(36) Winneshiek County 9.22.2023-9.23.202

Today began the 2-day exploration of Winneshiek County! We started Winneshiek County off by visiting the Iowa Dairy Center in Calmar. The Iowa Dairy is part of the North Eastern Iowa Community College. You get an up-close experience of what it’s like to be a dairy farmer. They do offer guided tours, but you can also do your own walking tour which is what we did. We got to see cows being milked robotically and even got to pet some calves—it was quite the experience!

There’s also a Depot Museum in Calmar, but unfortunately it was not open today.

We next made our way to Decorah. We made a quick stop at Toppling Goliath to eat some lunch

and then made our way to the Decorah Hatchery where we enjoyed getting to feed the trout. There’s a camping area near the hatchery and some good fishing spots, but we’ll have to come back for that another time!

We headed to downtown Decorah to tour the Vesterheim Norwegian Museum. This was a lovely museum with wonderful displays and artefacts. The tour guide was very knowledgeable about the Norwegian history and movement of the Norwegian people to this area. We actually had 2 people on our tour who were visiting from Norway who not only verified the information our tour guide shared but also shared even more about the immigration of Norwegians to this area.

Our tour guide informed us that Disney actually borrowed artefacts from their museum to aid in their making of the movie Frozen! And this weekend the Prime Minister from Norway was actually coming to visit. So if you are at all interested in Norway or Norwegian history, this place is a must!

This museum has a main building with 4 floors and the grounds house multiple buildings to explore. We would definitely come back to this one! The museum is also home to a Norwegian Art School where students can come learn Norwegian Folk Artwork. The Vesterheim Norwegian Museum also hosts the Nordic Fest the last weekend in July and hosts a Christmas festival in December—more things to come and see!

 Unbeknownst to us, it was homecoming weekend so we happened to stumble across the Decorah High School Homecoming Parade—what a fun surprise.

 

After our tour, we strolled along the main street and went to the Vesterheim Norwegian Museum Gift Shop, a few other local stores and boutiques, and got some ice cream at The Sugar Bowl. We also made a stop at the Courthouse and the Public Library.

Next, we made our way out to the Washington Prairie Lutheran Church, which was the church that Ulrik Vilhelm Koren founded. It was the first Lutheran Church west of the Mississippi River, and he played a prominent role in bringing Luther College to Decorah. There was also a small cemetery near it and what looks like another original church possibly.

Our last stop in Winneshiek for the night was the Old Armory BBQ for dinner—all we’ll say is there’s a lot we want to come back to in Winneshiek, but this one wouldn’t make that list 😊 

 

 

Day two of Winneshiek County started off in the backroads making our way to the Old Stone Church near Ridgeway. 

We did make our way through Ridgeway and stumbled upon what was the old elementary school but now seems to be converted into an interesting woodcarving and chainsaw art center. There was a model of an old Hobo Camp out front.

We then headed to Spillville where we stopped at the St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church (1860) and a Czech Catholic School that was formed in 1854. These are the oldest Czech school and church in the United  States, which is pretty neat for how small Spillville is!

 Also located in Spillville is the Bily Clocks and Antonin Dvorak Museum. Antonin Dvorak came to Spillville  in 1892 during his time in the US when he was teaching at ??? school in New York City. He spent a summer in Spillville. The Bily brothers are two local brothers who designed and created these immaculate clocks in the 1930-60?? At one point in time Henry Ford offered 1 million dollars for one of their clocks which would be equivalent to 17 million dollars today, but they turned him down. This is such a neat museum, and we would encourage anybody to go see it!

 

We then made our way to Burr Oak to visit one of the childhood homes of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Her family only spent one year in Burr Oak, and it is not mentioned in any of her books, but she does tell about it in her autobiography. During the tour we got to learn more about her time in Burr Oak and the overall history of her family. We knew she moved around a lot but were surprised still by just how many times she and her family moved as they tried to find a place to settle in the new West. If you’re a Laura Ingalls Wilder fan, this is a must see!

 

 We headed back to Decorah for lunch but made sure to take a drive through Luther College’s Campus. It was actually Family Weekend at Luther College so a lot was going on in Decorah this weekend.

 

We ended up having lunch at Magpie Coffee and Café another place that we are okay only eating at once :D

We then hurried to the Fort Atkinson State Preserve so we could make it in time for the shooting of the cannon demonstration during the Rendevouz Weekend at the Preserve. We made it just in time and then enjoyed walking around the Fort exploring the buildings and watching the different demonstrations being held. There were a lot of authentic campers and craft vendors, but it wasn’t highly attended which we were pretty surprised about. We did stop in the Historical Museum and learned a bit more about the history of the area which included the history of the Native Americans who lived in that area during the late 1800’s/early 1900’s.

On our way out of Winneshiek County, we made one last stop at “the World’s Smallest Church,” the St. Anthony Chapel, just outside of Festina. We’re not sure if this is actually the World’s Smallest Church as there are many churches that we’ve seen on our Iowa County Adventure that have all claimed they are the “smallest church,” but this one seems to have maybe held a church service at some point and has an actual cemetery attached to it so who knows maybe it really is 😊

All in all, this is definitely a county we would love to come back to!

 

Rate: 5

Other Things to See/Do

• Depot Museum, Calmar
• Seed Savors, Decorah
• Nordic Fall Fest, last weekend in July, Decorah
• Winter Festival, Westerheim Norwegian Museum, Decorah
• Locust School Museum, Highlandville
• Luther College Arts Collection, Decorah
• Ice Cave Hill Park, Decorah
• Dunning Springs Park, Decorah
• Porter House, Decorah
• Winneshiek County Heritage Center, Decorah
• Ludwig Preserve, Spillville
• St. Clements Church, Spillville
• Chimney Rock Park, Burr Oak
• Opera House, Ossian