Tourism

A collection of carved clocks created by the Bily Brothers, Frank & Joseph. Also housed is a exhibit in memory of the famous Czech Composer Antonin Dvorak. A small admission fee is charged. Tours are given regularly.

In the early railroad years, Calmar had 22 tracks of communication. All passengers got off in Calmar, to visit or stay in the area.

This depot was partially restored in 1989 and the canopy restored in 1998. It is currently a tourist information center and Calmar museum operated by Whistle Stop Antiques who occupy the front of the depot building. It is the beginning of the Prairie Farmer Bike Trail which was established in 1989 on an old railroad bed.  Public handicap restrooms are available
from outside the building on the bike trail side (south).  The Calmar Depot is on the National Register of Historic Places!

Effigy Mounds National Monument is located 3 miles north of Marquette, Iowa off highway 76. Established by presidential proclamation in 1949, the Indian mound building culture that regularly constructed mounds in the shape of mammals, birds, or reptiles. The monument contains 2,526 acres with 195 mounds of which 31 are effigies.

The visitor center, located at the park entrance, contains museum exhibits, an auditorium and book sales outlet. There are no lodging or camping facilities in the park. Visitors may look at the mounds, spectacular views from bluffs along the Mississippi River and more than 100 acres of prairie by walking along 11 miles of hiking trails. No roads exist in the park. Three mounds are accessible to disabled visitors in the immediate vicinity of the visitor center.

Was built to keep the Winnebago Indians on Neutral ground after their removal from Wisconsin in 1840 and to provide protection for them from the Sioux, Sauk, Fox and from white intruders on Indian land. The annual Fort Atkinson Rendezvous Days happens the last full weekend in September. It is FREE to the public and gives visitors the opportunity to witness what frontier life in the 1940’s might have been like.

This nationally recognized landmark is the only childhood home remaining on its original site. Her little house books have thrilled children and adults alike with tales of pioneer life since 1932. The “missing link” in her series of books was the year she spent in Burr Oak and comes between her stories of “On the Banks of Plum Creek” and “By the Shores of Silver Lake”.

Over 40,000 visitors come to the Little Brown Church each year, and over 400 weddings are performed annually. In June of 2005, the 72,000 wedding was held at the church. The congregation is alive and well with an active Sunday School, youth groups, choirs, ladies? fellowship, Bible study, a prayer chain group, and weekly services at 10:30 on Sunday. They remain, as they were founded, a Congregational Church. The song continues to be sung in a little church that is painted brown and sits in the wildwood.

Locust school was in continuous operation for one hundred and six years. Reportedly this is an Iowa record for a school building on its original site.

The school was built in 1854, six years after the Winnebago Indians ceased occupation of the neutral ground. The village of Locust had been surveyed and settled two or three years earlier.

To ensure that future generations of students would not forget the days of one-room schools, the Locust School Society was founded in 1965 to preserve this unique school. It’s limestone structure is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, the Winneshiek County Historical Society presently owns and operates Locust School. Open Memorial Day through Labor Day Saturday & Sunday afternoons. On W38 at A26.

Journey into the past at the home of Iowa’s 12th governor, William Larrabee and Anna Larrabee, his wife. Enjoy a guided tour to see and hear how the Larrabee family furnished and maintained this 1874 vintage brick and natural limestone mansion for more than 100 years. All of the furnishings are original to the house. the State Historical Society of Iowa owns and preserves Montauk which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is designated as a State Preserve.

Open noon to 4 .m. daily, Memorial Day weekend to October 31. Open other times by special arrangement for group tours.

Niagara Cave is one of the most fascinating and unique geological attractions in the United States. During the one-hour guided tour, visitors will witness a waterfall, nearly 60 feet high, stalactites both delicate and massive, calcite flowstone, fossils that have been dated to over 400 million years old, and a wedding chapel in which over 400 weddings have been performed, plus much more.

Niagara cave is a constant 48 degrees year around, so a light jacket or sweatshirt is suggested. Walking shoes are recommended. Also, because there are several sets of stairs on the cave tour wheelchairs and strollers can not be used on the tour. However, the gift shop is wheelchair accessible.