10 Real World Star Trek Locations You Can Visit

"He […] was born in a small town in the State of Iowa." The 1968 book The Making of Star Trek, the first to mention this fact about Captain Kirk, never provided a more exact location, nor did Mr "I only work in outer space" when he gave the Hawkeye State as his birthplace in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. This all changed, however, in 1985 when one member of Riverside City Council, Iowa, who was familiar with The Making of Star Trek, proposed a motion that the city declare itself the future birthplace of Captain Kirk. Everyone agreed, and the rest, as they say in the temporal mechanics department, will be history.

Riverside has certainly embraced its future fame. The city's motto is "Where the B̶e̶s̶t̶ Trek Begins," and the homepage of its website proudly announces the upcoming happy news, which they have also celebrated in stone (March 22, 2228, as given; 2233 in canon). The aptly named 'Voyage Home Riverside History Center' is largely dedicated to all things Star Trek and has the U.S.S. Riverside (Constitution-class) in the carpark. Riverside also has an annual 'TrekFest' in June, with a parade downtown and previous celebrity guests the likes of Chase Masterson, Walter Koenig, George Takei, and Nichelle Nichols!

Whilst the choice of Riverside was approved by Gene Roddenberry in 1985, and the city has been cited in various beta canon works since, it wasn't until the Strange New Worlds episode Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow that prime Kirk's precise provenance was stated on screen: "Riverside, Iowa. Same as me."