Maple Hill, the home I grew up in, is featured in the I-80 Rest Area in Jasper County, Iowa! I couldn’t believe it. I stopped at the rest area before I reached Newton. I was going to see my friend Phil. We grew up together, played football, baled hay and both of us, at one time or another, lived at Maple Hill–me until I graduated from High School, Phil, later in life when he was in med school. Maple Hill was owned by his grandfather, Ulrie. It was so named because it was a large, 13-room, two-and-a-half story farm house, with double decker porches, sitting at the top of a hill that was covered with maple trees, just west of Monroe. Some of my fondest childhood memories take place at Maple Hill, and here I was looking at a picture of it on the walls of the Jasper County, I-80, Rest Area. Phil and I stacked hay in that barn.

Iowa is well known for its Interstate Rest Areas, and each of them has its own theme. On I-380, between Iowa City and Cedar Rapids, there is the rest area featuring Iowa’s famous artist, Grant Wood. In Western Iowa, where there are a lot of wind turbines, there is the Wind Turbine Rest Area. Near Des Moines there is the rest area with the soil-erosion theme. Etc. If you’re a tourist passing through, Iowa intends to not only provide you with rest and relief, but education as well.

To have Maple Hill featured as the theme for a rest area in the county of its origin, well, I’m flabbergasted. I knew Maple Hill was sorta well known, but not that well known. A lot of people have called Maple Hill their home. In fact, one of the later owners of Maple Hill claimed it was haunted. The house was even featured one Halloween Night on national television because of its reputation for being haunted. Did Phil or I realize it was haunted when we lived there? Nope.

So I met up with Phil and we lunched. It was our intention to drive around and look at the farms where we grew up and reminisce about old times. We would drive by the farm where he grew up, and we would attempt to find Maple Hill. About 10 years ago Maple Hill was moved to a new location. (CNN covered the move. Would the ghosts go with it?) It was the owner’s intention to restore Maple Hill to its original stately, pre-Civil War, Southern Mansion-style elegance. However, the owner ran out of money, we heard, and the restoration was never completed. In fact, the house had been vandalized, the copper stripped from it, and was in rather bad condition. I wasn’t even sure if I could find Maple Hill. I had a rough idea of where it was, having seen where it was moved 10 years ago, but my memory was sketchy. So we drove around on back country roads west of Monroe, and talked about old times. Here was our drinking spot. Here was a favorite parking place. Here’s where I wrecked Dad’s truck.

I took a chance with a gravel road where I thought Maple Hill might be. We drove and drove, up hill, down hill, around a bend. No Maple Hill. It’s big enough we should be able to see it if we were close. Nothing. All of a sudden, there it was! Maple Hill still stands, stately and looking worse for wear, but she is there, waiting for some much needed TLC. Any house that is featured in an Iowa Interstate Rest Area needs to be looked after and cared for. The home where I grew up is memorialized for posterity. I’m shocked, pleased and humbled.

Gazing at Maple Hill again, Phil and I took a step back. We didn’t wish to change anything, but to feel some of the old feelings twice. Maple Hill, you were good to us. Now you belong to everyone.

Have a good story? Call or text Curt Swarm in Mt. Pleasant at 319-217-0526, email him at curtswarm@yahoo.com, or visit his website at www.empty-nest-words-photos-and-frames.com