River to River

Dexter, Iowa's Drew's Quality Chocolates and Valentine's Day go hand in hand

Jason Adams, owner of Drew's Quality Chocolates in Dexter, Iowa. Photo by Becky Carlyle. Copyright Dallas County News.

By Becky Carlyle, Dallas County News

Valentine’s Day is almost here and area businesses are gearing up. Sweet treats are one of the many options for Valentine’s Day gifts.  

Drew’s Quality Chocolates, which started in New Hampshire, has a history that goes back to the early 1900s.

Lloyd Drew and his wife Helen received a black walnut fudge recipe from a cousin back in New Hampshire. They decided to set up their candy store out of their home in Dexter, Iowa off of former Highway 6. Mrs. Drew put a sign outside their little white house, noting they were now a candy shop.

During the Christmas of 1926, the Drew family decided to make one thing, that black walnut fudge. Many motorists and truckers stopped at the candy store and their candy making efforts proved to be a success. In 1927, a hole was dug off of their house to make a basement candy shop. This is where Drew’s Quality Chocolates remains today.

Jason Adams, the current owner of the candy store, is a seventh-generation owner. Lloyd Drew was a second cousin to Adams.

Drew’s Quality Chocolates said they are the only company in the U.S. that still uses the chocolate making technique called fork-dipping. Smaller companies use a hand-dipping technique and large companies use an enrober chocolate making machine. The reason why Drew’s Quality Chocolates sticks with fork-dipping, is because it allows them to dip many different chocolates in one day.

Visit Drew's Quality Choclates Facebook page for gift ideas for your special Valentine! Drew's For Your Valentine!

To purchase Fourth Wall Films'  Emmy-nominated River to River: Iowa's Forgotten Highway 6 or other award-winning documentaries on DVD, click HERE!

You can also get the River to River: Iowa's Forgotten Highway 6 DVD at the Wilton Candy Kitchen in Wilton, Iowa right on Historic Route 6!

 

Notorious Bonnie and Clyde escaped to Dexter, Iowa on Historic Route 6

Dexfield Park, Dexter, Iowa on Iowa's Historic Route 6. (Courtesy Dexter Museum, Dexter, Iowa.)

Dexfield Park, once Iowa's largest amusement park, thrived in Dexter, Iowa for approximately 18 years. By July 1933, it was an abandoned field off of Route 6, and the perfect place for bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde and the Barrow gang to take shelter and doctor their wounds following a major shoot-out at the Red Crown Hideout in Platte City, Missouri.

By this time the Barrow gang consisted of Bonnie and Clyde, Clyde's brother Buck--who was severely wounded in Platte City, Buck's wife Blanche, and a teenager named W.D. Jones.

Dallas County, Iowa Museum Assistant Rail Stray wrote: "A man named Henry Nye, out hunting wild blackberries on his property, came across the camp. He found a bloody map, a shirt with blood stains and used bandages. It seems that Mr. Nye was not the first to discover the camp of the Barrow gang. A troop of fourteen Girl Scouts led by Della Gowdey, camping at the old pavilion of the park, took an early morning hike and walked right into the Barrow Gang campsite. Maxine Schell "Hadley," a member of this troop, said the campers acted quite surprised. She had no idea who they were. Della and the other girls said good morning; Maxine remembered the campers smiled and returned the welcome.

Henry Nye contacted John Love and the two men returned to the park together. With binoculars, John could see two cars parked in the campground. He decided to contact Dallas County Sheriff Clint Knee and find out if any outlaws had been reported in the area. The Sheriff informed him of reports about the Barrow Gang being around. Not knowing if this was the Barrow Gang or not John Love told him to bring his "heavy artillery" and come to Dexter."

In the early morning of Monday, July 24, 1933 the Barrow gang was ambushed by a posse of approximately 50.  Every member of the Barrow gang was injured during the firefight. Blanche Barrow was captured and jailed and her husband, Buck, died five days after the gun fight at Dexfield Park.

A wounded Bonnie and Clyde managed to escape on foot and steel a car to make their getaway from Dallas County. 

A little less than a year later, only two of the Barrow gang would still be alive, and it wasn't Bonnie and Clyde. 

Bonnie and Clyde. (Courtesy Dexter Museum, Dexter, Iowa.)

