| HERITAGE MUSEUM |
| To Preserve and Celebrate Our Midwest Rural Heritage |
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Open Daily - Memorial Day to Labor Day 8:00 am - 4:30 pm
Open Weekends - Memorial Day to Labor Day 9:00 am - 4:30 pm
Open Monday - Friday: January to Memorial Day & Labor Day to December 8:00 am - 4:30 pm
Adults $5.00 per person
Kids 10 and under free with adult
Group Tours and Rates are available.
To set up a Group Tour please call 319-385-8937
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| Richard E. Oetken Heritage Museums |
"Dedication Ceremony" - August 28, 2010"
A new interpretive museum exhibit entitled,
"Traction Steam Engines: The Golden Age of Threshing in Iowa"
The exhibit will celebrate the ear when steam was king on the farms of Iowa and the Midwest. The display will include three
full-sized steam engines,an operating full-size separator, four scale model steam engines, and will occupy 4,000 square feet
of floor space in the museum.
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| Come visit the Heritage Museums where you can step back into our agricultural heritage. We
invite you to climb aboard one of the many traction steam engines, including the largest steam
engine a Case 110 horsepower. You can even sit behind the wheel of an antique tractor or taken
a look at the Stationary Steam Engines with a Murray Corlliss engine display.
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Family Farm House
Take a stroll through a 1915 family farm house that depicts a home of an affluent family filled
with artifacts typical of this time period. As you continue through the house you will enter
the interpretive exhibit "Women: Partners on the Land". This exhibit deals with the impact of
women on the economic and social unit of the "family farm".
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Women Partners On The Land
The work of farm women was, right from the start, a partnership. No value too great can be
placed on her cooking, cleaning, sewing and raising children, which made rural families strong.
One of the most popular exhibits, you'll be reminded how different life was for these Partners
On The Land.
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Peterson Farm
You will come upon the Peterson Farm Implement display. This exhibit recreates a dealership
much like ones that could have been found in almost any small Midwestern town in 1939.
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American Farm Implements
The American Farm Implements exhibit shows the progression of implements that allowed the
farmer to produce more with less effort. The display will conjure up many thoughts of how
things were done in years past.
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Marvin Mill
In 1994 Old Threshers obtained the Marvin Mill. Joseph Hiram Marvin owned and operated a
buckwheat mill on the north side of Fayette, Iowa. Farmers drove wagon loads of corn and
wheat to a protective overhang, dumping the grain through a trap door where a conveyor carried
the grains to the second floor. The second floor of the mill held the corn sheller and grinding
stones imported from France. Accessed by a ladder, the third story held the fanning mill and
the flour sifter. The final step involved running the flour through a sifter covered with silk
cloth, and packaging the buckwheat flour, graham flour, or corn meal.
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Changing Seasons – Farmall Grows America
Changing Seasons conveys to the visitor the evolution of the row crop tractor from 1930 to 1960. The
exhibit follows the natural progression of farming technology using International Harvester implement. The
history of International Harvester, a tractor timeline, the story of IH collectors and the restoration movement
is told through photographs, text, and implement displays. The end of the exhibit features a 1960’s
International Harvester dealership with related IH products as well as a parts counter.
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Electricity - Comes To The Farm
The exhibit showcases both self-generated electricity and electricity acquired for the family
farm through rural electric cooperatives. The advantages for rural farm electrification brought
new things to the farm like irons, washing machines, refrigerators, and vacuum cleaners. You
will walk into Grandpa's Barn an exhibit entitled "A Vanishing Landmark", displaying a tack and
harness area, shop, planting artifacts, and a hay fork collection.
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Water: Too Little...Too Much
This exhibit will focus on these two basic problems that faced the turn-of-the-century
farm: Water...Too Little, Too Much. When too little water existed on the land, some means of
raising the water to the surface had to be employed. However, too much water rendered the land
less useful for farming. This exhibit features artifacts used to acquire and hold water for use
on the farm and also displays relics that were used to remove excess water, making the land
usable for tillage.
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The Wilma Bussey Doll Collection
The newest exhibit in the Heritage Museum is a large antique doll collection from the Bussey
Family of Granite Bay CA. The dolls, which vary greatly in age, type, and value, are a dream
come true for the Hawkeye Doll Club, who have become the care takers of the dolls for Old
Threshers. See if you can find the doll you had as a child.
Click here go to doll page
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Printer's Hall
The newest exhibit in the Heritage Museum is Printer’s Hall. The exhibit follows an historic timeline of printing
from the first time the first settlers crossed the Mississippi. The exhibit includes a 1870s Hand Press, various
kinds of platen presses, cylinder presses as well as handset type. Printer’s Hall is the home of the "Threshers Bee
Newspaper", printed for the first time at the 2006 Reunion.
Click here go to Printers Hall page
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The Heritage Museums offer many more artifacts
to take you back in time...
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