Nishna Heritage Museum of Oakland, Iowa

06/17/2026

Marilyn Mickey just dropped off these two items for the silent auction. She made them and Julie Ford did the quilting.

06/17/2026

Check out these items donated for our silent auction.

06/17/2026

06/16/2026

Andy Bingham donated his family Bible. Hazel Hough is listed with her birthdate in that Bible. She is standing in the front row of the schoolhouse photo. Her future husband Raymond Bingham is standing next to her and she’s holding onto his arm.

06/16/2026

Josh Spalti worked on the Oakland Savings Bank in 1900s building it in Classical style. It’s nice to see Jerry Pierce’s crew working to bring back the beauty of this century old building. On Sunday a tourist stopped to take pictures of our remaining original Main St architecture. He remarked how beautiful the bank building is.

06/14/2026

We are fortunate to have a real phone booth but probably not the one from Oakland at the end of Linden St near the telephone office.

The original phone booth was the brainchild of Thomas Dolittle in 1878 Connecticut. He used existing telegraph wires between Black Rock and Bridgeport. On each end he installed a telephone in small wooden booths and hired attendants to collect 15 cents from those wanting to make a call. Thus, the first ones were created. The idea didn’t take off until much later. During the 1950s-60s phone booths were ubiquitous in America and also in Europe. Cell phones have made them obsolete.

06/14/2026

On Friday George Voltz presented interesting information about the many uniforms we have in our military exhibit. The oldest one is from the Civil War and has beautiful buttons on it. Later the workshop kids walked to the Freedom Rock.

06/12/2026

Ann Miller gave her talk on dolls. The tiny ones she saved from Donna Jo Wright’s wedding shower over 70 years ago.

06/07/2026

We were just gifted this saddle from the Swope family. Shorty and his wife Dorothy were a couple who devoted many hours to getting the museum up and running fifty years ago. We’re glad to display this special saddle in honor of them.

06/07/2026

Donors are beginning to bring in items for Nishna Heritage’s July 4th Silent Auction. Layna Bentley is in charge. If you have items to donate contact her or leave a message on the museum’s answering machine.