Make sure you visit the Dexter Museum in Dexter, Iowa on Historic Route 6 to get the complete Bonnie and Clyde story, see the amazing museum collection, and see the park where the Barrow Gang shootout took place.

Dexter, Iowa's history is featured in Fourth Wall Films' Emmy-nominated "River to River: Iowa's Forgotten Highway 6".

Dexter, Iowa's history is featured in Fourth Wall Films' Emmy-nominated "River to River: Iowa's Forgotten Highway 6".

To purchase the award-winning documentary, visit FourthWallFilms.com!

Stream the film at https://vimeo.com/ondemand/highway6movie.

You can also get the "River to River: Iowa's Forgotten Highway 6" DVD at the fabulous Wilton Candy Kitchen in Wilton, Iowa right on Historic Route 6!

At the Intersection of "Country School" and the "River to River" road

The 1876 Schoolhouse appears in the award-winning documentary Country School: One Room - One Nation and the Emmy-nominated documentary River to River: Iowa's Forgotten Highway 6.

Little did we know that while filming the 1876 Schoolhouse in Coralville, Iowa for our documentary Country School: One Room – One Nation that we would reach an “intersection” with a future project about the historic transcontinental Highway 6.

Situated on the original Highway 6 alignment, the beautiful two-story, red-brick country school is a “must see” historical museum operated by the Johnson County Historical Society.  The school was built on a small acreage donated by the Ezekiel Clark family, accommodating classes for grades 1-8 on the first floor and a gymnasium and auditorium on the second floor—no doubt, the floor where many Christmas programs were presented to the rural community.

Fourth Wall Films' Kelly Rundle shoots interior footage of the 1876 Schoolhouse for Country School: One Room - One Nation. The film was nominated for a Mid-America Emmy.

The structure served as a place for learning until 1951.  Through the years, the schoolhouse has been used for various other purposes, including a recreational center for teens and a warehouse, before it was put to use as a museum.  The restored two-room schoolhouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 and is open by appointment by calling 319.351.5738.

Visit: www.johnsoncountyhistory.org  for more information about the 1876 Schoolhouse in Coralville, Iowa (just off of Iowa's Historic Route 6). 

For more information about Iowa’s Historic Route 6 and the annual River to River Retro Road Trip visit https://www.facebook.com/usroute6iowa.

River to River: Iowa's Forgotten Highway 6 is available on DVD HERE!

Celebrating Juneteenth: Iowa's Hitchcock House off Route 6 Holds a Secret

On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers led by Major Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas with the announcement that tens of thousands of African-Americans had been emancipated and were now free.  The announcement came two-and-a-half years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation  freed slaves in Confederate states. But because that proclamation was made during the Civil War, it was ignored by Confederate states and it wasn’t until the end of the war that the Executive Order was enforced in the South.

Newly freed slaves celebrated emancipation with “prayer, feasting, song, and dance”. The following year, the first official Juneteenth celebration was born.

In honor of Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day or Jubilee Day, we look to a tiny town in Iowa and its connection with the abolitionist movement.

Historic Highway 6 cuts through some of the prettiest rolling territory in Southwest Iowa. Just eight miles southwest of Atlantic, Iowa (home of the Atlantic Coca-Cola Bottling Company) and just a mile south of Route 6 is the tiny town of Lewis, Iowa--population 400.

Edwin Perkins, the inventor of Kool-Aid, is touted as Lewis' most notable person.  But if you venture a touch west of the village, you will find situated on a hill overlooking the western bank of the East Nishnabotna River the historic Hitchcock House.  

Featured in the award-winning documentary River to River: Iowa's Forgotten Highway 6, the two-story structure was built in 1856 by Reverend George B. Hitchcock, and the Hitchcock family called it home until 1865. 

The house became an important part of the Underground Railroad, when Reverend Hitchcock, an abolitionist, provided sanctuary to approximately 200 escaped slaves. The Hitchcock House is one of a very few remaining Underground 'stations' in Iowa.

The Underground Railroad by Charles T. Webber, 1893.

"The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early to mid-19th century, and used by enslaved African-Americans to escape into free states and Canada. The scheme was assisted by abolitionists and others sympathetic to the cause of the escapees. Not literally but metaphorically a railroad, the workers (both black and white, free and enslaved) who secretly aided the fugitives are also collectively referred to as the "Underground Railroad", as Wikipedia notes. 

