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Museums along the byway MESkWAkI MUSEUM

The Meskwaki History Museum recently opened in
Meskwaki History Museum: features Middle Amana Communal Kitchen June 2011. The center features exhibits, a gift shop,
displays on historic and modern Meskwaki and Cooper Shop: the only fully intact
life; primary resource center for all Meskwaki communal-era kitchen in the Amanas; both library and archives, and public outreach activities.
historical information in Iowa. buildings constructed 1863.
Exhibitions
Meskwaki Bingo Casino Hotel: large, well- Communal Agricultural Museum: housed in
planned exhibit space at entrance, including an 1860s ox barn in South Amana. Visitors begin their experience with a large color
dance regalia, other artistic works, and map documenting the Meskwaki presence in North
historic artifacts. Homestead Store Museum: in a former
c. 1863 general store in Homestead, this America and placing the tribe’s history in the context
Tama County Historical Museum and museum highlights commerce, industry, and of other Native American tribes. Beginning with the
Genealogical Library: the 1870 county the relationship between the colonists and earliest depictions of the Meskwaki from the 1700s,
jail now contains displays relating to Native the outside world.
Americans, Czech, and other early settlers; and featuring artifacts from the Grand Village site in
Tama. Homestead Blacksmith Shop: displays and Wisconsin on the history of the Fox Wars, the story
living history regarding metal working and unfolds in chronological order around the 1,200 ft
2
Pioneer Heritage Museum in Marengo: printing, housed in an 1864 blacksmith shop.
displays and buildings, including log cabins, gallery. Exhibits reflect the Meskwaki perspective,
1861 depot, and 1930 filling station. Community Church Museum: built in 1865 explaining the impact of government treaties and
as a church, today the museum focuses on land cessions, attempts to remove the tribe from
Belle Plaine Area Museum: the facility the spirituality of the Amanas; Homestead.
features exhibits on the military, locally their homeland, and the establishment of the
collected prehistoric artifacts, the Lincoln Mini-Americana Barn Museum: largest Meskwaki Settlement in the 1850s.
Highway, and the Jumbo Artesian Well––a known collection of over 200 exact
gigantic well that took more than a year to miniature replicas built by one person, local The exhibits represent myriad aspects of Meskwaki
cap� woodworker Henry Moore; South Amana. material culture, ranging from clothing and regalia
Amana Heritage Museum: the primary Opa’s Tractor Barn Museum: an 1883 to tools and equipment. The tribe owns all displayed
museum facility regarding Inspirationist horse barn houses tractors, memorabilia, and artifacts, all of which offer visually stunning
history; includes 1864 communal residence, displays; West Amana. evidence for the study of cultural traditions and
1870 school, outhouse, washhouse, and Philip Dickel Basket Museum and tribal artistry. Documentary films about the tribe,
woodshed.
Gallery: tribute to the last active communal created in 1954, 1967, and 2001, can be viewed,
High Amana General Store: combines a basketmaker in the Amanas; West Amana. and interpretive panels interspersed throughout
museum venue within an authentic and still Industrial Machine Shop Museum: this the exhibit emphasize the central themes of
operatring 1858 general store.
1861 locksmith/machine shop now houses a survival, adaptation, and cultural persistence. Upon
museum and active artisan-blacksmith shop; leaving the gallery, visitors will have a greater
Amana.
comprehension of the history of the tribe and
understand the context in which the tribe has lived,
both in the past and in the present.