Preserving Lone Tree’s unique history

By Molly Roberts
Posted 10/14/21

Dale Johnson has never had a Lone Tree address, but he considers Lone Tree his hometown. He was born on a farm eight miles north of town and went to country school until fifth grade, when he started …

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Preserving Lone Tree’s unique history

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Dale Johnson has never had a Lone Tree address, but he considers Lone Tree his hometown. He was born on a farm eight miles north of town and went to country school until fifth grade, when he started attending Lone Tree’s school, where he graduated in 1952. Johnson is one of the founding members of the Lone Tree Historical Museum, which just celebrated its 20th anniversary on Sunday, Oct. 10.

He said he treasures the museum for giving younger generations a chance to learn about the city Lone Tree used to be.

“Younger people don’t realize that we used to have three grocery stores in this town, we had two opera houses, we had meat markets, we had car dealers — you didn’t have to leave Lone Tree to buy anything,” Johnson said. “We had everything here.”

The museum, located at 203 S. Devoe, houses a varied collection of items and artifacts from people who have lived in Lone Tree — everything from vintage wedding dresses, to old yearbooks, to an antique stump puller.

“Lone Tree had one of the first steel factories on this side of the Mississippi River,” Johnson said. “They made, of all things, a stump puller. There are two of them out here in the yard. They were shipped all over the world.”

Suzie Elliott, who volunteers at the museum, actually lived in the house at 203 S. Devoe, where her father ran a veterinary practice, Mossman and Elliott, starting in the early 1950s. She said she enjoys seeing her former home turned into a place that values history.

“A lot of towns and small as Lone Tree don’t have anywhere where the history is preserved,” Elliott said. “[The museum] needs some new life, so there are a bunch of people trying to create more interest in it so we can do some repairs.”

Building improvements on the horizon for the museum include new windows, structural reinforcement, carpet replacement and electrical upgrades. At the anniversary celebration, the museum offered homemade baked goods, ice cream and other refreshments for freewill donations.

Elliott and Laura Galloway have been volunteering that museum since May, helping to clean and organize the collection.

“The historians are passing away and the younger generation doesn’t really keep up the history, they’re so busy with life. Life is so much busier for them, so there should be a place where they can come and just relax and look at a little history about their town, where it came from,” Galloway said. “This museum is for the future generations so they can have some place to call their own.”

Johnson said some of his favorite memories over the museum’s 20-year life include taking school children through the museum, listening to their questions and seeing them light up when they find some artifact that interests them.

Nancy Westlake, another volunteer at the museum, said she hopes more school groups will come through the museum soon.

“Lone Tree history is part of Iowa history,” she said. “The pioneers came here and there was the one tree. They settled here and built a town and the farms flourished. It’s part of the way Iowa was developed. If the kids don’t know that, they don’t know their own history.”