Fugitive slaves would cross the Iowa border from Missouri, and also slip over from Kansas into Cass County, Iowa where the Hitchcock House was a welcoming safe haven. The Hitchcock family risked violating federal law in helping the slaves.

The Hitchcock House underwent a major restoration in the 1980s, and is a National Historic Landmark interpreting the history of the Hitchcock family and the Underground Railroad. It is also part of the National Park Service Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.

Hitchcock House is located at 63788-567th Lane, Lewis, Iowa. Contact 712-769-2323 or visit www.hitchcockhouse.org for more information, special events, and tour guidelines. (COVID-19 restrictions and regulations may impact the schedule, so do contact them ahead of time.)

To purchase Fourth Wall Films'  Emmy-nominated River to River: Iowa's Forgotten Highway 6 or other award-winning documentaries on DVD, click HERE!

You can also get the River to River: Iowa's Forgotten Highway 6 DVD at the Wilton Candy Kitchen in Wilton, Iowa right on Historic Route 6!

Trainland U.S.A. North of Colfax, Iowa, an Historic Highway 6 Must-See!

Trainland U.S.A. in Colfax, Iowa. A Historic Route 6 must-see! (Photo courtesy Chicago Tribune--all rights reserved.)

About at the halfway mark on Iowa's Historic Route 6 you will find the village of Colfax--just 25 miles east of Des Moines. Once a turn-of-the-century mineral water health resort, Colfax boasts an historic downtown business district with small-town flavor. It is home to the Jasper County Fair, Mineral Springs Days, Demolition Derby, and the Colfax Country Christmas. Local eateries offer award-winning pizza, Mexican food favorites, the Cratty Shack's old-fashioned ice cream and fabulous sandwiches, and the Thirsty Turtle to quench, well, your thirst!

A Colfax-visit must see is Trainland U.S.A., an operating toy train museum. Sure to please the young and the young-at-heart, the museum depicts the development of the railroad across the United States, and represents three eras of time: frontier, steam, and diesel. 

Trainland USA's website notes that "all scenery is handpainted and the entire layout is glass enclosed.  Four control panels create an automated train control system with their own telephone communications.  There are approx. 60 operating Lionel accessories still in their original state. "

Open Memorial Day through Labor Day 10AM until 6PM. Trainland U.S.A is located at 3135 IA-117, Colfax, IA (a few miles north of Colfax).

For more information and admission prices, click this link: TrainLandUSA!

To purchase Fourth Wall Films'  Emmy-nominated River to River: Iowa's Forgotten Highway 6 or other award-winning documentaries on DVD, click HERE!

You can also get the River to River: Iowa's Forgotten Highway 6 DVD at the Wilton Candy Kitchen in Wilton, Iowa right on Historic Route 6!

RABRAI Riders Stop in Several Historic Route 6 Iowa Towns

RAGBRAI photo by Brian Powers/Copyright Des Moines Register (All rights reserved).

It's RAGBRAI time again!  This year's seven-day bicycle ride across the state brought cyclists from all over the world through the Historic Route 6 Iowa towns of  Council Bluffs, Atlantic, Wiota, Anita, Adair, Casey, Menlo, Stuart and Dexter.

In its 47th year, RAGBRAI is the oldest, largest and longest recreational bicycle touring event in the world.  The RAGBRAI route averages 427 miles of often times rolling Iowa landscape with approximately 8,500 riders participating in the journey.

RAGBRAI cyclist and friend Troy Turley shared this Route 6 photo he took during in a previous tour. Thanks for sharing, Troy!

Safe and happy riding, journey-men and women! Enjoy the people, history, food, sights and sounds of these wonderful Iowa communities.

To purchase Fourth Wall Films'  Emmy-nominated River to River: Iowa's Forgotten Highway 6 or other award-winning documentaries on DVD, click HERE!

RAGBRAI Riders travel through Iowa Route 6 towns

The Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI), an annual seven-day bicycle ride across the state, will be traveling through several Highway 6 towns--Newton, West Liberty, Iowa City, Atalissa, Moscow, Wilton and the final destination Davenport!  

Heading into its 46th year, RAGBRAI is the oldest, largest and longest recreational bicycle touring event in the world.  The RAGBRAI route averages 468 miles of often times rolling Iowa landscape and this year's participants is about 10,000 riders.

