HISTORY

The Mills County Historical Museum is owned and operated by a group of volunteers called the Mills County Historical Society.  The Museum does not get governmental support of any kind.  An admission is charged and the society holds fundraisers of different kinds.  The admission at the present time is $2.00 for anyone 12 or over, $1.00 children under 12 and those 5 are free.  The land, on which the seven museum buildings stand, is right in the middle of the Glenwood Lake Park.

The Museum, Lake Park and Davies Amphitheater went together and had all the parking paved.  This was a great asset to all three.  The three also went together to purchase the new sign welcoming everyone to Glenwood Lake Park and other information.  Golden Hills RC&D out of Oakland had a grant for signs and they paid for one half the cost.

Schools are encouraged to bring their students, as this is a very educational institution.  We need to know about the past in order to plan our future.  At present a charge of $1.00 per student for all schools who are booked ahead of time.  Several schools bring youth every year.  They are all different ages.  The younger ones look for something in the museum, which begins with every letter in the alphabet.  The older students have a scavenger hunt.

To become a member of the Society, a fee of $25.00 is charged for a lifetime membership.  An annual fee of $5.00 can be paid.  For a membership a person gets the satisfaction of supporting our fine institution and get to serve on the Board if asked. 
Volunteers serve without having to be on the Board and are always needed.

The Museum is a non-profit organization and is run by a Board of nine members.  All meetings are open to the public.  There is no set time for the meetings but are called as needed.  The by-laws require a meeting be held at least one time a year.

The Mintle Family of Glenwood built the main building of the Museum, in 1959.  They felt it would be good to invest their money in something in Glenwood rather than something out of town.

In the early 1960’s, the Mintle Family added wings on the north and south sides of the building as the Board wanted a special room for the Native American Artifacts.  The south wing, lower floor, was used for this.  There are a very large number of artifacts on display but it is only about one third of what the museum possesses.  Our goal is to have a paid curator who can identify and classify items so the number of items on display can be increased.  The number of hours the museum is open could also be increased if a curator could be on duty.

In 1983 the Dtelef/Fischer family decided to donate some of the furniture from their parents home.  Katie Hamann was the youngest of the three daughters and was instrumental in getting this done. They created a four-room cottage and porch in the north wing, lower floor.  The big feature in the cottage is the player piano with 120 rolls of music.  This is played for visitors.

There are six rooms upstairs in the old part of the main building, including the north and south wings.  This houses the County Store, Clubs and Lodge, Chapel, Mintle Room (Spinning Wheels), Children’s Room, Toy Room. Drug Store and others. 

In 1994 money was received from the Ray Thomas Trust and build on a good-sized addition with two floors.  This contains the military room, map room and upstairs is the music room and Craig Cottage.

In 1988 an old barn was donated, torn down, and reassembled on the museum grounds.  Many new parts had to be added as the barn was old and in very bad shape.  It has three floors and contains old farm equipment, mostly horse drawn.  One of the main attractions in the barn is a hand carved, life sized mule with harness on it.  This was carved by one of our former board members, Les Hunt.

The town of Henderson, Iowa, abandoned their jail and was going to bulldoze it in.  The people of the town tore it apart brick by brick.  It was rebuilt on the museum grounds with funds from Otha Wearin.  It was added to the museum complex in 1989.

In 1994 the museum was given an outhouse to go with the country school.  This cannot be used so a plexiglass doorway was sealed in so everyone could see but not enter.  The catalog on the bench fascinates the children who visit.  The outhouse came from the Charlie and Genny Hunt Farm.

The Country School was built about two miles north of Glenwood in 1881 and used in that location until country schools closed in early 1960’s.  In 1963 the building was moved to the museum complex.  It contains desks, books, etc. to make it as authentic as possible.

Since the museum complex was built on a hillside, the school building had to have a basement.  It contains office and entertainment equipment.

In 1967 the Machinery Hall was constructed on the complex with 100 x 60 foot floor space.  In 2005 another 100 foot was added making it 200 x 60 foot of floor space.  The biggest attractions here are the old trucks, cars and tractors.  Three kitchens of different eras have been set up.  There are two very old voting booths, which look like the new ones we use now.  There are ballots so votes can be written on the Museum tour and the ballots placed in an old ballot box.

In 1987 a Burlington Northern Caboose was moved in.  It contains railroad memorabilia.

Outside lighting between the buildings, has been installed so tours can be taken at night. 

