small town Iowa gal to level against another small town.
I grew up in Iowa CIty. Do you small town guys still hold grudges against other small towns?
The towns of Lyons and Clinton spent three years, 1866 to 1869, conspiring to wrest the County Seat from DeWitt, Iowa. The residents of DeWitt saw no reason to believe Lyons and Clinton could work together on anything, (Each was full of the worst river scum and the truth was they wanted the courthouse and jail so they could clean the streets at night) and made no particular effort to worry themselves or earn the support of the rest of Clinton County. Not even when the DeWitt Observer printed a warning of the impending battle, including the legal document (Petition) being circulated.
That legal document included in the "Where As" statements a description of persons living in the "interior" of the county as "Mudsills"! That was as low an insult as one could make, and IN A PETITION!!!??? Should have been a mob sent to Lyons and Clinton but DeWitt just stayed sure it would keep the Courthouse. They lost it. The petition led to the County Supervisors opting for a vote and the vote went the way of the two towns on the Mississippi now working together like good 'ol buddies.
As to today? Nah, nothing is as fun as it used to be.
Edit to add. Check out the history of Lee County and how Ft. Madison and Keokuk are BOTH the County Seat. Might want to check out the history of the "Half breed Tract" as well.
Then there is the history of Webster County:
"The first courthouse was built in Homer, and the first court was held in Homer. Homer was a thriving and growing community of 600, so when the smaller community of Fort Dodge challenged them for the county seat, they gave it little concern. An election was held, and Fort Dodge came out on top by 13 votes. Illegal voting and ballot-box stuffing was involved, but records were so bad that the election was never contested."
The once thriving County Seat of Homer? Gone.
