Welcome to 'Start, Iowa': Residents puzzled over misspelling on water tower

WASHINGTON (TND) — A big typo in a small town is turning heads in Iowa.

In the small town of Stuart, residents were greeted this past weekend with a rather noticeable typo on the community's water tower which reads "Start" instead of "Stuart." On the tower's other side, "Stuart" is spelled correctly.

News in the city of nearly 1,800 people traveled quickly as people began posting photos of the error on social media.

"It started blowing up like crazy. And everybody is like 'no way!'" Katelyn Johnson, a resident of Stuart told KCCI news. "And everybody in town has been talking about it."

The water tower is new, according to Mayor Dick Cook, as Stuart plans on adding 150 new homes in town.

Cook took the blunder in stride.

It was hilarious. I mean a lot of people were posting this, they don't know how to spell the town of Stuart," Cook said.

Cook says the mistake happened because the contractor was in the middle of repainting the name of "Stuart" because it was not centered.

The mistake, Cook says, is actually just the contractor in the middle of the job.

"I go to water aerobics at the pool and everyone was talking about it last night, how crazy it was, and how it was spelled wrong and everyone noticed it," said Maddyson Reinhart of Stuart.

"It's crazy, because it's Stuart, and they're upgrading the place very well and just have that little mess up," said Johnson.

The tower has since been fixed.