(13) Adair County 7.23.2021

 Today we traveled to Adair County, the windmill capital of Iowa—at least we call it the windmill capital!

 

Our inaugural stop was at the I-80 rest area, just east of Adair to take a picture next to one of Iowa’s finest sky-scrapers, but seriously, look how big these windmill blades are!

Our next stop was the iconic Adair water-tower. This has always been a bucket list item every time we have driven by Adair all these years—so glad we can finally capture this moment!

 

 

As for the rest of Adair, if you are in town during open hours check out Zipp’s Pizzaria—we hear it’s the best! Unfortunately, we also were not in town for the Chuckwagon Days festival that happens typically in June/July. Chuckwagon Days celebrate Adair’s connection to the infamous Jesse James. We did get at least a little taste of Jesse James though just outside of Adair, at the site of the first moving train robbery in the United States on July 21, 1873.

Of course, we decided to take the backroads to the county seat, Greenfield, and were just going to pass through Fontanelle, but once we saw the town-square park, we knew we needed to stop! It was definitely worth it for a 30-minute play break for the kids! It has some amazing old-school play equipment; the race horse swings are a must.

 

There are some neat shops (a toy store, an antique store) around the square as well, but unfortunately none were open, but we did get a picture in front of this Fontanelle City-Scape right by the square!

Our first stop in Greenfield was at the Iowa Aviation Museum. First of all, it needs to be said we are not interested in aviation at all, but man were we today, thanks to this amazingly well-done museum! We didn’t have high expectations seeing how this museum is in the middle of small-town Iowa, but we would highly recommend this to anyone. The way this museum captures the history of Iowans in aviation is impressive, and the guides were highly knowledge and provided intriguing facts. The museum also showcases several famous and one-of-a-kind airplanes in a hangar connected to the museum.

    

Next stop, lunch, at the Olive Branch off the Lancaster-style square (which we’ll get to later). The restaurant was just off the Greenfield Hotel, which is a restored 1920’s era hotel. This is one we will definitely come back to stay in. We would recommend the Olive Branch, delicious Greek food and other all-American options at a good price, definitely get the Parmesan Garlic Sauce Fries- amazing!!

 

After lunch we checked out the square, starting at Ed and Eva’s, located in the Greenfield Cultural Center/Opera House. Ed and Eva’s, originally a general store, is now a shop featuring all Iowa-made products—shop local! We then made our way around the Lancaster Square, which is a rare town-square design where all the streets enter at the center of the block and the alleys are at the corners. We felt it created a very cozy European feel to the square. We visited local antique shops and a quaint locally owned coffee shop, The Corner.

    

Our next stop, the Adair County Historical Museum, was a bit of a let-down, only because they were closing early for the day so we didn’t get to see all of the buildings on the grounds. But the staff were kind enough to let us come in and gave us the most concise tour of Iowa county history in 10 minutes! This one is definitely worth coming back to, to be able to visit more thoroughly. They have numerous outdoor buildings that are usually open for viewing that would be nice to go back to (train depot, jail, governor’s house, church, school). This county museum was unique in that it separated the history by themes and eras, such as dental, school, prom and wedding dresses through the ages.

Because of our shortened visit at the Historical Museum, we had a few hours to kill so we headed down to Orient and played at the local park for a while before heading to Pizza on the Prairie in Orient.

Pizza on the Prairie is a summer event located at the Wallace Prairie Center, boyhood home of Henry A Wallace, Vice President under FDR and founder of Pioneer Seed. Pizza on the Prairie has live music, yard games, and brick oven pizza. We joined in the Prairie Art Exhibit this year- an art exhibit set up around the prairie walk, for local “artists,”—all levels welcome! Our children enjoyed creating their prairie portraits with this year’s theme: prairie critters. Would definitely recommend this event to all!

    

   

On our way out of Adair County, we took a little detour off the main path and stopped at the Loucks Grove Church in Stuart. Now abandoned, but it is one of the last standing rural gothic churches in the nation.

 

Return Rating: 4

Other things to see/do:

• Nodaway Lake, Greenfield
• R & R Depot Museum, Stuart
• Pumpkin Days, Orient