Urbandale, Iowa

The smells of sweet homemade apple pie, harsh print shop ink and woodsy, smoky campfires greet guests as they take a walking tour through Iowa’s history.

Living History Farms is a 500-acre outdoor museum in Urbandale, Iowa. Visitors progress through four time periods in Iowa’s history, including a 1700 Ioway Indian tribe site, an 1850 pioneer farm, a 1900 farm and an 1875 town.

Former Iowa State University professor William Murray created the living museum in 1970 after two unsuccessful runs for Iowa governor. Jennie Derr, marketing and public relations director, said Murray decided to give back to Iowa in a different way.

“He didn’t want another museum where everything is made out of glass,” Derr said. “He wanted a working museum where people could actually visit and see how people lived in the respective time periods while also participating in hands-on activities.”

Visitors walk the self-guided tour and interact with workers at each site. The interpreters, volunteers and interns dress in period clothing, cook, work and live like they are from a different time. Every site has an “interpreter,” a worker who is an expert in the history of that site’s time period.

“Most of the interpreters have a degree in history or an advanced degree in history, so a misconception is they’re actors, and they’re not at all,” Derr said. “They are very passionate about history.”

At Living History Farms the workers don’t pretend to actually live in their time period. They reference contemporary objects and compare their actions with modern practices. Derr said they decided to do this because it makes the workers more approachable.

“[It’s] so they can also relate to things of today,” Derr said. “So for the print shop, they can relate to computers or texting. We find that interpretation works best here.”

IOWAY INDIAN SITE

From the Visitors Center, guests are transported by tractor-pulled wagon to the beginning of a wooded trail that leads to the Ioway Indian site.

The smell of burning wood greets guests as they enter the small clearing. A thatch hut, a partially completed teepee and a buffalo hide stretched across a wooden frame set the scene. Interpreter Melinda Carriker sat stitching a beaded shoe as she showed a small child handmade dolls. Carriker began working at Living History Farms 13 years ago as an intern with the program. Carriker said she is constantly learning because the tribes didn’t have much written about them.

“A lot of the tribe – once they were moved to a reservation – weren’t allowed to do the things they had done in the past, and the knowledge was lost within the tribes,” Carriker said.

Living History Farms began their research by looking through diaries and visiting modern Ioway tribes. Carriker said the best way to learn how to make things is by trial and error. Everything at the site is handmade by the staff.

“We are constantly changing things and evolving things here as we find a bit more information [and] learn a little more from different books and other sources,” Carriker said.

1850s FARM SITE

The smell of pigs and oxen greets visitors at the beginning of the 1850s farm site, but the aroma of dinner soon wafts through the stench. A tiny log cabin sits behind the livestock with doors and windows propped open to let in the cool air.

Each day the workers at the different sites cook meals for themselves and guests. At the 1850s farm, venison pie and stewed tomatoes sat on the table as guests milled around the cozy cabin. One of the women went back to the garden, disappeared in the crops and came out with ears of corn for dinner. These women explain what they are cooking, but other questions and explanations are contingent on the visitors’ interest.

Arlene Hoodjer of Des Moines, Iowa, took her three grandsons to visit Living History Farms. She said some of her grandsons had been there before but wanted to come back for a visit.

“I think they enjoyed the pioneer farm,” Hoodjer said. “It’s unique here to have the helpers tell the story of how they did it and what they did — very unique — and they are dressed according to their time, so it’s very educational.”

Hoodjer said she wanted to show her grandsons how children grew up during different time periods.

“I was raised on a farm in the 1900s, so this will bring things back,” Hoodjer said.

1900s FARM SITE

The 1900s farm has several barns, a house, a garden and crop fields. The front yard of the house, surrounded by a white picket fence, shows the progression of technology, including a water pump and a bicycle. One of the women cooking meatballs and squash answered questions about wearing period clothing. She said the clothing is vital for cooking near a hot stove because the many layers it act as a giant hot pad.

In the other kitchen area, volunteer Jodi Fisher said that the clothing not only protects skin but also cools the body.

“It’s not as bad as people think,” Fisher said. “It’s 100 percent cotton, so when the wind blows through, it actually cools your arms.”

Fisher said she came to Living History Farms when she was a intern in college and now volunteers with her 12-year-old daughter.

“I’ve always meant to come back and volunteer here because I loved it so much, and I wanted my daughter to be a part of it,” Fisher said. “I worked in the 1900s farm, when I was an intern, [and] I worked at several other places, but this was my favorite.”

She said her duties involve cooking during the day for their noon meal, and then they spend the rest of the day embroidering, knitting or tending to the garden. The family does everything from picking apples for a pie to killing chickens for dinner.

