Artist Gary L Hightshoe | Sidekick White Coffee Mug

Every great story needs a sidekick. In Iowa, that sidekick was round, tall, and full of fermented corn. Silo construction began slowly in the late 1800s, driven by a simple problem — cattle could graze green Iowa pastures from spring through fall, but the long cold winters required something more. The answer was silage — chopped cornstalks preserved through fermentation inside upright round silos, keeping livestock fed through the months when the pastures went quiet. Early wooden silos rotted and failed. Then in 1908, Iowa State College of Agriculture developed the Iowa Silo — round, hollow clay tile, nearly indestructible, and revolutionary. Like Batman and Robin, Sherlock and Watson, Han Solo and Chewie, Sam and Frodo — the silo became the indispensable sidekick of the Iowa barn, reshaping the agricultural landscape of the entire upper Midwest. Gary L Hightshoe captured this one at the George Rogers Farm in Cascade, Iowa — still standing, still faithful, still right there beside the barn where it always belonged. Every good story needs a sidekick. Who's yours? Gary L. Hightshoe is an Emeritus Professor of Landscape Architecture at Iowa State University, where he taught plant materials, planting design, and landscape resource management for more than 47 years. Over the course of nearly half a century, his colleagues, clients, students, and family have known him by many names — the Tree Whisperer, the Grandfather of the Prairie, the Godfather of Savanna Studio — and every one of them fits. A lifelong conservationist, ecologist, historian, illustrator, hunter, angler, photographer, and artist, Gary is the author and illustrator of two landmark works: Native Trees, Shrubs, and Vines for Rural and Urban America and North American Plantfile — books that continue to shape the field of landscape architecture. His most enduring legacy, however, may be Savanna Studio at Iowa State: the only traveling landscape architecture studio of its kind in the world. Over two decades, Gary led more than 1,000 students out from behind their desks and into the field — to the Boundary Waters, Yellowstone, Theodore Roosevelt, the Badlands, and beyond — because, as he has always believed, "you can't develop a relationship with the landscape from behind a desk." Gary loves the great White Oak, the Pagoda and Flowering Dogwood, and any native prairie forb. His granddaughters will tell you he is decidedly not a fan of petunias, lilacs, or red-leafed varieties. And he has spent a lifetime restoring 40 acres of never-tilled original Iowa land — wetland, prairie, and forest — to the way it was always meant to be. "Long after we've come and gone, a tree still stands." — Gary L. Hightshoe Gary L. Hightshoe is one of five Kate Shu Collective STAR Resident Artists and a treasured member of the Monarch Shoppe family. His mugs are an invitation — to hold something handcrafted, to slow down, and to remember that the land has stories worth telling. About this Mug: • Available in 11 oz, 15 oz, and 20 oz • Premium white gloss finish • Printed using dye sublimation technology — the image is fused directly into the ceramic surface for vivid, true-to-life color that won't fade, crack, or peel. Ever. • Handle stays cool even when your coffee is boiling • Microwave and dishwasher safe • Print quality is exceptional — exactly as pictured