(32) Shelby County 5.27.2023

Welkommen to Shelby County! We purposefully waited to do Shelby County so we could attend the Tivoli Festival in Elk Horn because this part of Iowa is the largest settlement of Danish immigrants in the nation! We of course started the day off at the windmill and were able to go to the top of the windmill. 

There’s also a Viking settlement next to the windmill where they had various Viking demonstrations going on to show how the Vikings lived. 

We perused some of the local shops and antique store in Elk Horn, watched some traditional Danish dancing, ate some delicious Danish pastries, enjoyed the parade, and had all-you-can-eat Ebelskivers at the fire station!

We headed west of town to go to the Museum of Danish America where we learned about American Danish heritage and discovered some different things made by Danish and Danish-Americans- including Legos- which we never knew!!

Next up we went to the Bedstemor House, a house built in 1908 by Jens Otto Christiansen, a Danish immigrant. Although it was only a quaint little museum showcasing what Danish-American living would have been like in the early 1900’s, it was still very enjoyable!

 

We headed over to Harlan, hoping to check out the square and enjoy the Victoria Station restaurant, but we were super disappointed to find that everything closes at 2pm, and Victoria Station was closed that day for unknown reason ☹ 

We did at least get to play at the wooden park playground, and at least checked out the log cabins on the Shelby County Historical Museum grounds. The Shelby County Historical Museum is one we’d like to come back to, but it’s only open Monday-Friday, 1pm-4pm.

 

Since the Victoria Station was closed we headed back to Elk Horn to eat at the Grace on Main. The pizza was delicious, but the food choices would probably be better during normal hours as they had a limited menu due to the festival. On our way back to Elk Horn, we did drive through Corley and saw they have a local Community Club and a neat antique store- both were closed today unfortunately!

 

There were a few other things in Shelby County that we could have done (see below), but we decided to just head back to the hotel for the evening to enjoy some swimming in the pool!

 Return Rating: 2

 Other things to see/do:

• Train Depot, Shelby
• Greenridge Steam Tractor Farm, Irwin
• Historical Museum, Irwin
• Milk and Honey, Harlan
• Victoria Station restaurant, Harlan
• Historical Museum, Harlan
• Danish Julefest, Elk Horn
• Dinesen Prairie