WASHTA, Iowa | A locust tree that took a beating in a tornado two years ago has a new life, in a way, and might make for a picture-postcard moment for thousands of riders on RAGBRAI's starting day Sunday.
Jim and Jane DeWitt marvel at the work done by chainsaw artist Rick Klatt, of Storm Lake, Iowa. Klatt took the tree and carved an eagle clutching the U.S. flag. There are also salutes to Case IH and Christianity, via a cross, contained in the trunk.
"The tree is kind of hidden for riders who are heading east, so a lot of riders might not see it," says Jim DeWitt, standing at his farm on Cherokee County Road C-66 just over 2 miles west of Washta.
The DeWitts lost the majority of this tree, as well as other trees, power lines and 200 acres of corn when a tornado rushed through their farm on Oct. 4, 2013. The damage was minor, the couple says, when compared to neighbors who lost homes and outbuildings, most notably at Pierson, Iowa.
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The tornadoes occurred on the night when homes and businesses were demolished along a diagonal path from Wayne, Neb., to Bronson, Iowa, to Pierson, and beyond.
Jim DeWitt wasn't home at the time of the storm. He was at Mercy Medical Center in Sioux City, recovering from an injury caused by a sweep augur in a grain bin on Sept. 25, 2013. Jim suffered a broken left tibia and ankle when his leg became entangled in the powerful apparatus.
The only thing stopping the machine was a jumbled mess of denim jeans, leather boot, bone and muscle. Jim miraculously reached son Jamie DeWitt with his cellphone. Jamie, chief of the Washta Volunteer Fire Department, and Jerry Slota rushed to the rescue, taking the same route RAGBRAI riders will use today, crossing an expansive bridge that crosses the Little Sioux River immediately west of Washta.
The bridge was closed to traffic in the fall of 2013. However, it was close enough to completion that workers there allowed Jamie DeWitt and Jerry Slota to cross the bridge to come to Jim's rescue.
Doctors that night inserted a rod through Jim's heel and put two rods in his lower leg. A second surgery set all broken bones. Another surgery followed that, but they all had Jim on the mend from his hospital bed when the tornado tore through, knocking out the locust tree that helped protect the east side of their home. The tree had been there when Jim and Jane moved to the farm 44 years ago.
"I called Jeff Klatt in November 2013 and then never heard back from him," Jim DeWitt explained.
In the interim, corn prices dropped and Jim gave his idea a second and third thought before finally banishing it to the permanent back-burner.
More than one year later, though, Klatt called. He said he'd like to have a look and propose an idea. Jim and Jane invited him out and Klatt's proposal met their approval.
"He was here two half-days and one full day working on it," Jim says. "It was hard wood and I know I hauled away eight Gator-loads of sawdust."
The piece has drawn visitors from near and far who marvel at the detail in the eagle and the U.S. flag it clutches in its beak.
"That's the one thing Jim and I wanted," Jane says. "We wanted a flag because we're a red, white and blue family."
The DeWitts' patriotic colors will show on the day of RAGBRAI as Jim and Jane plan to report to the bridge along C-66 on Washta's west edge. The couple, as they did in 2010, will line the bridge with dozens of U.S. flags to offer a warm welcome more than 10,000 riders who coast into a place known as "Iowa's Coldest Spot" for its negative 47 temperature reading recorded on Jan. 12, 1912.
