Busy Days

Busy days have been experienced at the Iowa Rural Schools Museum of Odebolt since its official Grand Opening on June 15th during Creek Days.  The School Museum is open every Wednesday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and every Sunday afternoon from 2:00 to 4:00 throughout the summer.  Other visits may be scheduled by calling Odebolt’s City Hall at 668-2231 or Carol Raasch at 668-4285.

We estimate that that more than 250 people visited on Saturday of Creek Days and about 25 on Sunday, the 16th.  Since then, we’ve hosted more than 100 folks who have spent time with us.  Locations range from neighboring towns to Omaha to Kansas City, Des Moines, Orange City, Quad Cities area, Manning, the state of Oregon and the island of Guam!  Our hopes are that they may have also stopped to buy some gas or food while in town. 

We’ve had visits with a reporter from “The Denison Bulletin Interview” and a free lance writer who writes for “AgriNews”.  That article also was printed in the Rochester MN paper with which “AgriNews” has ties.

We are a presence on Odebolt's website, on the Odebolt Betterment Committee Blog and have a Face Book page where we keep updates and photos posted as well.  Together with the Peterson Pioneer Home and the Odebolt Museum, we are busy getting the word out that Odebolt has a lot to offer for visitors to experience as they spend a while with us.  We have received many compliments about the beauty of our community.

If you have not taken the time to visit your Iowa Rural Schools Museum of Odebolt, now is a good time!  It was a bit crowded at Creek Days, and we guarantee you will not see everything the first time through, nor perhaps the second.

We have the classic look of a Country School classroom, but also much more in the way of a museum, with items that were used in the schools from 1883 to 1951 when Richland #1 closed for classes.  There are maps, atlases, toys children played with at home (or perhaps, they were allowed to bring them for a special time at school), tools students may have used with their parents at home throughout those years, teachers’ books and guidebooks in teaching methods, grade book records from representative schools, books about early farming practices, textbooks and a wonderful collection of early primers…..and the list could go on.

But, we want you to discover what interests you in our collections, so do visit us soon at the Iowa Rural Schools Museum of Odebolt.