(27) Poweshiek County 10.14.2022

Our next county took us to another historical marker for John Wayne—his childhood home! Evidently he attended first grade at Brooklyn Elementary School. This house is actually a private residence now so there is only a historical marker outside of the house—how neat would that be to live John Wayne’s old house?!

Brooklyn is the community of flags so we couldn’t pass up getting a picture at the “Avenue of Flags” that has a monument to one of the soldiers—Harold Kelly—who helped raise the flag for the iconic picture at Iwo Jima. The Brooklyn Museum is also next to the monument but unfortunately was closed and is only open by appointment. We tried calling earlier in the week but unfortunately were not able to get through to anyone—which was a theme for all of the historical museums in Poweshiek County ☹

We were able to go to the Center Ground Coffee Shop though, do a little bit of shopping and sight-seeing in downtown Brooklyn, and even experience an authentic full-service gas station before leaving town!

Our next stop in Poweshiek County was Montezuma. We headed to the courthouse square where we witnessed our second fire truck carrying a class full of kids as there was also one cruising through Brooklyn! Upon further investigation, we found out it is fire prevention week—you gotta love small-town Iowa!

Unfortunately, we were not able to visit the Poweshiek County Museum is in Montezuma as it is only open Monday and Thursday afternoons—another museum we had to miss! The museum includes an old jail, a Carnegie Library, and a school house.

We finally made our way to Grinnell where we attempted to stop at the Grin City Bakery, but it closed early for the day ☹ so we ate lunch at the Frontier Café. We did stop in at the Merchant National Bank which was designed by Louis Sullivan built in 1914.

The main attraction on our list for Poweshiek County was Uncle Bill’s Farm! Although this pumpkin patch is much smaller than some of the more popular pumpkin patches in and close to Des Moines, since it was a colder and windier day, we had the place almost entirely to ourselves 😊 It had all the usual attractions—goats, a train, a corn pool, bouncy pillows, a tractor ride, and a corn maze, amongst other activities! 

We made our way back into Grinnell and finished up our day in Poweshiek County at the Grinnell College Museum of Art. We were pleasantly surprised by the exhibit and found out that it changes every 3-4 months. We’ll have to come back to check out other exhibits!

 

On our way out of town we drove by the Benjamin Ricker House, designed by Walter Burley Griffin, an example of the Prairie School of Architecture.

 

Return Rating: 3

Other things to see/do:

• Brooklyn Historical Society—Brooklyn
• The Class Ice Cream Shop—Brooklyn
• Poweshiek County Historical and Genealogical Society—Montezuma
• Grinnell Historical Museum—Grinnell
• Grinnell Arts Center—Grinnell
• Dari Barn—Grinnell
• PP Raymond House—Malcom