(25) Cedar County 8.18.2022

We started off our time in Cedar County at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Museum and Library. We would highly recommend visiting the museum and library! The museum complex is free with various buildings including the childhood home of Herbert Hoover, and although you pay to get into the library, it is well worth it. We learned quite a lot about President Hoover, not only during his time as president but the lead up to his presidency as well as all that he did after!

West Branch itself is a cute little town with a nice downtown area with restaurants, boutiques and antique stores. We ate lunch at The Serving Café downtown which was delicious and were able to shop at a few of the antique stores and boutiques- we would definitely recommend this downtown for a little day trip!

We then headed to Tipton to go to the Historical Society’s Prairie Village. We weren’t expecting much since Tipton is such a small town, but the Prairie Village was really well done and had various buildings displaying different periods and industries, including an autobody shop with an original model A car in it and a 2-story log cabin. In all the counties we’ve been to, we’ve only seen 1 other 2-story log cabin, and you couldn’t go into it, but this one you could even peak up the stairs to see what the second story held in it! The workers were also super helpful as they walked us through the different buildings and shared more about the history of Tipton and surrounding communities.

While in Tipton, we made sure to stop by the library where they had a collection of Grant Wood’s artwork on display.

We couldn't pass up getting a picture in front of the Tipton mural!

Unfortunately, we were not able to go into the Old Cedar County Jail in Tipton as it is only open on the 1^st Saturday of the month—this would be a neat one to return to, to see!

We tried to stop in Clarence because there are several neat little shops and eateries there, but unfortunately, nothing was open :( but we did get a picture in front of another neat mural!

Last but not least we drove by the Lincoln Hotel in Lowden on our way out of the county!

Return Rating: 3

Other things to see/do:

• Frerich’s Alpaca Farm—West Branch
• Red Barn Market Antiques—West Branch
• The Scattergood Hostel—West Branch
• Main Street—Clarence
• Cedar County Attic—Tipton
• Old Cedar County Jail—Tipton