Des Moines, Iowa

15 July 2013

 

Spent a night at Doniphan, Nebraska which is just east of Gran Island. On our drive there from North Platte, we took a detour to Hastings where the museum has a very nice exhibit on Kool-Aid. The exhibit pays homage to the inventor, Edwin Perkins, and his genius at marketing products. He was inspired by Jell-O and thought he could create an instant fruit drink that could be as successful.  It took a bunch of experiments – he was kind of an amateur chemist – but he came up with a winning formula in the late 1920s. The exhibit shows the evolution of Kool-Aid and its marketing through the decades. As we entered the last room of the exhibit, we could smell Kool-Aid in the air (you know what that smells like, right?) Isn’t it amazing how a certain smell will just bring up all sorts of childhood memories?  Kool-Aid does that for me.

Hastings is a very nice town and pretty prosperous looking.  Not sure why they are doing so well compared to the other towns we have seen so far. There used to be an armory there that manufactured over 40% of the military’s munitions, but that has been closed for many years now.

We decided to take a long driving day and head to Des Moines, so we arrived on Saturday, rather late. We are spending several days at this campground since there are several things we want to visit and we will be starting our family history research in the state archives.

On Sunday, we went to the Living History Farms where you walk through time from 1700 to 1900, visiting farms that represent the Ioway Native American farm in 1700, early settlers in 1850 and a typical 1900 farm. You also can visit an 1875 town laid out with several businesses, homes and a church. Each site has interpreters who add a lot by explaining the site, the culture and the historical context. Since we have ancestors who settled in Iowa between 1850 and 1880, the farms helped me to appreciate what kind of lifestyle they probably had. We finished the day at the Machine Shed restaurant which serves home style dinners.  Very tasty!

I found out that the archives aren’t open on Monday, so we did more sightseeing.  Toured the covered bridges of Madison County.  There are six of them and we drove down lots of gravel roads to get to them. The tour starts in the town of Winterset, which is also the site of the Fons and Porter quilt shop. I watch the Fons and Porter quilt show whenever I can on Saturdays and I was looking forward to visiting their shop. The town square is quintessentially mid-west with a beautiful courthouse in the center. The shop was very nice, but not extraordinary.

Tomorrow, we will visit the Guthrie county courthouse and public library.  Perhaps a cemetery too, if there aren’t any thunderstorms going on.  Weather has been warm and muggy, but not stormy for the past few days.  Then on Wednesday, the State Archives.

 

Perkins was forced to change the name to Kool-Aid because only products with real fruit contents could use "Ade".

 

I remember the mascot on the left.  The one on the right is a more recent mascot. Now they use a computer generated mascot in their commercials.

 

A beautiful sculpture of a pair of sandhill cranes in front of the Hastings Museum.

This commemorates the escape of two brothers from an Indian raid in the middle 1800s. They were hit by arrows, including one that pinned the two together.  They survived and lived into adulthood.

 

We apparently took the back road to our campground in Doniphan.  The trailer got VERY dusty - inside and out.

This is the trail through time - a very nice nature walk between the farms in the Living History Farm.

An Ioway dwelling around 1700.  The natives were farming corn and other crops and hunting bison.

 

The interpreter at the 1850 farm explaining how the land was tilled and what crops were grown.

Inside the 1850 cabin. I recognize the dutch ovens!

 

 

The 1900 farm reflected the vast improvements in technology since the 1850s. By this time, the railroad had come to Iowa and the horse was the primary instrument for farming.

 

The buildings were built from milled wood rather than hand hewn as in the 1850 farm.

Big difference in the size of refrigerators from 1950 to the current day.  I have to say, though, I recognized everything in the 1950 kitchen - flashback to my childhood.

View of the 1875 town, minus the horses and buggies.

 

Iowa early on gave the vote to women, then took it away. 

The rich family's mansion in town.

The courthouse in Winterset.

Wintersett's downtown square.

 

The very nice city park in Winterset had this tower at the end of a dirt road.

View of the Iowa countryside from the top of the tower.

 

One of the covered bridges of Madison County.

 

 

 

Birthplace of John Wayne in Winterset.  Teeny home from the 1800s.