Rural School article

Iowa Rural Schools Museum, located in Heritage Square in Odebolt, was featured in the August 2017 issue of Family Living Magazine.

Click here to read it.

Museum Minutes

Click for the June 7, 2016 

Odebolt Museum Minutes

HOT in July 1936

ODEBOLT WEATHER 80 YEARS AGO, WITHOUT AIR CONDITIONING

The Odebolt Chronicle, July 9, 1936
Odebolt and the rest of Sac county saw the hottest day so far in the season and one of the hottest Fourth’s in a good many years Saturday, when the temperature here rose to 112 degrees.

High temperatures continued throughout the week, rising above the 100 mark every day since last Thursday.  The lowest temperature recorded here since early last Thursday morning was 68 degrees early Saturday morning.

Highs and lows recorded on the official thermometer at the Albert Dickinson company office during the last week were as follows:
Date              High           Low
July 2             94 56
July 3 104 73
July 4 112 68
July 5 110 80
July 6 103 79
July 7 102 78
July 8 102 80

Mule article about Adams Ranch

“The Mule Solution: Farming with Mules”, from Farm Collector Magazine

The article shares how mules were a very important part of the Adams Ranch’s daily operation. The museum has a copy of the magazine.  Click here if you would like to read it on-line.

The First Appearance of Blarney Stones in Odebolt?

from the Digital Archives of the Odebolt Public Library and the Odebolt Historical Museum:

Page 2 of the June 12, 1930 issue of The Odebolt Chronicle

In January 1930 The Odebolt Chronicle sponsored a free cooking school.  It was held in the basement of First Presbyterian Church, and was so successful that the May 29, 1930 issue of The Odebolt Chronicle announced another cooking school to be held June 10 to 13.  One of the sessions would include a meat cutting demonstration, local merchants would "co-operate to a far greater extent than they did before," and planners hoped that this cooking school would be bigger and better than the January session.  Sac County Electric Co. would provide Hot Point electric cooking ranges and a General Electric refrigerator for the classes.

Odebolt merchants placed many ads in the June 5 and June 12, 1930 issues of The Odebolt Chronicle.  These ads assured readers that the lady conducting the classes, Miss Gladys Looney, recommended what the merchants were selling.  Business owners set up display booths at the cooking school.  They also provided ingredients for the cooking demonstrations and donated prizes to be given away at the close of the cooking school.

The June classes were attended by 200 to 250 people each day, and must have provided a welcome diversion during those grim days of the Great Depression.

Among the many recipes demonstrated on Wednesday, June 11, was the above recipe for Blarney Stones.  Could this have been the first appearance of these Blarney Stone cakes in Odebolt?  For some Odeboltians, they've become a St. Patrick's Day tradition.

Presbyterian Bible School - May 1953

Here's a photo from many years ago, taken in front of the bridal wreath spirea at the edge of the Presbyterian Church lawn in Odebolt.  The tallest person in the back row is Rev. Albert Peters.  I'm wearing a light-colored dress, standing behind the third boy from the right who is seated on the grass.  Scroll down this page to read The Odebolt Chronicle article about the Presbyterian and Methodist Bible schools held at the same time.  Vacation Bible school was a fun highlight of the summer for many of us.

Odebolt's swimming pool opened for the very first time later that summer, on August 7, 1953.  (Read all about it at the Odebolt History Pages.)  We took Red Cross swimming lessons the following summer, passed the swimming test for the deep end, and whiled away many idyllic summer hours at the pool during our growing-up years.

I can put names to more than a dozen faces in this photo.  Who do you recognize?    - Bonnie

The Odebolt Chronicle, May 28, 1953

February 14, 1956: Girl Scouts Give Sweetheart Party

A Valentine's Day Party 60 Years Ago

Who do you recognize in this picture?  Click on it, then click again to make it larger.

Article from the Digital Archives of the Odebolt Public Library and Odebolt Historical Museum:
The Odebolt Chronicle, February 16, 1956

We now have another photo, thanks to Linda Trudeau.  Linda Trudeau and her dad, Larry Trudeau, are at the dessert table, followed by Karen and Kathy Wagner and their dad, Amos Wagner (holding napkin that covers Kathy's face).  Doris Johnson is behind the table arranging drinks.  In the group of men standing at the left of the photo, Bob Girvan is fourth from left, and Bonnie Girvan is beside him with her hand to her mouth.

We promised identifications for this photo originally posted on Valentine's Day 2016.  Can you help us with missing identifications?

Click on photo to enlarge it.

Dads, red numbers:

  1.  Lloyd Lundblad
  2. 
  3.
  4.
  5.  Lawrence Anderson
  6. 
  7.  Grant Langle?
  8.  Rev. Lyle Lieder?
  9.  Harry Sellman
10.  Kermit Johnson?
11.  Bob Girvan
12.  Amos Wagner
13.  Larry Trudeau
14. 
15.  Harvey Keller
16.  Charles Ferguson?
17.  Neil Lashier
18.  Vernon Loger
19.  Ronald Einspahr
20.

Daughters and Mrs. Worth, following circle counter-clockwise:
  1.  Julie Lundblad
  2.  Mrs. Worth (leading the folk dance)
  3.  Judy Lee Anderson (wearing a beanie)
  4. 
  5.  Patty Langle
  6. 
  7.
  8.  Linda Peters
  9.  Jennifer Sellman
10.  Susie Johnson
11.  Bonnie Girvan
12.  Linda Trudeau
13.
14.  Cheri Keller
15.  Jayne Lashier
16.  Polly Loger

Who played the piano?