Despite tornado, community rallies to clean up Historic Brown Farm

CENTRAL CITY - Doris Nordstrom wants people to know one thing about Pioneer Days: The show will go on.

For Nordstrom and 30 to 40 other volunteers in the Central City area, the past several weeks have been dedicated to cleaning up the Historic Brown Farm, especially after a tornado swept through Eastern Iowa last Wednesday, knocking down trees, the old chicken coop and taking down the electricity lines on the farm.

Two 50-year-old walnut trees and a pine were brought down during the storm, scattering limbs throughout the property. Nordstrom said when the cleanup crew first began, the gravel path down the property was covered in destruction.

But optimism has driven volunteers over the course of the past two weeks to make light of the damage, the community coming together to overcome a looming deadline - Pioneer Days.

The Historic Brown Farm hosts Pioneer Days every year and will celebrate its 10th anniversary on Saturday, July 29, and Sunday, July 30.

The event - which has grown from a one-day event seeing roughly 200 people to a two-day event with about 2,000 - showcases farm machinery and highlights how Iowa farm life has evolved over the past century.

The farm previously was owned by Lloyd Brown of Central City, who died in 1988. He collected antiques and farm equipment, and since his death, his 84-acre farmstead has been turned into a museum now owned by the Central City Historical Society.

The Brown family had gained ownership of the farm, founded in the 1860s, at the turn of the 20th century.

David Goodlove, owner and operator of Goodlove Farms, said in an earlier interview with The Gazette that by trade, Lloyd, who was the last to inhabit the farm, was a junk dealer. The historical society inevitably ended up inheriting a lot of his collection.

Joe Ruley, vice president of the historical society, has been a large part of the cleanup.

Lost in the tornado was the Brown Farm's old chicken coop, which had been storing an old carriage, end tables, wheels and other collection items by Lloyd.

Ruley said the storm split the roof in half and blew it in separate directions, causing to the walls caving in. Afterward, two of the walls that collapsed were lying horizontally, pictures and old steel tools still hanging on the walls untouched.

The museum placed directly next to the old chicken coop luckily received no damage, aside from a small crack in a glass case that was caused after a carriage crashed into it due to the pressure from the storm.

In a barn on the opposite end of the property, all the windows had been blown out, including the sky lights. A door on a smaller barn just a bit away blown off from the wind, as well.

Despite the restoration efforts that eventually will need to be done, Nordstrom said the past few weeks have been focused on clean up, except for more important fixes such as the electricity - which had gone out after several poles and lines were knocked down.

And through it all, Ruley said the volunteers have maintained a level of resilience.

'Every year, something different happens and we find a way to work through stuff it if goes bad,” he said. The cleanup 'wouldn't have happened if it weren't for the people, the volunteers and the community.”

And even through the damage, the Historic Brown Farm still retains many of its unique characteristics, such as the initials of Lloyd Brown hanging on the large red barn one might see when first entering the property.

Undamaged vintage yard ornaments such as a 20-foot mini-Ferris wheel and a thresher still stand, narrowly missed by the F-2 tornado.

Threshing is a large part of Pioneer Days, and a lot of the equipment used to both maintain the land and put on a show are stored at the farm year around.

Also included in Pioneer Day activities, which won't change despite the weather damage, is a petting zoo, a crafts market, additional live field work demonstrations, carriage rides, wool spinning and horse drawn hayrack rides.

The event is free and proceeds raised from Pioneer Day will be used toward the general upkeep of the farm.

'If we go ahead with our Pioneer Days,” Goodlove said the day after the tornado, 'we have 30 days to clean this up …

. It's going to be monumental to clean this place up to have it in condition.”

But that's exactly what they're doing. Ruley joked that even if the tornado hit a week before Pioneer Days, they would have found a way to clean it up in time.

Gazette reporter Makayla Tendall contributed to this story.

l Comments: (319) 368-8531; alexandra.connor@thegazette.com

If you go

l What: Pioneer Days

l When: July 29-30

l Where: Historic Brown Farm, 1361 Sawyer Rd., Central City

l Admission: Free

l Details: Brow Farm Pioneer Days on Facebook