Born out of a gestation of a century worth of nostalgia and reverence, The Sawmill Museum shows why it is never too late to save your heritage. As early as 1904, a newspaper reporter lamented that the record of Clinton’s pivotal role in the development of the West was quickly disappearing. What were we to do?
Flash forward 99 years, and The Sawmill Museum, still just a nascent collection of notes on a paper, was born. Created by a group of Kiwanians, the Lumber Museum Steering Committee met, based on my notes, seemingly monthly from 2004-2006. It is clear that in 2003, the committee was meeting as well. The meetings still continue today.
The earliest note I have from these early meetings comes from February 29, 2004. Louise Laurent, Eric Johnson, Matt Brisch, Stephanie Kircher, Ron Kircher, and John Moreland met at St. John’s Episcopal Church. At the bottom of 2/29/04’s minutes is an invitation to a large number of Kiwanians to serve on the committee. Foremost for my time here being Don Ketelsen, Bill Killeen, Don Overland, Bill Rathje, and Bob Seger. All have been great help.
Meetings were constant, but the museum had no name, no home, and no official identity outside of the Clinton Kiwanis Foundation. The committee though did have a stellar mission. Kiwanis’s mission was to educate young and old on how the lumber industry operated and impacted the nation in the 1870’s-1900’s.
After February 2004, a much larger committee met regularly, seemingly monthly, to help establish the Midwest Lumber Museum. The effective date of corporation for the MLM was 11/15/2006. Not knowing all the details, the museum’s tax letter, saying congrats you now have a tax id, is dated July 14, 2009 with the effective date being 11/15/2006.
The early meetings mostly revolved around where to locate the museum. One of the locations suggested was St. Irenaeus Church. In fact, there was even talk that the new museum could host our “flapjack” breakfast. Another ideas was to build the museum on Joyce Island. The museum would be the shape of a giant saw blade. An actual blade on the outside would rotate, allowing people to spin around the museum. Later, an amusement park and an 1850’s village could be added.
In the end though, the property owned by McEleney and the gambling interests was always there. There is not enough space to delineate the entire location saga, but it is quite interesting to see the fluidity of who will end up with the Kehl/Bonnet/McEleney/Wild Rose property. At one point, event Clinton Schools entered the picture!
Finally, you see how much effort was exerted by Kiwanians and local leaders to try to get appropriations and funding for the museum: trips to D.C., getting appointed to the newly minted Iowa Great Places initiative (and winning!), obtaining CCDA money to help fund facilitation of the development of museum plans, and more.
One can’t stress enough how much work into the creation of The Sawmill Museum by the Kiwanis group and local leaders. The group answered the 100 year old call with the title of this piece. That title, set in clear font on front of our first brochure, showed why there was meeting after meeting to establish a home and a theoretical foundation for the museum. Today, our efforts are to capitalize on the sketches and dreams of a century plus of planning and to create a museum that makes people of all ages discover their roots. Stop by anytime to hear and see what we are working towards.
P.S. A name that is constant in all of this is still a Kiwanis member, Matt Brisch. I will admit that I had no idea he was the chair of the committee at one time. To me, he was the dad who came to our programs. So Matt if you read this, next time you’re in the museum, you can act like you own the place J
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