The captain of the Starship Enterprise had his beginnings in this bar.

Captain Kirk Conceived Here

Riverside, Iowa

In 1985 Riverside announced that it would be the 23rd century birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk. A monument was placed on the future birth spot, and that's when the town's Murphy's Bar and Grill decided to get into the act. If Kirk was born in Riverside, he must have been conceived there as well, and what more fitting place for bad boy Kirk than in the local bar? A plaque was engraved, then mounted on the floor under the pool table, proclaiming that Kirk was "Conceived at This Point" exactly nine months before the date on his birthplace monument down the street.

In 2014 the pool table was removed and the plaque was mounted on a nearby wall. Several reasons were given: it was cruel to make fans get down on the floor; the owner wanted to make the plaque easier to read; the bar wanted to get rid of the pool table and turn the room into a more profitable event space. We asked the bartender if a lot of people still stopped in to see the plaque. "Oh yeah," she said, "and they're usually disappointed we don't have a pool table any more."

Since the release of the 2009 Star Trek movie, Murphy's Bar and Grill now also claims to be the "Future Home of the Shipyards Bar" seen in that film. And every year, on the Friday night closest to the March 22 birth date, Trek fans gather at the bar to drink "Romulan ale" -- blue schnapps, pineapple juice, and Sprite -- and then call William Shatner at home to sing Happy Birthday. "One time somebody did answer," said Wanda Blakley at the town's Star Trek museum. "Usually we just get a machine."