Historic Walk Gets Young Visitors

Charlie Comfort is seen here giving his walking tour to the second group of Oskaloosa 5th Graders on Thursday. (Photo D.Hubbard)

History may not seem like a young person’s passion but, for one Oskaloosa native, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Junior Main Street has Charlie Comfort.

Jon Sullivan, Oskaloosa’s Chamber Director, said this project was started late last summer with Oskaloosa’s late Historian, Chuck Russell. Sullivan remembers the idea of a tour being brought up by Comfort, and in the end Russell gave him the idea of making the Historic Walking Tour. Russell then took the young historian around, showing him the historical significance of the different buildings. After all the research was done, the Walking Tour was presented to the community. You can read the book yourself by following this LINK.

Sullivan said that Charlie “Has been very enthusiastic about this, and he’s been waiting for Spring to get here.”

Comfort’s desire, then, was to be able to share it with an even younger generation than he represents. An invitation went out to the Oskaloosa 5th Grade class and 4 tours are being given that will involve every 5th grader having the opportunity to learn some interesting information about the buildings that make up the town they live in.

So, on Thursday and Friday, students are piling out of buses for a fresh new look at the downtown of Oskaloosa. Students walked along with Comfort as he pointed out and described such buildings as the Courthouse, the Centennial Block, The Book Vault, Smokey Row, and the statue of Chief Mahaska and last, but not least, the Bandstand.

Students were then quizzed about what they had just seen. Allie Hafner and Natalie Wayne said that their favorite part of the tour was “walking around and seeing all the different types of buildings that are in Osky.” Book Vault and Smokey row topped these young ladies’ favorite buildings on the tour, and said their reasons for liking those were that “It was cool that they still had the old features, and that they were made by people that we have heard of before.”

Spencer Little mentioned that his favorite part of the tour was the history of the different buildings. I asked Little if there was one that was his favorite. “No not really.” he replied. The Bandstand and the Statue of Chief Mahaska is some of what he likes about the downtown area.

Sullivan said this tour was part of a Preserve America Grant, and it worked with the Junior Main Street.

Comfort said about his tour, “I personally enjoy historic preservation. I think that it is important that we teach our youth about the history and heritage of our community. We want our youth to be proud of the community they live in and this is one way that we can help invigorate the pride.”