Where We Be
Captain Kirk's birthplace is just behind
this yellow building on Riverside's main street
Riverside, Iowa
After our visit to the Amana Colonies we added
on a bonus sight in Iowa our "inner nerd" simply
couldn't resist: Riverside. Located about thirty
minutes away from Amana, Riverside is famous
for just one thing: being the "Future Birthplace
of Captain James T. Kirk." It's the ultimate geek
roadside attraction! Years ago an e
nterprising
person lobbied Gene Roddenberry to make
Riverside the boyhood home of Captain Kirk,
and now it's become part of
Star Trek lore.

We felt slightly guilty even getting out of our car
to visit a fake monument honoring a fictitious
character about a future birthplace. Ridiculous,
right? But that's also what makes it fun. The
whole town of Riverside seems to have gotten
into the spirit, with banners depicting Kirk and
Scotty hanging from street lights and a
Star Trek
museum tucked away in a strip mall. You just
can't get any geekier than this. We half expected
to run into characters from
The Big Bang Theory.
There's even a small Star Trek Museum in a strip mall
nearby (free to visit), but we arrived too late to go inside
Who can resist a model of the Starship Enterprise
on wheels? It's located just outside the museum.
A picket fence adjacent to the memorial pays
homage to Captain Kirk's future adventures
It's totally worth a visit if you're tickled at the thought
of seeing the future birthplace of a fictional character
The memorial marker is located behind this small yellow salon on the main street
(51 W. First St). A stone pathway leads out back, and the memorial is free to visit.
The town of Riverside looks like the kind
of place Captain Kirk might be from
As kitschy roadside attractions go, this
is among the kitschiest, but we loved it