Art, history, geology make Floyd County special

By B.J. Smith

One stop on the self-guided Historic Homes Walking Tour sponsored by the Charles City Historic Preservation Commission. Photo courtesy Charles City Chamber of Commerce

One might expect to find some of Grant Wood’s work in an Iowa library or museum (and one would, of course), but Picasso, Rembrandt and Salvador Dali? In Floyd County?

Yep, right there in the Charles City Public Library’s Mooney Art Collection. The collection includes original paintings, engravings, etchings, woodcuts and prints left to the city in 1941 by photographer Arthur Mooney.

The arts and U.S. history figure prominently in Floyd County’s ongoing celebration of its cultural heritage. Work by local and regional artists is on display in the Charles City Arts Center  and on a walking tour of “art that you can sit on.”  There’s an arts festival every August and the North Iowa Bluegrass & Oldtime Music Jam  every month.

On a walking tour of historic homes,  visitors can learn about Carrie Chapman Catt,  who played a leading role in obtaining voting rights for women. Her girlhood home is on the tour. Vintage tractors are on display at the Floyd County Historical Museum.  The Marble Rock Historical Society  draws visitors to its own historical museum, a rural living museum and a pioneer kitchen.

Fossil collectors can take home a bit of ancient history from the Fossil & Prairie Center  in Rockford.  The center has miles of hiking trails in addition to the fossil quarry of limestone and shale. (”Tools are not necessary.”)

In Nashua  (which is shared with Chickasaw County), you’ll want to take some pictures of the Little Brown Church in the Vale  – immortalized in the song “The Church in the Wildwood” – and maybe enjoy some boating or fishing at Red Cedar Lake.

If you’re still up for a little exercise after all that touring and fossil hunting, take a bike ride or a hike along the five-mile-long Charley Western Recreational Trailway. 

Source: Charles City Chamber of Commerce

Cities in Floyd County

Charles City pop. 7812
Colwell pop. 76
Floyd pop. 361
Marble Rock pop. 326
Nora Springs pop. 1532
Rockford pop. 907
Rudd pop. 431