University of Okoboji Winter Games
Arnolds Park, IA · Quirky
- When
- January 28–31, 2027
- Where
- Arnolds Park and Iowa Great Lakes area venues · Arnolds Park · IA
- Cost
- Not confirmed
- Status
- Confirmed from the organizer's published schedule
Arnolds Park and the Iowa Great Lakes towns spend a January weekend at broomball, polar plunges, kite flying and a chili cook off under the banner of a fictional University of Okoboji. The tongue in cheek winter festival has run since the late 1970s and fills lakeside venues across the region.
The history within reach
The show was filmed in California, but Walnut Grove is the real prairie town Laura Ingalls Wilder lived in and wrote about, on the banks of Plum Creek.
Real hobos and hobo hobbyists have gathered in this small north Iowa town since 1900 to elect a Hobo King and Queen, share mulligan stew from an open kettle, and swap stories at the Hobo Jungle.
- August Schell73 mi
A German immigrant's brewery in a German colony town, spared in the Dakota War of 1862, the family had dealt fairly with the Dakota, and the brewery was left standing while the town burned.
After treaty payments failed and traders told the starving Dakota to eat grass, war broke out along the Minnesota River.
- Buddy Holly crash89 mi
Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P.