Out Back

Handmade pocket prayer quilts seem even more extraordinary at Easter and spring. During this time of renewal and new life, we’re reminded, sometimes by a tiny quilt in our pocket, that the greatest gift of this season is hope.

While many small-town "friendly clubs" are memories now, Lohrville's Adaza Thursday Club is 100 years old and thriving.

Red Steagall’s connections to rural America have remained as strong as his boyhood memories of Texas Panhandle cowboys. Recently, Steagall recalled the five summers he spent working on his uncle’s farm near Havelock in Pocahontas County. 

In 2026, make time to nurture a sense of awe, and take inspiration in the incredible northern lights that were visible across Iowa late in 2025.

After a brief stay at the University of Iowa Health Care Stead Family Children’s Hospital in Iowa City, 5-year-old Nolan Toomsen organized a successful farm toy drive for the hospital.

The orphan train movement transported roughly 200,000 orphaned, abandoned and impoverished children from crowded East Coast cities to rural communities in the Midwest from 1854 to 1929. Learn more about an Iowa family with ties to this movement.