Experience Summer 4: History on Highway 20

History on Highway 20
June 5-6

INDEPENDENCE, IA
Heartland Acres Agribition Center

I've driven past the Agribition (Agriculture + Exhibition = Agribition) Center a handful of times driving back and forth to Chicago on Hwy 20 over the last few years, but never had any idea what it was until I started planning Experience Summer. Simply put, even for - and maybe because I'm - a "city girl," this is a great place.



About halfway between I-35/Hwy 20 interchange and Dubuque, the Agribition Center is like a museum documenting the history of agriculture in the Heartland and, specifically, Iowa. It was advertised to have antique farming implements, farm animals, machine shed, historical displays and, most attractive to me - hands-on activities including the opportunity to milk a fake cow. Yes, that's right. At Heartland Acres you can squeeze fake milk out of a fake cow. C'mon - who wouldn't want to do that????



I had a fairly limited time to spend at the Center as I was meeting my mom in Galena later that afternoon, and I was afraid that I would be at the Center the same time a school bus of kids got dropped up and there would be a long line for the cow-milking. I mean, there would be nothing worse than having to elbow my way in front of a bunch of kids just so I could fake-milk the fake-cow, but I was on a mission so I was prepared to take whatever measures necessary. As I pulled in the parking lot I actually felt my heart skip a beat because I was so excited ... and then my heart almost stopped when I realized there were only 2 cars in the parking lot. It wasn't closed was it????

Not only was it not closed, it was clearly not crowded. :) The (seemingly) 12-year old girl working at the registration desk had no idea why I was there, and seemed kind of surprised that I really wanted to visit the center. And she thought I was a bit too excited when I asked about the fake-cow to fake-milk, but then she seemed very happy to take my photo fake-milking the said fake-cow. She took a few photos, in fact, and was happy to answer some questions I had about milking cows. For example, I didn't know you didn't actually pull, but, instead, you just squeeze the teats. Hey - in Experience Summer I learn something all the time. And, for what it's worth, the fake-milk the fake-cow experience fully satisfied any desire to really milk a real cow. However, I'd still be up for seeing - for real - a chicken running around with its head chopped off.



There was plenty more to see and learn at Heartland Acres. And while, for me, it was a real education in something I knew very little about, I also think it would be enjoyable for those who do know a lot about farming because I would hope they could appreciate the history even more. I could imagine grandfathers taking kids and grandkids through there explaining "this is how we used to do this when I was young ...", or even seeing this as required touring for researchers at Pioneer, John Deer, or even value-added fields.

I'm not completely ignorant to farming - I read my share of Little House and I have lived in Iowa for almost 20 years - so not all the concepts were new to me, but I learned more about the incubation process (and thought of my friend Mandy's bad incubator/science experiment fiasco!), single vs double pulley systems, turning corn in to cornmeal, cream separators, the pilgrimage to Iowa to begin farming, the rise of farming, the farm crisis, and even a polite way to ask where your outhouse is. The center was packed with antique farm implements, farmhouse items, and vehicles. I was surprised to also find quite a classic car collection that I would think even Jay Leno would admire. Cars from a 1905 Ford to a 1981 Delorean were on display, including a couple program cars that only had a handful created. Perhaps knowing even less about cars than I do about agriculture, the cars were very pretty and shiny. That counts for something, right?



Heartland Acres also has a fully-stocked machine shed, live farm animals, a one-room schoolhouse, an event center and an ISU extension office on their grounds. It gave me a heightened appreciation for farmers and God's provision in general. Admission is $5 for adults. Two enthusiastic thumbs up, and that's just because I only have two thumbs to give.




GALENA, IL:
Galena comes from the word Galenium, a crystal made in nature with sulfur and lead. Galena was established as a mining town and was the largest city in Illinois in the early 1800s with 15,000. At that time, the Galena River running through town was 350' wide, able to hold several steamboats and shipping boats on its banks. After harvesting all the area trees to stoke the mining fires/kilns, the natural erosion control was depleted and, over time, the river was reduced to the narrow 'stream' it is today. Over time it was also discovered how poisonous lead was to humans, causing Galena to lose its primary export. Today there are just over 3000 residents in Galena, IL.


DeSoto House Hotel / Downtown Galena
While I've been to Galena before, I was fortunate to have won an overnight stay at the historic DeSoto House Hotel on Main Street so I met my mom there on Friday night. Built in 1855, the hotel has retained all its charm - grand staircase, elegant decor, lovely rooms, and they still used actual door keys instead of programmed key-cards like more modern hotels. And, for the first time there was bottled water provided in each room that was FREE for guests.

