𝗦𝗠𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝗧𝗢𝗪𝗡 𝗜𝗢𝗪𝗔 𝗜𝗡 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯; 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗘𝗦 𝗠𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗦 𝗥𝗜𝗩𝗘𝗥, 𝗠𝗨𝗦𝗜𝗖 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗔𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗛𝗜

        by Jim Barton                      

On a Fourth of July evening in Keosauqua, Iowa, entertainment came from a small tent where The Harvest Band played Dylan’s “Everything is Broken,” followed by Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues,” earning whatever they were paid with a long 2½-hour set while the crowd waited for darkness and fireworks. The banks of the Des Moines River stayed spotless as always, framed by miles of tidy cornfields, barns, farmhouses, and sheds. 

Kids ran about, some strikingly beautiful, like a blond boy and pigtailed girl who seemed to move with the quiet understanding of a married couple despite being maybe eleven, while a wiry man danced in erratic, jerky movements of someone on crystal meth. Locals winced at the man as parents kept close watch on children floating the river on inner tubes or chasing each other near the water. 

When the fireworks finally came at nightfall, they were just fireworks, but, in a town like this, probably the biggest night of the summer.

             

In 2023, my wife’s travel nurse assignments took us deep into Iowa and Keosauqua became our base while we explored the region, visiting the ethnic German Amana Colonies, Burlington’s riverfront, and other small towns, but Fairfield was especially intriguing.

Fairfield, 20.5 miles from Keosauqua, looked like a regular Midwestern town yet held an unusual legacy as a hub for Transcendental Meditation brought to the area by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the same guru once linked to the Beatles before their falling out inspired Lennon’s “Sexy Sadie,” originally titled simply "Maharishi."

The maharishi, now deceased, had a reported net worth of between $8-13B, not sure how that money was earned.

In the 1970s the guru bought a former college campus and turned it into Maharishi International University, drawing thousands of TM practitioners into two golden-domed meditation halls. The mararishi also built homes in line with Maharishi Sthapatya Veda architecture, even founding Maharishi Vedic City nearby, the town blending small-town Iowa friendliness with global spiritual culture. 

The cafés and shops reflected influences from far beyond the prairie, and walking between cornfields and domes I realized Iowa was full of such contrasts, Amish buggies and yoga studios, classic diners and vegetarian cafés, clean rivers and golden temples, all part of a quietly extraordinary landscape we might never have discovered otherwise.