Route 6's Newton, Iowa City and Davenport are Host Cities along this year's route.  For more information about RAGBRAI, visit www.ragbrai.com.

Keep an eye out for the riders and give them a thumbs up, honk, wave and wish them a great and safe ride! 

#RAGBRAIriding6

To purchase the award-winning and Emmy-nominated River to River: Iowa's Forgotten Highway 6, visit http://www.fourthwallfilms.com/dvds.htm.

"Everyone eats at Harlan's" on Route 6 - Saying goodbye to Harlan Hagberg

Harlan A. Hagberg, 93, an historic fixture himself on Historic Route 6 in Davenport, Iowa, and later a resident of Brandon, Florida, passed away on May 21, 2018.  He was a WW2 veteran of the Marine Corps, and a fixture in the Iowa-llinois Quad-City area restaurant business for many years.  

It was the early 1950s when he bought the Triangle Truck Port in Davenport. He later changed the name of the restaurant to HARLAN'S Fine Food, coining the phrase on the menus “Everyone eats at Harlan's.”  The iconic image of Historic Highway 6 jammed with semis and traffic during a massive Iowa blizzard, with Harlan's Fine Food a safe haven for the weary and hungry traveler, was incorporated into the restaurant's menu.

He and his wife Shirley ran the restaurant in Davenport until the early 1980s, turning over the business to Harlan's son, Jeff.  Harlan and Shirley relocated to Brandon, Florida to retire.

Harlan's Fine Food Restaurant is still open for business, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner daily from 6:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m.  at 3905 Hickory Grove Rd. in Davenport. 

Harlan's Facebook page touts: "Since November 23, 1953, real home cooked meals at a reasonable price has always been the Harlan’s philosophy for every meal of the day!"

A celebration of Harlan Hagberg's life will be scheduled later this summer.  Thank you, Harlan, for your service to our country, and to providing us with a spot on Historic Route 6 to fill our coffee cups, visit with our neighbors, enjoy fine food and memories.  

To read the full Quad City Times obituary, click HERE.

To purchase the award-winning and Emmy-nominated River to River: Iowa's Forgotten Highway 6, visit http://www.fourthwallfilms.com/dvds.htm.

Happy 88th Birthday to Nancy Drew

Did you know that Nancy Drew's original ghost-writer, Mildred Wirt Benson (aka Carolyn Keene) was born and raised in Ladora, Iowa, a small hamlet located right on Historic Route 6?

Mildred graduated from the University of Iowa in 1925 with a degree in English, and returned two years later to become the first student to earn a Master's degree in journalism at the college. 

She worked 58 years as an American journalist and authored a number of children's books.  But it was the early Nancy Drew mysteries she is best known for.  Wirt-Benson is credited for creating the independent, spunky and adventurous spirit of the female sleuth that captured young girls' imaginations.

"From the very beginning Nancy exhibited all the qualities that have made her beloved by generations of readers. The teen sleuth was the last brainchild of Edward Stratemeyer, owner of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, who had already created such popular series as the Bobbsey Twins, Tom Swift, and the Hardy Boys.  Seeing a need for a girls’ mystery-adventure series, he created Nancy and hired a young journalist to write the stories based on plot outlines that he provided her. The Secret of the Old Clock,by “Carolyn Keene,” was published in 1930 — the same year that Edward Stratemeyer died. His daughter Harriet Adams carried on the work of supervising the series and later wrote many of the books herself," Nancy-Drew.Mystery.com notes. (Read more at the site by clicking HERE.)

Happy 88th birthday, Nancy Drew! And thank you, Mildred Wirt Benson, for creating her for all of us to enjoy these eight decades later.

Order Fourth Wall Films' Emmy-nominated RIVER TO RIVER: IOWA'S FORGOTTEN HIGHWAY 6 and learn all about the Nancy Drew connection! http://www.fourthwallfilms.com/dvds.htm

Ladora Bank Bistro ~ Another Treasure on Iowa's Highway 6

Ladora Bank Bistro offers a unique experience in dining, serving the
worlds finest wines, beers and a delectable small plate menu.