Galena's Main Street is probably what most people know about the area. It's a windy, historic street packed with unique stores and restaurants. Mostly fun stuff that no one needs, but definitely a fun window-shopping town where everyone is pretty friendly.





Ulysses S. Grant Home
Galena has had its share of famous visitors, but it was also home to our 18th President, Ulysses S. Grant. OK - I'll fully admit I don't know a lot about most of our presidents, and Grant is way up there on my ignorance scale. However, I learned this weekend that he wasn't the best of presidents, even though he was a great general and military leader. Among his successes, though were the anti-KKK legislation he passed, and his commitment to African American Civil Rights. In fact, Grant's parents didn't come to his wedding because they couldn't accept the fact he was marrying someone who came from a slave-owning family.



That said, Julia Dent Grant seemed to be sympathetic to African Americans, and, when land was cheap, she encouraged them to buy land to secure their futures. As First Lady, Julia was also always cordial to the White House staff, making daily rounds to make sure she spoke to each one. (Ulysses' parents eventually accepted both Julia and the marriage)

Actually, it was more interesting to learn about Julia Grant. She was the first President's wife to be called First Lady. In fact, the American people were so taken with her that they really called her the First Lady of the Land, a title which has never been used again for another First Lady. Julia truly embraced her role as First Lady and she was the first president's wife to send out her own press releases as she sought to help others. She was gregarious and hospitable. Galena loved her.



Dowling House

There is not much written about the Dowling House if you Google it or look on the Galena CVB website, and that's really a shame because it was really interesting and we had a very enthusiastic tour guide. The house is the oldest home in Galena. The first floor had served as a general store for Galena miners, and the second floor was the living quarters for the Dowling family.

The Dowling House was filled with antiques, and even if the majority of the items there weren't original to the home itself, however, they provided an incredible historical perspective. The average age of miners was 31 years old; for women, 38 years old. In addition to a hard life and consuming ridiculous amounts of salt due to the meat preservation process, lead covered everything - including every plate, cup and utensil. With such short life-spans, I guess it makes sense why girls were usually married by the time they were 14.

Speaking of marriage, inside the living quarters hung a needlepoint sampler. I always thought it was called that because it was a sample of different kinds of stitches. But apparently it was also called that so mothers could send their young daughters' works to potential husbands: "this is a sampler of what my daughter can do for you." Clearly, I'd be out of luck in the 1800s too!

A few other origins were revealed for common terms/phrases on the Dowling House tour. The beds they slept in were mattresses stuffed with hay that laid across a web of ropes holding the frame together held together, and had to be tightened often to keep the mattress from sinking. And, of course, the hay attracted all sorts of insects. Hence, "sleep tight," "hit the hay," and, of course, "don't let the bed bugs bite."

As mentioned earlier, Galena was a river town, so much of the town sloped down towards the river. As houses were built on the include, they had to be stablized. In the Downing House you can see an iron rod running through the whole house with bolts on the outside. When the house would start to lean because the walls were shifting due to the slope, two men would go to each bolt and tighten it to bring the walls back together, straightening up the house, as it were. In 'nicer' homes the rods were buried in the walls, and often on the outside of the home the bolts were covered by tin/metal stars. I've often seen those stars and thought they were always decorative, but didn't realize they were actually purposeful as well. In the photo below you can see the rod, with a towel hanging over it, as well as the hay-mattress, rope-tight bed.

On the way back from Galena, I was able to end Experience Summer 4 with a visit over dinner with friends in Waterloo. Drew & Angela are always a wealth of trivia, and as I told them about my experiences over the past 24 hours, they were able to enhance some of my education. I've always admired Drew for his goal to read through all the Presidents (reading at least one book on each of our presidents starting with Washington), so he told me more about Grant, including the fact that the reason he wasn't such a good President was because people really took advantage of him. Since he was a commanding general who troops followed unquestionably, Grant assumed others would follow him. However, apparently in the political world, people would say they'd do one thing, but either didn't follow through our would work towards their own agenda. Grant was apparently a good leader, but a poor manager.

But, hats off to Angela who gave me an even more interesting nugget that's closing out this week's Experience. Brown eggs come from chickens with brown earlobes. Don't question it. Just pass it on.

Until the next Experience ...