Prairie Manor Continues Under New Owners

Room at Prairie Manor

One problem with giving advice about travel is that things can change quickly. Even a single season can change a great restaurant or hotel into one to be avoided. So it was with some trepidation that I made reservations in the Prairie Manor House Bed and Breakfast this summer, knowing that it had changed owners since I was last there. Housed in the former Banker Ruth house, I had stayed there twice previously when it was owned by Larry and Connie Cheney. I always told people it was my very favorite bed and breakfast in the world. Having stayed there under new owners, Andy and Jenny Todd, I can honestly and gratefully say it still is. The Todds, previously of New Jersey, fell in love with the town of De Smet on a Laura trip and purchased this B and B. They and their children seen to have adjusted very well to prairie life. They have been re-doing and upgrading the rooms, the one I stayed in had a private porch and jacuzzi that I wish I’d had time to use.

I think the breakfast were even better than before. My favorite was the

Pancake Man

pancake man which was incredibly cute and delicious. One thing I should mention as a heads up, they run the charge on your credit card to pay for the room about a month ahead of your visit. They mention it when you make your reservation, but I think it’s worth repeating here because this is the only the second time I’ve ever run into something like this at a hotel, so I doubt most people expect it.

Kingsbury County Honored

Kingsbury County is being honored as the November County of the Month. Read their write up about the county here:

http://johnson.senate.gov/sd/county/Kingsbury.cfm

Sloo and Slough

When I was in De Smet this summer, we were talking about the Big Slough and as always a quote from Emily of Deep Valley popped into my head. Other people in the conference planning group said they had the same thing happen to them. It’s so nice to be with people who understand you. I hope all our readers get that chance at the conference this summer.

Oh, and the other thing the quote makes pop into my head is Cherry Jones reading Farmer Boy. Jones, clearly not a farm girl, says hay mow (rhymed with row) instead of hay mow (rhymes with now). Every time I listen to it, I spend the whole time automatically correcting her. Now you can too.

Lovelace, Maud Hart. Emily of Deep Valley. New York: Harper Trophy, 2000. ISBN 0064408582

“The Deep Valley slough, pronounced sloo, was the marshy inlet of a river. When Emily had first read Pilgrim’s Progress, after finding it mentioned in Louisa M. Alcott’s Little Women, she had pronounced the Slough of Despond sloo, too. She had called it sloo until Miss Fowler had told her in English class that Bunyan’s Slough rhymed with “how.” Miss Fowler had made the correction in a casual unembarrassing way, putting her emphasis on the fact that Emily alone, out of the class, had read Pilgrim’s Progress.” pp.15-16.

Emily Webster, an orphan living with her grandfather, is not like the other girls her age in Deep Valley, Minnesota. The gulf between Emily and her classmates widens even more when they graduate from Deep Valley High in 1912. Emily longs to go off to college with everyone else, but she can’t leave her grandfather. Emily resigns herself to facing a “lost winter,” but soon decides to stop feeling sorry for herself. And with a new program of study, a growing interest in the Syrian immigrant community, and a handsome new teacher at the high school to fill her days, Emily gains more than she ever dreamed. This is one of three non-Betsy-Tacy novels she set in the same community of Deep Valley, a stand in for her home town of Mankato, Minnesota. Betsy and Tacy do make a brief cameo appearance. I love this book because it really depicts the time period so well.

Council Bluffs and the Transcontinental Railroad

Gen. Dodge House

When I visited Council Bluffs for the first time I was really surprised by how many railroad connected sites there are around town. Council Bluffs was chosen by Abraham Lincoln himself to be the starting point of the Transcontinental Railroad.

At the top of the city is the General Grenville Dodge House. The house was quite elaborate and  showing how well Dodge did becoming a self-made man with the army, the railroad, and his various investment businesses around town. Dodge first came to Council Bluffs when he was 21 and it was his base of

Dodge in Close Up

operations for the rest of his life. A powerful general in the army during the Civil War, Dodge was chosen as chief engineer of the Union Pacific Railroad. His engineering and leadership skills led him to almost single handily drive the construction of the eastern part of the Transcontinental Railroad. His role was so pivotal that he appears in the famous photo of driving the golden spike. He is just to the right of the center of the photo, reaching across to shake hands. Our tour of his home showed not only the opulence and ingenious up to date devices, but also the hands on programs that they have developed for school groups to give them a better idea of life at the time.

The Grenville Dodge House is located high on a hill in Council Bluffs. It was built in 1869 for a cost of $35,000. It had all the comforts and extravagances that you could get at the time and was designed by William W. Boyington, who also did Terrace Hill (now Iowa’s Governor’s Mansion) and the Gothic Water Tower in Chicago.

