YOU ARE HERE!
by
Carolyn Saul Logan
Carl Spellmeyer, Norm Caldwell’s right hand in the museum building & repair department, is in a 1928 Chevrolet 1-ton Capitol Series truck and he is lost. He was heading for the Humboldt County Museum but here he is at the junction of 16 and 10, according the sign!
Norm Caldwell, president of the Humboldt County Historical Association, tells Carl that he is at the Museum—specifically in the Clancy Building. That 1928 Chevrolet 1-ton Capitol Series truck doesn’t go anywhere.
And that road sign Norm is holding for the intersection of 16 and 10?
Carl doesn’t believe him. “The Museum is on county road P56!” he tells Norm.
So what’s going on here? After conferring with Humboldt History Guru Pat Baker we find the both Carl and Norm are correct. Road 16 is the north-south road that goes by the museum and Road 10 is the east-west intersecting road. Mabel Erickson dug up this road sign that is so old that no-one but Pat and Mabel know what roads it shows.
Don’t let this sign throw you off your course to the Humboldt County Museum. Our Museum is one of the best in Iowa and you can spend days there enjoying its treasures. Each of the buildings on the Museum grounds houses a rich array of appropriate historical objects.
The Mill Farm House is a lesson in gracious Victorian living, from the roomy ballroom to the Summer Kitchen at the back. Time spent in the Log Cabin points up the differences in the two ways of life. The pot shed and its big iron pot was extremely useful on the farm—boiling clams from the river, dying fabrics, providing boiling water when hogs were slaughtered.
On a recent tour, a fifth-grader pointed out that it could also be used as a hot tub! There you are—the inventive mind of youth. I’m sure Carl Parsons, who donated the huge iron pot and its shed, never once thought of turning it into a hot tub!
The Red Barn, the School House, the Jail and Hen House are close by—Hardy Church is off to the left and the latest addition to the grounds, the Clancy Building, is off to the right.
The exhibits in this building are being developed—at the moment there is a bank, a post office, a photography studio, numerous old cars (including the 1928 Chevrolet 1-ton Capitol Series truck that Carl is “driving,”) and numerous pieces of as yet unidentified antique farm machinery and other machines. There is also a three-hole outhouse that will be moved out to the grounds as soon by Norm and Carl fix the roof, put on a door, and generally spruce it up.
Come out and spend a great day at the Humboldt County Museum, located one mile east of Dakota City on County Road P56. Just to be sure you don’t get lost, here is a map.