In 1913, the Lincoln Highway became the first transcontinental highway in the nation, running from coast to coast, right through the heart of Iowa. When the Jefferson Highway stretched across the country north and south in 1915, the two major roads intersected in Colo.
Charlie Reed, a Colo farmer, decided to start a business at the site.
“The automobile was really getting popular, of course, in the early ‘20s, and Charlie had a farm that bordered the Lincoln Highway on the south and the Jefferson Highway on the east, two major transportation arteries,” said Scott Berka, former city clerk in Colo. “And Charlie, being the entrepreneur that he was, decided this would be an excellent place for a gas station."
Some drivers wanted to stay overnight in Colo, so Reed let campers pitch a tent on his land while he started building cabins, which eventually became a motel. His nephew also thought the corner would be a good place for a lunch stand, which eventually became Niland’s Café.
Berka started working at the gas station in eighth grade in the 1960s, riding his bike from his home on weekends to what was then a 24-hour operation, sometimes pulling 12 hour shifts when the full time staff were on vacation.
As well as serving as a one-stop shop for travelers, Berka said the Reed-Niland Corner was a fixture for the people of Colo.
“They came out and bought gas and ate at the cafe. When relatives came to town and they didn't have a little extra room in their homes, or it was graduation time or wedding time or whatever, they'd rent the motel rooms ... It was a local establishment as well as a national type establishment,” Berka said.
The City of Colo took ownership of the corner and restored it to its 1950s look in the early 2000s, reopening the café and the motel. But in 2025, the city was considering selling the property because of insurance and maintenance costs.
When Brenda McGuire found out she felt a responsibility to save it, afraid that it would be torn down by new owners who didn’t value the history of the corner.
“I thought 'This is something we've got to deal with,' so [I] reached out to some people, had a community meeting and formed a task force. Then later a board, and the rest is history,” McGuire said.
She and her collaborators formed Reed-Niland Corner, Inc., a nonprofit which purchased the property from the City of Colo in April.
Growing up in Colo in the ’50s and ’60s, McGuire said the café was a key part of the community.
“That was the hangout for the kids after ball games and things, so we were always up there, especially Friday nights and on the weekends, and it was a great place,” McGuire said. “You could get a Maid-Rite, you could get fries, you could get time to visit with your friends and just hang out.”
At a recent meeting, the Story County Board of Supervisors approved $30,000 to support the corner’s restoration and maintenance of the café, gas station and motel units.
Reed-Niland Corner, Inc. is also applying to be designated as a national historic site.
Though the gas station isn’t operating anymore, it’s now a museum, and updating the building and displays is part of the work ahead. Berka and other former employees are trying to make the station look like it did when they were working there.
“People seem to be fascinated to step in and see the old cans, the pictures, the ads,” McGuire said. “There's even a couple of weapons, a billy club that the guys used to protect themselves in case somebody came in.”
Jeanie Hau, the Lincoln Highway Heritage Byway coordinator with Prairie Rivers of Iowa, promotes tourism to communities along the byway and had been collecting the oral history of Reed gas station employees before the purchase of the corner. She said by preserving this site they're preserving the stories of the people.
“The communities were built around the Lincoln Highway, they honor it and they respect it,” Hau said.
The nonprofit is hosting an event on Sunday, June 14 to celebrate 100 years of Niland’s Café, 150 years of the City of Colo and a general celebration as part of America 250. Among the day's festivities are old fashioned games, face-painting, a pie eating contest, a dunk tank and bingo. The band Lincoln Highway and state fiddle champion David Bellegante will be performing as well. Attendees can also participate in an America 250 art project by painting large pieces of vinyl, which will be turned into lanterns and displayed at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in October.
Note: Reed-Niland Corner, Inc. is a sponsor of IPR.
To hear this conversation, listen to Talk of Iowa, hosted by Charity Nebbe. Samantha McIntosh produced this episode.