The next large project, besides getting a curator, is insulating the machinery hall and adding one more floor on the Thomas Addition.  An elevator could then be added.  At present the entire museum is handicapped accessible except the barn loft.  It is just unhandy to get to each place.  Outside sidewalks have to be used to get from one floor to another.

The museum does not purchase items.  All items are donated unless purchased with memorial, grant or donated funds.  There are over 8000 items inventoried and indexed on cards and in the computer.  There are over 1000 donors, which are all numbered.  All donor numbers, item numbers and locations go into the records of each item accepted by the Museum.  If an item is moved or deleted the records have to be changed.

The museum has about 100 volunteers.  Some of them come every Friday.  A few ladies quilt and funds from the quilts help support the Museum.  In 2006 the Museum had more volunteer hours than any other organization in Mills County. 

The museum has two large fundraisers each year.  One is Keg Creek Days, which in 2008 will be August 23 and 24.  The other is the Parade of Trees in early December.  Others may be held, as it is felt necessary.

The main reason for Keg Creek Days is to draw people to Glenwood and the Museum.  The day starts on Saturday with entertainment, bingo, sidewalk parade, baby contest and other fun things.  There are food booths on the grounds.  On Sunday the day is started with a pancake feed by the Museum.  During this time there is entertainment going on in the Gazebo north of the main building.   A concrete patio has been added in front of the main building to make this a good place for the breakfast.  There is a pie contest and the pies are then sold on the grounds to help with expense.  There are also food booths on Sunday on the grounds as well as craft and information booths.  Demonstrations are going on in the museum during the day.  The Antique Machinery Club always celebrates on that day with games, food and a “Parade of Power”.  They do much to support the museum.

 

For the Parade of Trees, everyone is invited to decorate a tree. They are decorated in many unique ways, not the traditional way.  Many are decorated with a person’s collection such as thimbles, bluebirds or angels.  No charge is made to set up a tree and the museum does furnish a tree if requested.  There are usually 30 to 50 trees.  The youth compete with each other and not the adults.  Cash prizes are given to the winners.  Persons who pay admission and vote for their favorite decide the winners.

The museum is grateful for all donations of cash as well as items.  All donated items have to be accepted by several members of the board.  Memorials are received in memory of people who have appreciated what the museum has done for the community.  Fire extinguishers and exit lights are some of the items purchased with memorial funds.

EARTH LODGE

In the early 1930’s people started finding evidence of earth lodges in the Loess Hills around Glenwood.  Archeologists were called in and they checked the ones which were found.  When highway 34 from Glenwood was built over the hill to Interstate 29, many earth lodges were found.  The archeologists were again called in.  This delayed the finish of the highway for about two years.  Many of the items found there are on display in the museum.  As the items were carbon dated, it was found those people lived around the area from about 900- to 1400 AD.  From all the information uncovered at that time, a group of people from the area formed a society.  This was called the Glenwood Earth Lodge Society.  They started building a reproduction of the lodge using the information found in the excavations.  It has been a good attraction for many people to see how the people lived so many years ago.

There are about 200 known earth lodge sites in this area.  There have only been about 70 excavated.  A group is trying to get them protected so no more will be destroyed.  Many of them are on the Glenwood Resource Center land.  They may be able to get this protected.  Most contractors would not report a site if they were building as they would have to wait for the State Archeology to finish their findings.

The first lodge was built and lasted about 14 years.  In 2004 the roof caved in and some of the timbers collapsed.  The Society, along with Golden Hills RC&D, received grants to build a new lodge.  The old lodge was burned August 28, 2005 in a special ceremony.  A new one was built in 2006 and dedicated Keg Creek Days August 27, 2006.  The heavy snow and heavy rains during the winter of 2004 and 2005 did the damage to the old lodge. 

There is a charge to get in to see the lodge.  An appointment may have to be made.  There is a replica of the lodge in the Mills County Historical Museum.  There is also a film showing the unearthing lodges when Highway 34 was built and a film showing the building of the first lodge.  The films can be viewed by appointment.

When the Society started building the first lodge they ran into some powdery soil.  They had to move the structure to the east.  They sent the dust to be tested.  It was volcano dust.  It was under the big hill, which had been used for fill to build the bridge across Keg Creek.

All content and images copyright 2007 Mills County Historical Museum
Mills County Historical Museum - 2 Lake Drive, PO Box 255, Glenwood Iowa 51534 - 712.527.5038