A visit to Decorah

I had only been to Decorah once, nearly 50 years ago, and Mary had never been there, so on our way back from Out East a couple of weeks ago we passed through the northeast Iowa community. It was a nice visit.

The community of about 7,500 residents boasts a proud Norwegian heritage. It’s home to the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum and Luther College.

Luther has a large and pretty campus — not as nice as Buena Vista University’s lakeside campus, of course — with a well-regarded music program. Luther just announced this week that it is leaving its longtime home in the American Rivers Conference (formerly the Iowa Conference) to join the Midwest Conference. Our sports editor Jamie Knapp says the Norse must have gotten tired of losing to BV in baseball.

We stayed overnight in the historic Hotel Winneshiek in downtown Decorah, built in 1905 and recently restored to its original grandeur. It adjoins the Steyer Opera House, opened in 1870 which has also been restored as an events center. It’s a lovely hotel with character and charm, well worth the stay.

Downtown Decorah seemed quite active, its streets lined with locally owned shops that serve a variety of interests from books to clothing to restaurants. We ate at Mabe’s, a popular pizza place just a couple doors down from he hotel, then enjoyed ice cream down the street at the Sugar Bowl, an ice cream parlor.

Many stores displayed posters in their windows that proclaimed “I stand with Dan.” The signs mark support for popular Sheriff Dan Marx, who gained attention a couple of months ago when he wrote on Facebook that he would not assist federal immigration authorities if he was asked to do something that was illegal or unconstitutional. Iowa’s MAGA Attorney General Brenna Bird then sued Sheriff Marx to force him to do whatever the feds tell him to do legal or not.

We were there on a pleasant mid-May evening and one of the downtown streets in front of the hotel was blocked off for an outdoor trivia contest that attracted a couple hundred people.

The Decorah area touts its natural resources. There are a lot of hiking and biking trails in the hills around Decorah. We stopped by Dunning’s Spring Park, home to a waterfall amid a forest. We’re not anglers, but trout fishing is popular around there.

We drove out to Toppling Goliath Brewing Company, on the outskirts of town, to buy some of its home-brewed Pseudo Sue beer for the gang back in Storm Lake. I expected it to be a farmhouse with an old barn out back, but it turned out to be a big modern operation with an expansive taproom. Toppling Goliath distributes 40 types of beer in 30 states. Pseudo Sue is their most popular overall, but they said Dorothy’s New World Lager is most popular locally.

That’s our mini-tour for this issue. Coming up: a trip to Juniata.