WALNUT HILL TOWN

Jennie Derr, marketing and public relations director, said when the land for the town was purchased, it included a historic home from the 1870s called the Flynn mansion.

“It was a very upper-class home for the time period, but the town around it would have been similar to what you would have found in central Iowa or anywhere in Iowa during the time period,” Derr said.

The Tangen house is the middle-class home in the town of Walnut Hill. During a visit to the house, guests can taste a meal of pork, potato salad and brownie cake.

There are several interactive shops in town, including the print shop, where guests can help set type and print. Derr said they tell children that the shop is “texting” in 1875.

“It’s very visual and very fascinating, especially to children who have grown up with computers their whole life,” Derr said. “They can see the origins of text, even fonts that are used back then are used today in our computers.”

She said the general store is a children’s favorite because it sells 25-cent candy, such as gumdrops and lemon drops. The blacksmith shop also provides interactive activities, allowing visitors to help hammer metal from the forge.

Derr said it’s the interactive qualities that make each of the Living History Farm’s sites fun for all ages and the interactions with workers that personalize the visit.

“We try to do things that interest the public,” Derr said. “[We’re] always trying to keep the public educated and offer interactive events.”

Council Bluffs, Iowa

From the outside, the museum looks like an average brick building. There is only one peculiarity — bars over the windows.

Built during the 19th century in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the Squirrel Cage Jail housed local criminals in addition to the jailer’s family. Today, the jail is preserved as a museum.

HISTORY AND EXPLANATION OF THE JAIL

In 1884, Cottonwood Jail burned down and the county was forced to house prisoners in a single room in the courthouse basement. The “Squirrel Cage,” as locals know it, is a rotary or “lazy-Susan” style jailhouse, built in 1885.

The rotary design of the jail was chosen for the Pottawattamie County Jail because the facility was designed to hold about 60 prisoners with only one jailer. However, there are accounts of as many as five men being put in each two-man cell. Each cell consisted of two bunks and a small privy, or primitive toilet system, in the inner part of the cell.

The Squirrel Cage structure is in the shape of a cylinder with each level divided up like a pie. The severity of the crime committed would dictate the level on which an inmate would be housed. The first floor housed petty crime criminals, while murderers were held on the third floor.

A giant crank installed on the second floor of the jail rotated the cells and opened up to three cells at one time. On each level, a small door opened to allow the prisoners to exit their cells, one cell at a time. Because the jail only rotated in one direction, if a prisoner on the backside of the facility needed to be let out, every cell in the facility turned until the prisoner needing to be let out had arrived at the small door.

Council Bluffs resident Donna Perdue visited the Squirrel Cage Jail for the first time this summer after having lived in the area her whole life.

“It is the meaning of the word punishment versus what we have today, which just seems like you are going to camp,” Perdue said. “This is punishment. You wouldn’t want to come back.”

When the jail was first built, it operated on a water motor — an innovative idea that failed within three years of the construction of the building. The crank and gears were then installed to turn the jail. As the years wore on, turning the crank became harder and harder.

Museum staffer Ed Ritchie is part of the Pottawattamie County Historical Society, which runs the jail and has worked there for three years.

“I was in marketing all my life, and I kind of relate to the architects who came up with this design,” Ritchie said. “They could have spent a fourth of the money when they built the jail, and these architects came up with ideas and almost gimmicks and talked the town into putting this jail up.”

In addition to the rotating jailhouse structure, the building also contained the jailer’s office and the kitchen used to make every meal. The stove also served as the only source of heat during the jail’s first winter in operation. A small recreation area with a few picnic tables encircled the cells. The area only would have been comfortable for a few inmates at one time.

Additionally, the main floor housed the solitary confinement cell, which is smaller than a full-size refrigerator. Prisoners were only supposed to be kept in this diminutive space for one day, but there are reports of inmates being kept inside for up to three days. They received the standard three meals per day and were given a coffee can for bathroom purposes. The space is so small that prisoners had to stand, and some of the taller prisoners may not have been able to stand tall without hitting their heads.

The second floor was home to female prisoners, as well as the juvenile detention center. Children ages 7 to 17 who had committed petty crimes such as stealing a candy bar were kept there, as well as children left with no place to go while their parents were incarcerated.

Because there are no elevators in the museum, guests cannot venture beyond the second floor. The third floor of the building housed an infirmary. In hopes of receiving better care, prisoners often tried to break their arms and legs by sticking them through the bars while the jailer turned the crank. The room opposite the physician’s on the third floor was that of the trustees. Two trusted inmates with additional responsibilities and added freedom would share a bedroom, rather than a cell, on this floor.

