And not because of Colonel Hawk Eye Pearce, the surgeon from MASH, who it turns out never actually lived in Iowa (or anywhere because he was a fictional character), but instead the name refers to Black Hawk, leader of the Native American Sauk tribe, which was relocated to Iowa after fighting with settlers.Īll that to one side, though, 90% of the land in Iowa is indeed used for agriculture. Luckily for all the people of Iowa, the official nickname for Iowa is The Hawk Eye State. Since there are only six licensed racetracks in the state, Kotulak wants it to return to its former prestige.With 90% of their land used for agriculture, there was a chance Iowa would choose the Nickname the Corn State. The people that are supported the most by the connection is the jockeys and horses throughout Nebraska. Back in November of 2020 the community of Grand Island voted in favor of bringing a casino to town and now after CEO Chris Kotulak has formed a partnership, he describes the relationship as terrific. The Grand Island Casino and Resort’s partner Fonner Park is benefitting from their success. “Getting people familiar with the whole customer service aspect of gaming and how things work and the regulations.”

Gaming is new to the area so we don’t draw from a lot of experienced people but we bring in some people we have brought people in from other properties and we sent some of our employees to other properties,” Fiala said. “Getting employees and getting employees trained. Despite the success for the temporary facility they have faced a certain challenge. Since Christmas is less than a week away, the casino is expecting a larger crowd. Starting in like October, November and December should be very strong months for us again.”

“Then you get the Summer sports and activities and it slows down a little bit, then we pick up again in the Fall. ”Horse racing is a strong for us, so February through April of the beginning of May was very good for us,” he said.

Grand falls casino and resort