Surveyor Troy Hayes retraced the Missouri-Iowa border about a decade ago.
Rosemary Belson / KBIA
Show Me The State: The Honey War
Did you know Missouri and Iowa almost went to war in the 1800s? Each claimed ownership over a strip of land along the border and believed it had the right to tax the people living there.
Several surveyors drew different lines leaving the disputed land in a tug of war between two petty governors for years.
Stuck in the middle was “The Hairy Nation” – a community of transplants with varied backgrounds – longing to know where they belonged and what their identity was.
Before this story is over, trees with honey beehives will be chopped down, a sheriff will be kidnapped and ragtag militias with kitchenware and garden tools as weapons will march to meet at the border to settle this dispute once and for all.
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