Humboldt: 'It's a really pretty river town'

Tue July 17 2007
Posted Jul 17, 2007
7,085

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW FOOD AND BEVERAGES: Many vendors will be downtown and at the Humboldt County Fairgrounds. The beverage garden will be downtown near the entertainment stage. CAMPGROUNDS: There will be five. The main one will be at the Humboldt County Fairgrounds. ALSO AT THE FAIRGROUNDS: Baggage truck, sag wagon drop, bike shops, lost and found, information center, Iowa Telecom trailer, showers, support vehicle parking and more. SHOWERS AND RESTROOMS: Showers and restrooms are at the campgrounds. Also, the Humboldt Family Aquatic Center will have $2 showers 7-10 a.m. A shower and open swimming will be $4 per person 10 a.m.-10 p.m. It is located at 143rd St. South. SHUTTLE SERVICE: Buy a wristband for $1 and ride 10 a.m.-1 a.m. on three bus routes. Blue takes you to downtown Humboldt entertainment and the beverage garden. It also stops at the downtown camping site. Purple goes to Sheldon Park with stops at Humboldt Racquetball Club campgrounds and showers, airport parking lot and downtown. The yellow route goes to the high school campgrounds and showers, Hy-Vee and downtown. INTERNET ACCESS: Iowa Telecom trailer at the fairgrounds and along the route at public libraries. The Humboldt library will be open 10 a.m.-8 p.m. TOWN TRIVIA RAGBRAI HISTORY: The Humboldt County town was an overnight stop in 1979 and 1985. MORE HISTORY: Stephen H. Taft founded the city, originally called Springvale because of several springs along the river, in 1863. At one time, Humboldt College operated on the north edge of town. It closed in 1916 and moved to Minneapolis and became the Humboldt Institute. POPULATION: 4,390 WHAT TO EXPECT Jaime Zweibohmer, member of Humboldt's RAGBRAI committee. Q. How would you describe your town? A. I think Humboldt is a nice small town. It's a good place to work and live, and there's a lot of opportunity for different types of jobs. ... It's a really pretty river town, good place to raise a family and there's lots to do, and a lot of active community members here. Q. How are you preparing? A. We have a lot of people working on RAGBRAI and we have a hospitality committee that's planning a lot for the entrances into town, and we have a holiday theme, so we're planning on welcoming them into town with "Ride into the Holidays," and they'll come right through the North Pole as they come into town. Q. How'd you choose your theme? A. We had a contest in our town. ... And we chose the holiday theme because Humboldt is well-known for our holiday celebrations. Q. Biggest challenge so far? A. I think for a small town it's harder. It takes a lot of volunteers and it takes - we have a lot of housing requests, more than 1,200 housing requests (and our town and Dakota City - the neighboring town - have 3,400 households total), so, to get all the housing requests filled, it's taken a lot of work. But we're looking forward to it, and people are coming together, and it seems to be working out. Q. Any last words for readers or riders? A. We're just looking forward to having people come in and see our town and seeing what we have to offer, and have a good time.