Iowa

Iowa enters the account as a waystation in Dick and Perry Smith’s flight, not as a settled destination. The state’s few recorded details mark a change in their means of travel and bring them to an unexpected vehicle that could carry them onward.

Setting and Route

After spending a night in an Omaha Salvation Army dormitory, Dick and Perry Smith receive a ride from a truck driver across the Nebraska border into Iowa. They later continue on foot, and the rain catches them sixteen miles north of a settlement called Tenville Junction. The account locates their flight by this specific distance and local reference rather than by naming a larger Iowa city.

The Barn and the Car

During the downpour, Dick reaches a barn near the highway before Perry, who is carrying a suitcase and cannot keep up. Inside the dark barn, Dick discovers a black-and-white, two-door 1956 Chevrolet parked in a cow stall, with its key in the ignition. The vehicle turns a moment of exposure and separation into a possible means of escape; Iowa is where the fugitives’ chance encounter with the car changes the immediate course of their journey.

Narrative Significance

The Iowa episode is defined by movement: a border crossing, a truck ride that gives way to walking, and a sudden refuge that yields a car. The barn is not presented as a home or destination, but as temporary shelter along the highway. In this compressed passage, Iowa serves as a hinge in the flight, linking the fugitives’ passage through Nebraska to their discovery of a vehicle.