Below are some attractions and events right in Iowa, and a link for more on the Midwest. Just a few miles south of Des Moines is the county of Madison and its covered bridges . The romance surrounding these historic sites inspired Robert James Waller's novel The Bridges of Madison County and the movie of the same name. Maps and directions to the six country bridges are available through the Madison County Chamber of Commerce in the nearby town of Winterset. The Kevin Costner film about a baseball field carved out of a cornfield comes to life in Dyersville, Iowa.
Admission is free.
The last weekend of each summer month, the Ghost Players, many of whom portrayed baseball players from the movie, don the traditional baggy uniforms and put on an exhibition of their baseball skills. A recreation of the lives of early Iowa settlers, The Pella Historical Village displays architectural models and antique Dutch heirlooms brought to Pella by immigrants from the Netherlands. The two-hour tour winds through some of the area's most beautiful backwoods. The Underground Railroad Three Iowa sites of the Underground Railroad are now national historic sites. The Underground Railroad was a network of abolitionist sympathizers and activists who aided runaway slaves in finding safe passage to the free North prior to the Civil War.