Mahaska Coal Mining History On Display
You can learn more about coal mining in Mahaska County by visiting a display set up inside Penn Central Mall, provided by the Nelson Pioneer Farm.
Oskaloosa, Iowa – Inside the west hallway of Penn Central Mall stands a display of information on the history of coal mining in Mahaska County.
Margaret Spiegel, Curator at Nelson Pioneer Farm, said that other museums have had good luck with similar pop-up displays around the county, and the Nelson Pioneer Farm wanted to try it out as well.
Spiegel noticed there was a large amount of interest when Rachelle Chase recently spoke about her new Buxton book at William Penn University and the Book Vault.
Spiegel then dove into the library located at the Nelson Pioneer Farm. “We pulled some great visuals of things that we had in our collections and created 30 panels called “Snapshot in time – Coal Mining in Mahaska County.”
Spiegel explained they attempted to do a “wide swath” of different mines, from old photographs, newspaper articles, “anything we had.”
“It’s a very minimal interpretation, we just want people to see for themselves what the newspapers and the pictures have to say, and then if they are more interested in something else, they can either come out to our library, check out the collections at the public library, just dig in deeper however they want to.”
The display will move around within the mall during the summer as a nice way to remind people that the Nelson Pioneer Farm is open, and holds a lot more history to be discovered.
The Nelson Pioneer Farm opens for the season on May 1st, which will feature free admission to the farm.
Hours for Nelson Pioneer Farm are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 am to 4 pm. Sunday afternoons the Farm is open from Noon to 5 pm, with the last ticket being sold at 4 pm on Sundays.
Spiegel thanked Doty’s for printing the materials used in the display.
‘Laura’s Days’ are a popular event at Nelson Pioneer Farm during the summer, and this year it will be held all during the month of July, except while the Southern Iowa Fair is happening.
Spiegel says registration for Laura’s Days will open at the beginning of June, and will probably be capped at 30 kids or so per day.
“We’ve got eight different sessions the first two weeks, and then it’s repeated the next two weeks,” Spiegel explained.
Laura’s Days are based loosely on the life and times of Laura Ingalls Wilder. The Nelson Pioneer Farm “has a very tangentle connection. One of the children of the Nelsons went to the same school for the blind as Mary Ingalls did. Not at the same time. It was later than Mary Ingalls.”
For the most part, ‘Laura’s Days’ is built off the public recognition of the name of the famous writer.
