Tyler Sullivan builds a statewide Iowa venture out of miles, museums, poems, and memory, will share his experience this Saturday at New Albin Public Library

by Joshua Sharpe

Tyler Sullivan’s Iowa project did not begin as a casual pastime. It grew out of repeated travel, close observation, and a question that gradually became a long-term undertaking to learn more about his home state of Iowa and the counties and communities within that state.

Sullivan will be sharing the experiences and knowledge he has accumulated at a presentation this Saturday, April 11 at the New Albin Public Library, beginning at 11 a.m. Named Iowa Scenic Views By Foot and documented on his social media presence under that same name, Sullivan’s project is focused on enticing others to learn more about their own home state, their community and the town they call home.

In an interview prior to this Saturday’s presentation in New Albin, Sullivan traced the beginning of his project back to 2015, saying, “So back in 2015, I had a girlfriend who lived in Mason City, and I would travel from Iowa City to Mason City every other Friday after work.” Those drives took him through counties he barely knew. Over time, they stopped feeling like empty ground between destinations and started to feel like unfinished territory.

“I began to wonder, there has to be something special in all these counties,” he said. That question became the basis for a project that now combines county travel, running, poetry, museums, photography, local history, and public presentations into a sustained effort to document Iowa at a level of detail most people never attempt.

At first, the trips were organized around individual stops. When he headed north, he and his then-girlfriend would find something to do. When she came south, they did the same. Fairs, bridges, attractions, and small detours gave the drive structure. But Sullivan quickly recognized the limits of that approach. One stop could not stand in for an entire county.

He said, “I was, like, gosh, there had to be more than just that one special attraction.”

He pointed to Cerro Gordo County as an example, explaining that a stop at Birdsall’s Ice Cream Company could not possibly capture everything else the county had to offer, including Frank Lloyd Wright history, the Buddy Holly crash site, Music Man Square, and much more. What began as a series of visits turned into a broader method of inquiry. A county, in his view, was not one attraction but a layered collection of places, institutions, and histories that had to be understood in relation to one another.

To read the full article, pick up the Wednesday, April 8, 2026 print edition of The Standard or subscribe to our e-edition or print edition by clicking here.