There's more to Madison County than covered bridges, and some significant historical preservation work will be on display at the Preserve Iowa Summit later this month.
On this edition of Talk of Iowa, Charity Nebbe hosts a conversation on historical preservation in Winterset and around the state. The product of preservation can be beautiful and powerful, but the process is expensive and can be difficult to coordinate. Brenda Hollingsworth, of the Madison County Historic Preservation Commission, says it is well worth the effort.
"Besides just the fun of doing the research, everybody likes a treasure hunt, and that's what it's felt like for us to dig through the resources and find the connections between people and buildings. Each of the architectural features in the buildings says something about the people who built them, and our early pioneers were people who persevered."
"We like to say that they're a community of true grit," says Hollingsworth.
Also joining the conversation: Paula Mohr, architectural historian and certified local government coordinator at the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, and Doug Jones, archaeologist for the State Historical Society of Iowa.
