Waterville crowned the winner of The 29th State bracket contest; Presentation on community history planned for later this summer

by Jennifer Bissell

The small community of Waterville won in a big way this spring.
In a “March Madness” style bracket competition, the community of 109 people won The 29th State competition, hosted by Dave Baker, owner and creator of The 29th State, a mainly online presence that celebrates and revisits the history of communities within the state of Iowa, the 29th state added the United States of America.
Now, Baker will bring his resources and talents to the community for a history presentation, planned for later this year.

HISTORICAL FOUNDING
Baker found his passion for Iowa history when he was a junior at Central College in Pella, majoring in Business Management with a History minor. While working as an intern for the Pella Historical Society and Vermeer Windmill, he realized there were copious historical areas in Iowa that people should know more about.
He wrote a book featuring the central 33 counties in Iowa, with one community per page. He has plans to complete books for the eastern and western communities as well. In 2009, he started The 29th State Facebook page, featuring photographs from various little towns, unincorporated towns and ghost towns.
In addition to his promotions, he also does live events, where he speaks on Iowa in the Civil War, ghost communities, the railroads, frontier medicine in Iowa and general state history. Since its inception, he’s done over 100 presentations.
“The 29th State is about getting people excited about the places around them and encouraging people to use history to build and grow relationships. It’s a place to see pictures, hear stories, share memories, and hopefully make the world a little better place, one community at a time,” said Baker.

WHAT IS THE BRACKET?
The bracket competition began in 2019. Baker drew community names out of a hat, with larger Des Moines suburbs included in the same bracket as small communities. The contest is held exclusively on The 29th State Facebook page. During the designated times, people “vote” by typing the community name in the comment section. One vote per person per voting round.
In that inaugural year, Sigourney won the bracket competition. Baker said it worked out well because the community was celebrating its 175th anniversary of its founding that year and they used the win to invite Baker as the keynote speaker for their main celebration.
After taking 2020 and 2021 off due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Baker brought it back in 2022, with some adjusted rules. Communities are now self-nominated, with the winner receiving a complimentary hour-long program. About 20 communities were nominated, with Baker adding a few to fill out the bracket. Tabor, in the Mills/Fremont County area, was the winner.
In 2023, Baker limited the size of the towns allowed to participate to those under 500 people as of the 2020 census. Moulton was the winner in 2023, with Macedonia in 2024 and Pulaski in 2025.

WATERVILLE’S BIG WIN
Cindy Berns, a retired director with the Postville Public Library, got the ball rolling for Waterville. She emailed Baker in early March to see if Waterville could get on the 2026 bracket. They were the final community added to the bracket. Berns then contacted Heather Bente, the current Waterville librarian, to promote the contest.
The first round of voting began March 9, whittling the 64 towns to 32. Voters had a single day to place their vote. According to Bente, it was a surprise to see Waterville not only in the bracket but advancing to round two.
“When Cindy sent me the email, I didn’t even open it until about 11:45 p.m. so about 15 minutes to spare to vote for the first time,” she said. “I woke up the next morning to see Waterville had advanced. I was surprised but that lit a fire to advance Waterville as far as possible.
Bente shared the voting opportunities on the Waterville Public Library, City of Waterville, Waterville Park & Rec and Paint Creek Gifts Facebook pages, as well as her own personal groups.
“One message I really wanted to convey was that anyone with a link to Waterville was encouraged to vote - if you had attended school here, or had ancestors from the area, or someone who has visited this beautiful area of Iowa….and people did!”
In the first round, Waterville beat Iona, 5-1. In the round of 32, Waterville took on Plainfield, winning 19-5. Going to the Sweet Sixteen, Waterville took on Atalissa, winning 73-2. The Elite Eight saw Waterville defeating St. Anthony, 154-47, making Waterville the Northeast winner.
In the Final Four, Waterville took on Barnes City from the southeast part of the state. Again, Waterville came out on top, 350-204.
In the finals, Waterville took on Diagonal in Ringgold County in southwest Iowa. Diagonal has a population of 344 as of 2020. March 16, Waterville was declared the winner, 705-696.
“I was honestly shocked that Waterville won the whole thing, but the power of social media shows that even little towns like Waterville have a lot of people cheering them on to continue to exist and be part of the make-up of Iowa,” said Bente.

WHAT’S NEXT
Baker has reached out to the city of Waterville to begin talking about the program in July or later in the fall. Bente said she plans to discuss the dates with the city council.
For Baker, this is an opportunity to learn something about a new community. He’s never been to Waterville so first he’ll travel from his home in Ankeny to meet with the community members. Then he’ll shoot photos to use for his program and research. Waterville will also be featured on his Facebook page.
“The 29th State has always been about bringing awareness to our communities and bringing those communities together,” he said. “These events give smaller towns something to get excited about, and they provide an opportunity to bring neighbors together.”
“If nothing else, I hope that when I come to town, people think about the importance of community and lending a hand - even in small ways. I try to focus on history, but history by itself isn’t particularly useful unless you’re doing something with it. Bringing people together is a good way to put it to use.”