A Day Away: Irish roots are showing in Emmetsburg, Iowa

EMMETSBURG — Irish eyes are smiling every day in Emmetsburg. But they’ll be especially bright — or perhaps a bit bleary — as residents of the Palo Alto County seat are spending most of this week celebrating their Irish heritage.

Businesses sport shamrocks in their logo all year-round, and residents and visitors will find clothing from infants to adults, as well as home decor, souvenirs and all things reflecting the Emerald Isle at Emmetsburg Irish Gifts, 1001 Broadway St.

Broadway is the main street as you enter town from the south. Plan on taking a full day to get to Emmetsburg and hit the highlights. It lies 3.5 hours northwest of Cedar Rapids and just shy of four hours from Iowa City. I went north on I-380, west on Highway 20, then jogged north on Highway 4.

Because my final stop was the Wild Rose Casino on the northeast edge of town, my map app suggested a different route home, which took me right past a turnoff to West Bend. I went on by, had second thoughts, then turned around to jog south for 9 miles, since I had never seen the famed Grotto of the Redemption. It is beyond magnificent, and will have its own A Day Away feature right before Easter.

Irish ties

Palo Alto County was established in 1851, and in 1856, Irish immigrants created a colony on the banks of the Des Moines River, near present-day Emmetsburg. Several attempts to establish a town began in 1858, until it moved “a short distance away” from Old Town in 1874 to expand around the railroad.

According to emmetsburg.com/history, the earliest settlers proposed naming the town after Robert Emmet, “the Irish patriot who in 1803 was executed by the English government in Ireland’s fight for independence.”

A statue of Emmet stands in the county courthouse square along Broadway, in the heart of town. The pedestal plaque gives a wonderful snapshot of Emmet, his sacrifice and the statue’s history.

The Ancient Order of Hibernians, Chapter 1, commissioned the piece in 1918, but “a donny brook kept the statue from a resting place.”

It ended up in a basement during the 1920s, then with a family in Minnesota during the ’30s, ’40s and most of the ’50s, until being placed in Emmetsburg’s courthouse square in 1958, “in time for the town’s centennial.” Sculptor Jerome Connor struck three other copies, which are placed near Emmet’s home in Dublin, in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park and at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.

Just a few steps away from the statue is a Blarney stone, which Paddy Horan Solberg transported from Ireland to Emmetsburg in a suitcase in 1966. An Irish citizen, she lived in Emmetsburg from 1968 to 2014, and the plaque erected in her memory says it’s a “reminder of Paddy’s love for Ireland, Emmetsburg and her family.”

The city’s official relationship with Ireland goes back a bit farther, when Emmetsburg’s mayor and Dublin’s lord mayor issued a “Sister City” proclamation in 1962. According to Emmetsburg’s history page, the cities an ocean apart “agreed to join together in the rejoicing and celebration of St. Patrick’s Day.”

St. Patrick’s Day

The city of 3,800 residents has made good on that promise, continuing a celebration that’s been going strong for 62 years over the weekend closest to St. Patrick’s Day.

Emmetsburg’s St. Patrick’s Association rolls out the green carpet in its quest "to establish a town identity, and promote Irish culture, and preserve a rich heritage of traditions for future generations.“

This year’s festivities launched Sunday, March 13, with the Jr. Miss and Miss Shamrock pageants, and continue on March 17 with an open house at the St. Patrick’s Headquarters in the Irish Gift Shop. Friday’s activities include a fish fry, bags tournament and music at the VFW Hall and in the festival’s heated tent downtown.

Saturday is the day to shake your shillelagh, beginning with a morning scholarship run around the lake and a kids’ zone, moving on through food specials and into the big parade at 1:30 p.m., which will have about 100 entries and typically lasts between 90 minutes and two hours.

Other Saturday highlights include a gathering of the clans, a free showing of “Encanto” at the Riviera Theatre at 3:30 p.m., and more music. The fun and frolicking ends Sunday, with the Rotary pancake breakfast and an afternoon trap shoot at Sportsman’s Park.

For full details, go to emmetsburgirishgifts.com.

Recreation

Recreation opportunities abound in and around Emmetsburg, with the Des Moines River just a mile west of town and Five Island Lake lapping at the city’s edge just a few blocks north of the business district.

Outdoor enthusiasts will find plenty of space for biking, boating, camping, hunting, fishing, water skiing and swimming, as well as golfing at the nine-hole Five Island Golf Course in town, near the lake. In the winter, the area offers prime opportunities for snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, ice skating, ice fishing and hockey.

I set my map app for Five Island Lake, and it took me out of town to what looked like an upscale housing development where the roads are rock but the trail is paved, and even has a bright red covered bridge.

The 1,000-acre glacial lake that begins on the north edge of town is 5 miles long and half a mile across. The south 90 acres are located within the city limits, and a boat dock, playground, picnic and campsites can be found in Kearny State Park on North Lawler Street, next to the golf course and the Shores at Five Island community center.

Soper Park lies at the southern tip of the lake, and sports a small beach, as well as picnic and playground facilities.

For those who prefer their recreation indoors, Wild Rose Casino Resort, 777 Main St. on the east end of town, offers a 16,800-square-foot casino with 17 gaming tables and 550 slot machines. It also hosts entertainers, and features a hotel, as well as an RV campground next to the casino, along Highway 18.

For a full range of recreational activities and campgrounds, go to emmetsburg.com and click on the Discover tab.

Four hours wasn’t enough for me to explore all the sites this city has to offer, so plan accordingly.

Comments: (319) 368-8508; diana.nollen@thegazette.com