Tesla Model 3 Maiden Voyage - The Birthplace of Captain James T Kirk - Riverside IA

Captains Log Stardate 090320. Today I came across a peculiar ripple in the time space continuum and seemingly arrived at the birthplace of someone not yet born…

Here in the fields of Iowa, lies the small town of Riverside. Captain James T Kirk, the Captain of the USS Starship Enterprise will be born here 208 years from now.
Knowing how big of an impact he will have on the universe, the town has set up a small shrine looking forward to that fateful day.
Hidden behind a small yellow building, lies this tribute. The only explanation I can come up with is that someone in the future made a time machine and came back to inform us of this hero.

All joking aside, this small Iowa town is pretty cool. Needing to find a way to bring in tourism revenue, they embraced the fact that their town was chosen as the birthplace for the famous TV show captain and found a way to bring fellow Trekkies to the area. The birthplace itself is quite quaint and if you blink once, you’ll miss it, as well as the entire downtown. The rest of the town has a bit of a Star Trek theme with the crosswalks decorated as Delta symbols and the streetlights hanging banners with characters and quotes. It’s hard not to smile as it is taken in. Once again, Hollywood has a bigger impact on people then the creators would ever have imagined.

Down the street near the edge of town, lies a small museum and shop dedicated to Star Trek. It’s free which makes it even better. Inside you will find props and cardboard cutouts, pictures and videotapes, really anything that has to do with Star Trek is welcome and I’m told they are constantly adding new pieces.

Being a Next Generation fan, I was happy to see that they didn’t discriminate when it came to which iteration of the series was honored. One will find all of the Star Trek series equally represented as they walk through the small displays.

The entire place will only take a few minutes to walk through and I spent most of my time talking to the woman at the front counter about my time at Vasquez Rocks where one of the more famous episodes of the Original Series was filmed. Right next to the front desk was a display dedicated to Gorn, a character from that episode, and the woman got a kick out of my story of climbing the rock to reenact the scene.

On the other side of the building, is a small room dedicated to the history of the town, honoring the local Boy Scouts and farmers from the area. I was told one room was the future, the other the past, and I thought that that was quite a sweet way to pay tribute to the locals.

The entire town may only take an hour to enjoy, but it really is a nice get away for a day that is interesting, comical, and humbling all at the same time.