"I was on a motorcycle ride and I liked the back highways and byways, and of course, Highway 6 is a beautiful highway.  I was on my way from Grinnell to Iowa City on a certain sunny day, drove into town and saw this gothic-looking structure in the middle of corn fields and dilapidated buildings and just thought, 'Wow, what is this?'  I was immediately drawn to it.  I decided I was going to make it into something!” said Dimitri Makedonsky.

"Under all the dust and grime, you could tell this was a special place,” said Colleen Klainert.

Dimitri Makedonsky and his fiancee Colleen Klainert, the proprietors of Ladora Bank Bistro, sat down to do an on-camera interview for the upcoming documentary River to River: Iowa's Forgotten Highway 6.

Dimitri Makedonsky & Colleen Klainert, proprietors Ladora Bank Bistro.

Their elegant wine bar is housed in a magnificently restored 90-year-old bank in the village of Ladora, Iowa right on Highway 6.

Colleen:  “It’s terribly out of the way and we decided that’s one of the advantages and that we are not what you would expect.  You’re in a small town.  You’re in a rural community.  You sometimes have to pass combines and slow moving tractors to get here.  But you walk in and it feels like a corner of a fancy neighborhood in Minneapolis.  It feels like something more than that.  People are taken by the elegance of this building.”

Dimitri:  “Being a destination location makes it even more impressive.  The Bank has really been a magnet for us to get to know so many diverse groups of people and so many interesting people from all walks of life.  We would have never had that opportunity if it had not been for this venture and this building."

The Ladora Bank Bistro draws patrons from all over the country to sample from a list of 85 fine wines and 40 different beers from around the world, and indulge in the slow-cooked small-plate culinary menu prepared to perfection by Colleen (with help from Dimitri).

Dimitri:  “The great thing is that a lot of our offerings come from Iowa. La Quercia Prosciutto, which is a world renowned Prosciutto, we carry it.  Maytag Blue Cheese, which is out of Newton, Iowa, that’s just down the road, and we carry their cheeses.  So, when you use local ingredients that have a national and even worldwide appeal it gives us a lot of credibility.  And, when you can sit in a beautiful setting like this with your friends and family and enjoy a really nice glass of wine, everybody wins.  It’s really enjoyable."

Colleen:  "One of the things I noticed when I moved to Iowa [from Minnesota] was that every small town has a gem.  There is at least one beautiful building from the past that’s sitting there and probably falling in on itself.  Traveling along Highway 6 I’d like to hope that in some way our venture here is an inspiration for the next guy who drives by an old, beat up gas station and says, 'Hey that looks like a really cool General Store' or like something a community might want to support.  Highway 6, like so many small town rural highways, can be the opening for a lot of opportunities and possibilities."

Dimitri:  "You’re not going to see franchises like Arbys or McDonalds along this stretch of road and that’s a great thing.  It’s about supporting local businesses and the local community.  And, the money you spend along Highway 6 is going to stay really close to home.  It’s not going to filter into some big conglomerate."

Dimitri: “We are nostalgic people. The Bank makes us nostalgic. The highway, the small towns and communities off the beaten path and the only way to get to them is on Highway 6. It’s Iowa’s version of Route 66.  It is our romantic little highway."

Ladora Bank Bistro is open Thursday, Friday and Saturday 4:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. and Sunday noon until 6:00 p.m.  It is located at 811 Pacific Street, Ladora, Iowa.  Reservations are encouraged by calling 319.623.7766.  Visit  www.LadoraBank.com for more information, wine/beer list and menu.

Watch for the Ladora Bank Bistro in the documentary River to River: Iowa's Forgotten Highway 6, now in production and anticipated release in 2013.

Walcott's "Castle" on U.S. Highway 6

 
Castle Hall in Walcott, Iowa on U.S. Highway 6

By Dave Darby

One of the more interesting sights in Walcott is “Castle Hall” Built in 1905, the designer intended to replicate the Balmoral Castle, an old Norman stronghold in Scotland. When first built, the metal panels that cover the framework were gray.  Beneath the tower is a basement dungeon that was once the subject of much speculation.  Originally the home and business of Doctor Henry Schumacher, his residence was on the second floor, while the pharmacy was on the main floor.  Quite the eccentric, Dr. Schumacher kept a pair of plaster of Paris skeletons in the basement dungeon, painted with phosphorescent paint to awe his visitors.  After the doctor passed away in 1934, the first floor was used as a “beer parlor.”