Of special interest was the temporary exhibit in the cellar on Lincoln’s connection to Dodge. When Lincoln came through Council Bluffs in the 1850s, Dodge was pointed out to him as the person who knew the most about railroads and Lincoln met him on a hotel porch and drew much information out of him about railroads in general and Transcontinental route in particular. Later, when he was ready to turn his attention to the issue as President, Lincoln remembered Dodge and called him to the White House for his input. This year is the Lincoln Bicentennial and we came across several special exhibits about Lincoln’s connection to Council Bluffs in this Lincoln Bicentennial Year.

Union Pacific Repair Center

Union Pacific Car Interior

The class I took this summer got to visit the Union Pacific Repair Center where we got the great experience to tour the VIP Coaches. These are classic coaches that have been restored and redesigned inside and out. These are gorgeous cars given incredible care. They can go up to 110 miles per hour. Their major competitor in Canada has cars that are restored inside, but can only go 30 miles an hour because they aren’t as solidly restored mechanically.

These special cars are for the use of Union Pacific executives and for special events. For example, they used these trains to create a temporary hotel for V.I.P.s at the Olympics in Salt Lake City (they built a temporary siding in a parking lot to park the train in) and to

Observation Car

create a special train ride for former President Bush’s 80^th birthday celebration. The cars are not available for rent, but are used as perks for Union Pacific executives and customers. My favorites were the car with a glass end and theater seats to watch the line and the other observation cars. If only all rail travel was like this.

Mayhew Cabin

John Brown Cave Sign

Our class crossed the border into Nebraska to visit Nebraska City, Nebraska. Here we toured John Brown’s Cave, otherwise known as the Mayhew Cabin. This cabin was the home of an abolitionist family. It was opened up as a tourist attraction, with the biggest draw being the cave underneath the opened up to the ravine behind the cabin. However, when the highway cabin through in the 1930s, the cabin was moved. This, of course, cut off access to the tunnel. Not to be detoured, the “preservationist” dug a new tunnel and showed it off to the tourists. A son of the

Recreated Tunnel Exit

family returned to the cabin in the 1890s and when shown the “slave hiding tunnel” told the then current owners that it was only the family’s wine cellar, but they remained unperturbed. Like the devoted promoters of the so-called Quilt Code today, they felt why let the truth get in the way of a good story.

http://www.mayhewcabin.org

Burr Oak Update

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Park and Museum in Burr Oak, Iowa recently put out an update of the museum and their latest events.

The visitor count for the last year was over 6,300. Every month, but April had an increase in attendance in 2009 over 2008. Director Steven Luse generously offered to take a 3 month furlough from his position over the winter months to help keep expenses down. Also they will be cutting hours over the last autumn and winter as the fewer number of visitors make the regular open hours less cost effective.

Fairview Cemetery

Dodge Angel Statue

The next sites were close together near the Fairview Cemetery on Lafayette and North Second Street in Council Bluffs, Iowa. This is the same cemetery that has Amelia Bloomer’s grave. When she was starting to enter her final decline, Ruth Ann Dodge (Mrs. Grenville) had a vision of an angel offering her the elixir of life.  After her death, her daughters commissioned Daniel Chester French (of Lincoln Memorial fame) to create a statue of a black angel in honor of the vision. It was put on one edge of Fairview Cemetery, although Mrs. Dodge was interned in a different cemetery. (Why they didn’t put it near her grave? I have no idea.)

Just past the other end of the cemetery, near a striking overlook is the large stone that is Lincoln’s Council Bluffs memorial.

Council Bluffs Lincoln Memorial

The marker is to memorialize all of Abraham Lincoln’s various connections with the city and the railroad. The area around it has be re-done several times and at some point an eternal flame, whose shaft is still part of the site, was allowed to go out. That’s always a sad thought. People are always so proud to start those eternal flames, but just how eternal are they?

Butler’s Laura Documentary Progressing

As those of you who have been following Dean Butler’s blog know that he has been working on his new documentary about Laura. He’s spent time in De Smet, South Dakota and at the Hoover library in West Branch, Iowa. An article in the De Smet News reports that they were filming from Thursday to Monday last week at the Memorial Society and at the Ingalls Homestead from Saturday and Sunday. Many cast members from the Wilder pageant this last year were called upon to act out scenes for the documentary. According to the news, the documentary will start with Laura’s marriage and cover how she became a writer. John Miller is supposed to be interviewed about the process of collaboration between Laura and Rose and several people are being interviewed about Native Americans and their portrayal in the books. Butler expects to shoot some 40 to 50 hours of film that will be edited down to about an hour long DVD. He expects to have it ready for sale by April 2010. A previous potential release date for the Almanzo video was eventually pushed back almost 6 months. No telling if a similar delay is to be expected with this publication.

Update on Wind Turbines

After my last post about the wind turbines (or Giant Windmills), I was shown  this page which shows photos of a tour of the wind turbine factory here in Cedar Rapids that Kirkwood’s Ecology Committee took. I agree they give you a better perspective on the size of these giants. Take a look for yourself and thanks to Genny Yarne who took and posted the photos.

http://www.kirkwood.edu/site/index.php?p=23490