The jailer’s family lived on the fourth floor, which also housed the unit from which the Squirrel Cage structure itself was suspended. Odors from cell toilets traveled upward and gave the fourth floor an especially foul odor.

Angie Couchman and her family visited the Squirrel Cage Jail on a weekend getaway.

“When we were up on the second floor, I thought, ‘Man I’m sweating now — I can’t imagine being up on the third floor, especially when it’s over 100 degrees plus humidity,’” Couchman said. “And to be there all day, stuck in a little pie piece.”

CHANGES TO THE FACILITY

In 1960 the Squirrel Cage Jail underwent renovations ordered by the State Fire Marshall. The primary concern was for a quick and timely exit from the cells. With the cells the way they were, it could take days to get all the prisoners out of their cells in an emergency.

The Fire Marshall insisted that the cells be cut open and the gears cemented in place. This reduced the number of cells in use from 30 to 18. Each of the ten cells on the main level was opened, in addition to five cells on the second level and three on third level.

Electricity was added in 1960. Until this point, prisoners relied on the minimal light provided by the building’s few windows.

In 1969 the building was condemned and prisoners were moved to a facility in Clarinda, Iowa.

JAIL PERSONNEL

The position of jailer was an honor, and the pay was fair. The jailer and his family lived and worked in the jail. One jailer worked day-in and day-out for nine years without a single day off.

The family kept modest quarters on the fourth floor of the building until the 1920s. At this time, the jailer and his family moved their living space to the second floor. When the jailer’s family took over the quarters of the female prisoners, the females moved into the juvenile detention center with the children.

The jailer’s wife was expected to cook each meal for the prisoners. Common meals included beans and pasta because they were inexpensive and easy to prepare in large quantities. The jailer’s wife was given a food allowance and was allowed to keep any unused food money for the family.

One jailer could not carry out every task necessitated by the building and inmates, so he would need to seek out a few trustees. These were trusted prisoners who maintained order on the jail floor, assisted in food preparation and serving, mowed the jailhouse lawn and shopped for groceries for the jailer’s wife.

THE SQUIRREL CAGE TODAY

Inmates were cleared out of the building in 1969. Three years later the jail was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Its rich history was part of what saved it a few years later when the construction for the new courthouse began and some wanted the Squirrel Cage demolished and used for additional parking space. The Pottawattamie County Historical Society owns and operates the museum today.

Knoxville Raceway, Knoxville, Iowa

The sharp smell of gasoline and a sound like rumbling thunder fill the air.

It is a Saturday night at Iowa’s Knoxville Raceway and everyone is either in the stands or listening as the race’s soundtrack echoes across the small town. Sprint cars race by, one after another.

“Anyone who lives here knows that the track was here first,” said Lori DeMoss, a resident of the city of Knoxville.  “So when it’s loud on the weekends, you just accept it because it is a way of life around here.”

The racetrack can hold up to 24,000 spectators despite Knoxville’s population of only 7,536. Visitors come from as far away as Australia. Because the small town does not have enough hotels and campgrounds for all of the visitors, the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce initiated a housing program. The chamber compiled a list of residents that were willing to host families during the races. Some people host families for a fee, and some end up housing visitors for free.

“You end up making friends with the people that you host and they end up returning year after year to stay with you,” DeMoss said. “Knoxville has proved that not only are they all about the races, but they are all about the friends and people.”

Hotel Pattee, Perry, Iowa 

A suave young man in a uniform holds the door, inviting visitors to step from rural Iowa into a secret, plush utopia.

Inside the two sets of ornate double doors, a visitor may choose to relax by the roaring double-hearth fireplace or take time for brunch at David’s Milwaukee Diner. A little wandering leads to high-ceilinged ballrooms, elegant meeting chambers and even a fully furnished library. Visitors who choose to explore the basement will discover a bowling alley, a recreational center and a spa.

The experience will not be complete, however, until those visitors have checked into one of the 40 themed rooms on the upper floors of this establishment.
Welcome to the Hotel Pattee.

“It’s an unusual hotel,” said Phil Stone, a resident of Perry, Iowa, the hometown of the Hotel Pattee. “As you travel around the state of Iowa and you say you’re from Perry, people say, ‘Oh, the hotel.’”

Stone and his wife, Cathy, are frequent guests to David’s Milwaukee Diner on the Hotel Pattee’s main floor.

“It’s a really classy place,” Cathy Stone said.

Instead of France, Spain or Egypt, try Missouri, Iowa and Illinois. There’s a plethora of towns in these states that chose to identify with world-renowned cities by picking distinctively cosmopolitan monikers. For whatever reason, the founders of these towns decided against assigning them more destination-appropriate names like Cornville or Hogtopia, perhaps thinking ahead to possible tourist implications. After all, wouldn’t you jump at the chance to hit up historic Brooklyn? Iowa, that is. No skyscrapers in this little corner of the Corn State.

