Iowa State Patrol Honored in New History Book

March 5, 2013 - PRLog -- New to Arcadia Publishing’s popular Images of America series is Iowa State Patrol by local author Scott M. Fisher. The foreword was written by Mike Horihan. This pictorial history boasts more than 200 vintage images and provides readers with a unique opportunity to reconnect with the history that shaped their community.

The Iowa State Patrol was started by Iowa's first female secretary of state, Ola Babcock Miller, who was a champion for highway safety. Her vision for the Iowa Highway Patrol was a group of well-trained officers who would enforce Iowa's traffic laws but also, more critical to her, spread the word about the importance of safe driving.

In 1935 fifty men were sworn in as officers of the Iowa Highway Safety Patrol. Known thereafter as the "First Fifty," they had been selected from a group of more than 3,000 applicants and more than 100 invited for the initial training at Camp Dodge. One member of that group, Buck Cole, proposed the patrol's motto of "Courtesy-Service-Protection," a tradition that has been passed down through the generations to today's Iowa State Patrol. These male and female troopers promote Mrs. Miller's original premise of keeping the driving public safe.

Highlights of Iowa State Patrol include:
•   Iowa’s Early Roads
•   Mrs. Miller’s Vision
•   First Highway Patrol Training Camp
•   The “First Fifty” on Patrol
•   Challenges and Changes
•   Into the Modern Era

Available at area bookstores, independent retailers, and online retailers, or through Arcadia Publishing at (888)-313-2665 or online.

Arcadia Publishing is the leading publisher of local and regional history in the United States.  Our mission is to make history accessible and meaningful through the publication of books on the heritage of America’s people and places.  Have we done a book on your town? Visit arcadiapublishing.com.