Day Trippin’ to Le Claire, Iowa

Date: 04/12/05

This time of year, many of us want to hit the road and get away for day. Mike Wolfe e-mailed me and suggested Le Claire, Iowa. He said the town's history and specialty shops were worth checking out.

For many it's the first stop in LeClaire. The Iowa Visitor Center features a great view, gift shop, and holds a wealth of knowledge.

Mike Boyle is just one of many picking up some of the 400-plus brochures on things to see and do in Iowa and Illinois.

"It's wonderful, he says. "It's the first time I've been here."

Information on the town's most famous son is what many come looking for. William "Buffalo Bill" Cody began his life of legend here. The town has a whole museum dedicated to the Wild West star's life.

"Rifles and various things that have been donated to the museum related to Buffalo Bill," says volunteer Bob Schiffke.

You'll find all sorts of town history at the museum. You can get an up close at a real steamboat.

"The Lone Star is an excellent example of the era and what brought LeClaire to what it is today," says Schiffke.

Volunteers now hope to restore and cover the boat.

The town is literally sprinkled with history, from antique shop to antique shop there are plenty of rare finds. John and Fae Zimmer own Rare Find Antiques. The store is filled with American Primitives--antiques made around or before 1860.

You can find a rifle made before the Civil War, or some furniture pieces that date back to the 1700's. Expect to pay for the history, prices here range from around $50 up to the hundreds.

Whether buying or just looking at the history, many come from miles around to experience the rebirth of this town.

May is a good time to visit LeClaire. The Buffalo Bill Museum opens for the season May 15th, and the town celebrates Market Days throughout the month.

As always if you have a favorite place to go day trippin’ let us know...just drop Julie a quick e-mail at julie.sisk@wqad.com.

Buffalo Bill Museum turns 50

By Mary Louise Speer | Monday, June 11, 2007

Quad-city Times

LeClaire, Iowa — Accomplishments happen because of people who care enough to do something.

Fifty years ago, members of the LeClaire Women’s Club put their energies into founding a museum and preserving visual vignettes of the city’s history. Today their project is known as the Buffalo Bill Museum.

On Sunday afternoon museum supporters celebrated the 50th anniversary with a pork roast and founders celebration on the LeClaire riverfront levee. The event was sponsored by the LeClaire Lions Club.

“I have to confess, I never actually joined the LeClaire Women’s Club,” said Phyllis Dearing who was a young mother with small children in 1957. “My mother came to the house one day, plunked down my membership card and said, ‘you’re going to enjoy this, honey.’”

She added, “I did.”

The women combed through their attics for historic treasures and organized fundraisers to make their vision come true, Dearing said. She is part of the 64 “Founding Mothers” of the Buffalo Bill Museum.

The names of each of the founders were read aloud during the ceremony. In a few instances, the founder read her own name, but most were remembered by relatives, friends or the museum’s board of directors. Mary Ahlgren, the museum’s executive director, and supporter Mary Stoddard, of LeClaire, spent several months trying to trace all the women and invite them or family members to the anniversary celebration.

Most of the 64 founders lived in or near LeClaire. Most were wives and mothers, and a few were shopkeepers.

Ruby Stuff was recalled as a wonderful lady who loved the library, and Minnie Kleeburg was a lady who always looked impeccably clean and poised, even after an incident where a baby spit up on her. Club member Eleanor Parker was a published parliamentarian.

“I can remember my father saying what does a “published parliamentarian” do in LeClaire,” Mary Stoddard said. “She was an expert on parliamentary procedure and published a book.”

The museum is named in honor of showman Buffalo Bill Cody of the Wild West Show.

Many of the treasures inside the brick building came from the founders’ attics and reflect a heritage that begins with the Native Americans, to the farmers, settlers and river history, said Debra Smith, a member of the museum’s board of directors.

“I think the whole community owes them a debt of gratitude for being able to save the heritage of the community,” she said.

The founders’ interest in history occurred at a time when the nation was coming out of the Great Depression, Stoddard said.

“Those women’s vision was unique. I think about my father who was fifth generation and didn’t want anything old,” she said. “But there was a core of women and others like Otto and Delores Ewoldt who wanted to preserve the past.”

Unfortunately, part of the city’s history left town in the early 1930s when Buffalo Bill’s childhood home was cut up and taken to Wyoming, Lois Suiter O’Malley said. “I remember that house. My father was so angry about that. He said that house should never have left LeClaire,” she said.

No doubt, if that house was still in LeClaire, it would be part of the museum’s treasures. The museum’s collection of the past includes the Lone Star steam sternwheel tow boat.

“When I look back at the humble beginnings of the museum and what we have today, I think mighty oak. (But) I think we still have things to do. It is only a tiny acorn growing,” Dearing said.

The city desk can be contacted at (563) 383-2450 or newsroom@qctimes.com.

QC-Times

Lone Star Steamer: Building of shelter to begin in April

Story

LeCLAIRE, Iowa — You can’t move the boat. You can’t undo the dry rot that made it fragile.

Still, the Lone Star steamer must be protected somehow. It’s a dilemma that architects and contractors are pondering while they plan a shelter for the wooden-hulled steamer on permanent exhibit at the Buffalo Bill Museum in LeClaire.

A groundbreaking ceremony for the shelter is set for Feb. 25. Completion of a 35-foot high shelter cannot come soon enough for the aged lady of the river who has seen too many rainy days. However, keeping the 66-ton boat intact during construction presents challenges because of the Lone Star’s delicate condition that has resulted from dry rot.

“The biggest concerns have always been dealing with the boat. Initially it was thought we’d want to move the boat out of the way — and put it back,” said architect Perry Gere of Gere Dismer Architects LLC of Rock Island.

But several experts who have examined the 138-year-old steamer have advised not moving it, he said. The best solution is to excavate underneath and shore it while pouring a concrete base, Gere said.

Basically, that process is similar to creating a basement under an existing house, he said. Construction crews will scoop out dirt underneath and secure the boat in a cradle to get the work done.

Build to Suit of Davenport will oversee the project as general contractor. Building a glass and metal structure over the Lone Star is “like putting the Figge (Art Museum) over the art work. Everything is in place, and we’ve got to protect and preserve it,” said Kevin Koellner, president of Build to Suit.

The work will begin in late April or early May depending on weather and take five to six months.

Contractors and subcontractors will need to coordinate the construction with the city’s streetscape and road project on U.S. 67 (called Cody Road) in downtown LeClaire and summer festivals such as the Tug Fest in August, he said.

Koellner is pleased with having a part in saving the boat.

“I don’t know if anyone’s done this in this area before,” he said.

The Buffalo Bill Museum raised $750,000 for construction of the shelter that includes a matching $250,000 grant from the Vision Iowa Board.

Museum curator Mary Ahlgren looks forward to having the job finished almost 40 years after the Lone Star sailed to LeClaire on its final voyage. The boat is a tangible reminder of the rivertown’s past history as the dwelling place of gutsy river pilots and crews.

“It’s really difficult to put yourself back in the late 1800s when there were hundreds of boats going up and down the river,” she said. “You see boats now, but you don’t see the multitude you saw back then.”

So many of the wooden hulled boats blew up or sank after getting snagged on underwater impediments, she said. The Lone Star is the last link to those many hard-working craft.

The city desk can be contacted at (563) 383-2450 or newsroom@qctimes.com.

By Mary Louise Speer | Monday, February 19, 2007 11:49 PM CST |

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