It borders on ridiculous when you begin to actually compare some of these towns with their international counterparts. Take Paris, for example. The Missouri destination had a whopping population of an estimated 1,458 in 2006, not quite the millions you would find in France. I should probably give up on strolling to the Eiffel Tower or Notre Dame, at least on this continent. Paris does have a church, St. Francis Cabrini, but that sounds more Italian than French to me.

Can’t get into Cuba? Neither can anyone else, unless you’d like to visit the lovely hamlet of Cuba, Illinois instead. There are many fabulous tourist spots to check out, including the Spoon River Public Library, where many valuable books wait to be checked out. Not exactly on par with Guantanamo Bay, but at least they aren’t ruled by a dictator.

Iowa Sheep and Wool Festival, Adel, Iowa

Although many people only turn to sheep as a last resort on a sleepless night, at the Iowa Sheep and Wool Festival in Adel, sheep — and the people who devote their lives to them — are given the chance to shine.

Walking into the Dallas County Fairgrounds on a Saturday morning in early June, the scene is quiet enough to distinguish individual ‘baas’ from barns around the property and the patter of little hooves in the sandy arenas. Visitors soon discover that what at first appears to be a festival in distress is actually an intimate, low-key family affair on the verge of an afternoon explosion of patrons, most of them eager sheep enthusiasts.

Hamburg Inn No. 2, Iowa City, Iowa 

Hidden in the depths of downtown Iowa City, the Hamburg Inn No. 2 looked like most other diners – but when Ronald Reagan stopped in for the meatloaf special, everything changed.

“He had been an announcer for sports radio in Des Moines, so there was a history there,” said Dave Panther, owner of the Hamburg Inn. “Unfortunately I wasn’t here when he stopped in – I was out making a balloon delivery as a court jester. By the time I came in, he was out.”

That’s right, Panther also works part-time as a professional clown.

His restaurant started out modestly enough, but it has grown into something of an exception in the world of family-owned, mom-and-pop-type establishments. Its reputation was built by countless appearances in travel magazines, newspapers, even a TV show or two and as local destinations go, it’s a little slice of Midwestern Americana with a twist – part of it due to political star power.

Despite the 20-degree weather, Kate Fuller and Kevin Michael couldn’t wait to get their hands on the ice.

As students at the Kirkwood Culinary Arts School at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Fuller and Michael took instructions from Dave Dettman on how to make snowflake ice sculptures as part of the Winterfest in Amana, Iowa.

One of four major festivals at Amana, Winterfest began only three years ago, said Brenda Koehler, co-chair of the festival and manager of the Amana Society Main Street Complex.

“Winterfest really grew out of the hopes to create something to promote the Amana Colonies in the winter months and to let people know there are more things than shopping,” she said.

Iowa State Fair, Des Moines, Iowa 

The Iowa State Fair is one of the biggest parties in the Midwest, belying Iowa’s traditional image of tranquil cornfields and laid-back citizenry.

“Describing it just doesn’t do it justice,” said Iowan Wendell Hall, 72. “I’ve been to the Illinois State Fair and the Florida State Fair, and they’re comparable to our county fairs. Ours is just a whale of a good time.”

Approaching the fairground can be overwhelming. From miles away, cars are parked in any spot available. Homeowners close to the fairground often sit outside their houses and offer their driveways to fairgoers for a price.

Pella, Iowa

An 1800s-style windmill stands in defiance of the wind, just off the town square of Pella, Iowa. This korenmolen, meaning corn mill in Dutch, boasts the record as the largest authentic windmill in America. The windmill serves as one of many examples of the Dutch traditions of Pella.

The Pella community of about 10,000 lives among a dappling of buildings that display a 19th century Dutch façade. Stores bearing names such as Bisschopswijn, Jaarsma Bakery and Van Den Berg’s Limited enhance the town’s Dutch culture by selling authentic Dutch products.
Jim Brandl, a retired businessman turned tour guide for the Vermeer Mill and Interpretive Center, said Pella has striven to preserve the town’s Dutch culture.

Over the years, the Pella Historical Society has worked hard to promote Pella as a place for visitors to view Dutch architecture and ways of living.

Originally settled in 1843, Dutch immigrants established Pella as a safe haven to escape from the religious persecution that plagued them in their homeland. In the Netherlands, the Dutch built many windmills because running water is scarce. Because rivers and streams stripe the Midwest, water could power the mills in Pella instead of wind. Despite the frequency and utility of windmills in their homeland, the original settlers chose not to build a windmill in Pella.