(51) Montgomery County 3.15.2025

Montgomery County was full of driving back and forth between its main towns to get to all the different sites. We drove in early bypassing all stops to make it to the Fika Café + Bake Shoppe in Stanton and were so glad we did! It was such a cute coffee shop and bakery with the best London Fog this side of the Missouri River 😊

We couldn’t miss taking a picture in front of the world’s largest coffee pot and the newly raised coffee cup and saucer water tower. Stanton’s claim to fame is the actress Virginia Christine, known as “Mrs. Olson,” the face of Folger’s Coffee commercials.

 

    

    

 

We made our way to Red Oak and did some shopping around the town square. The town square had a nice park in it- this was the best “teeter totter” we’ve ever been on!

    

And a memorial to the World War Heroes of Montgomery County that were lost in battle as Montgomery County lost the most soldiers in service per capita in the state of Iowa.

We were scheduled for a tour of the Restore Burlington Northern Depot & WWII Memorial Museum. This is a fully restored depot as Red Oak was a large train town in its prime. Most of the depots we have seen on our county trips are either closed or run down so it was neat to see one that has been restored and is open for tours.

 

 

Red Oak is also famous for the Thomas D. Murphy Co, the birthplace of the art calendar. Some of the calendars were on display at the Depot. Such neat history!

        

Next, we made our way over to Villisca to make it before the Needful Things Antique Store closed for the day AND of course to at least drive by and take a peek at the Villisca Ax Murder House. The clerk at the antique store—unprompted by us—informed us of the folk lore surrounding the house. They must be used to curious visitors in Villisca 😊

It was back to Stanton for our scheduled tour of the Swedish Heritage Center. It was definitely interesting to learn about the Swedish history for the area through original VHS media as well as a tour through the museum of all the memorabilia from the ages.

Here’s a picture of ‘Mrs. Folgers’—couldn’t miss capturing this!

 

Back to Villisca for dinner at TJ’s Diner (the Rialto Café—we couldn’t quite figure out which was the proper name). Definitely an unassuming restaurant from the outside—which I forgot to take a picture of—but the food was definitely worth it! We would definitely recommend it.

 

And back to Red Oak again for an evening showing of Paddington in Peru at the Red Oak Grand Theatre—which is a $2 theatre by the way so we weren’t about to pass that up! 

Rate: 1

Other Things to See/Do:

• Montgomery Courthouse County History Center, Red Oak
• College Park, Red Oak
• Viking State Park, Stanton
• General William Ellis grave site, Villisca