Highway 60

[BROOKE KOHLSDORF] On this episode of Road Trip Iowa, we're traveling highway 60 from Sibley to Le Mars. 

[KOHLSDORF] I can use this to drink my morning coffee. Right?

[REBECCA HOPKINS] Well, that would be a lot of coffee.

(laughter)

[KOHLSDORF] This corner of the state is home to vibrant communities, rich history, and unforgettable flavors at every stop.

[BETH MEYER]  The minute you walk in the door, you kind of are transported back. You feel like a kid again.

[KOHLSDORF] Next on Road Trip Iowa.

[ANNOUNCER] Musco Lighting is an Iowa company that travels across the US and to more than 125 countries to light community recreation fields, stadiums, airports, monuments and more. While our reach is global, we're committed to our local communities. 

[ANNOUNCER] Beverly Thomassen Schultz -- honored to support local programming on Iowa PBS.

[KOHLSDORF] Just shy of 60 miles long, Highway 60 cuts through four northwestern Iowa counties carrying travelers from Sibley to Le Mars. From charming towns to expansive farm fields, this route offers plenty to see and do with a few surprises along the way. Let's take a look at today's itinerary.

[KOHLSDORF] We'll tour a museum brimming with history. Pull off the highway for a slice of wood fired pizza. Connect with our creative side at a community arts center. And sample a world famous dessert. 

[KOHLSDORF] We begin on top of it all at Hawkeye Point, the highest point in Iowa.

[KOHLSDORF] The gentle, rolling hills along Highway 60 may not look special, but outside Sibley, at this small roadside park, Iowa reaches its highest point. No hiking boots or climbing gear required. Just a short walk from the car to a mosaic tile platform marking 1670 feet above sea level. While Hawkeye Point may not stand above the clouds, it still sits higher than eight other states’ tallest peaks.

[KOHLSDORF] It's one of the easiest to reach, ideal for high pointers chasing every state summit and curious explorers alike. The rest of this road trip, it's all downhill from here.

[birds chirping]

[KOHLSDORF] Every wall, shelf, and display case at the Sheldon Prairie Museum is overflowing with artifacts and antiques that tell the story of this northwest Iowa city.

[MILLIE VOS] If you go through a tour, it'd be a good three hours and people will call and say, can I do it in a half hour? An hour? No. If you want a full tour, you've got to figure it's going to be about three hours.

[KOHLSDORF] The building holds many unexpected treasures. A soldier's diary, a skydiver's flight suit, even a wooly mammoth’s tooth. The museum's collection is built with donations. But not just anything makes the cut.

[MILLIE VOS] It has to be something that has been in Sheldon. It has to be something that is ancient, old. It has to be something that's in very good condition. It cannot be something that's had its day, you know? The hard part is finding a place to put it. If you've ever been in the museum, you will find the walls, anything that I can put things on, I do.

[KOHLSDORF] Visitors will learn about Sheldon's founding and development over time. School yearbooks and stories of city scandal are among the most popular exhibits. Much of the museum's lower level honors residents’ military service. Famous native Sheldon Knights are inducted into the Sheldon Historical Society Hall of Fame, celebrating Olympians, CEOs, and others who have made their mark beyond the city. Museum director Millie Vos takes great pride curating this museum and sharing her city's story.

[MILLIE VOS] It's a passion of mine. I love history. I love digging in and finding out about people.

[MILLIE VOS] I do this to promote the history of Sheldon.

[KOHLSDORF] Each May, Orange City welcomes visitors with a joyful celebration of its Dutch culture, filling the streets with lively music, colorful tulips and festive traditions.

[JENNIE DROOG] The Tulip Festival is a celebration of Orange City's Dutch heritage. It started out as a small flower show in 1933 because our residents said, we want to celebrate our heritage. Settlers came over from the Netherlands to Pella and then they migrated north to Orange City.

[KOHLSDORF] Decades later, Orange City's Tulip Festival has bloomed into a three day celebration, drawing thousands of visitors to experience the food, costumes and music keeping the town's heritage alive.

[JAELYE WOUDSTRA] We get to do lots of different traditions, like Dutch dancing. We work really hard to preserve the authenticity of our costumes, too. So they get a lot of materials from the Netherlands. Basically, a lot of the events that go on are authentic to the Netherlands.

[JENNIE DROOG] Food is a huge thing here at the Tulip Festival, and there's something for everyone. Whether you're looking for a traditional Dutch treat like an almond patty, cheese, or if you're looking for carnival food like a funnel cake or cotton candy, there's truly something for everyone. I would encourage finding an incredible Dutch treat and be in your seats before 1 p.m., because that's when our Straatfeest begins, which is our parade of costumes, Dutch dancers, songs. And then the street scrubbers come through to clean the streets for the Queen and her court. And then our parade starts with the bands, the floats, all the fun.

[KOHLSDORF] The festival is always held the third weekend in May, just in time for the tulips to open.

[JAELYE WOUDSTRA] I love the tulips. I'm a big gardener, a flower girl, I love it. I love when all the tulips are coming up, the bright colors and it makes our town look really beautiful.

[JENNIE DROOG] We have an incredible team who works to make sure that we have tulips in May, between our city crews and many volunteers and Tulip Town Bulb Company. We place orders in June and July. Those bulbs ship over from Holland, and then in October they all get planted by volunteers. And then you don't see them. You don't think about them. They're growing all winter long. And then come April and May, here they come out of the ground and just bring so much color and beauty to Orange City.

[KOHLSDORF] While the Tulip Festival celebrates Orange City's Dutch culture each spring, the Dutch American Heritage Museum tells that story year round.

[JIM SCHAAP] We're preserving a story that is worth telling. That story is the story about Dutch immigration to America. It includes Dutch immigration and movement here into northwest Iowa. But we like to think we're a little bit bigger than that. We think of ourselves as a repository of the kinds of artifacts that will enable people to look at and see and perceive and enjoy their own story.

[KOHLSDORF] The museum's collection includes traditional clothing, art, and artifacts from the region's early settlers, giving a sense of Dutch American life in Iowa.

[JIM SCHAAP] Sioux County is the county in North America that has the highest percentage of people who claim Dutch ethnic background. So, you know, this is a good place to come and look at these goofy costumes and think, are you kidding me? My great grandfather wore something like that. Not all the people who come through here are ethnically Dutch, of course. We would like to think that in their introduction to Tulip Festival, for instance, this is where they would come for a real sense also of the history of the people who are dancing in the streets and singing and so forth.

[KOHLSDORF] What began as a simple flower show has blossomed into a citywide showcase of Dutch tradition, drawing visitors to Orange City for more than 85 years.

[birds chirping]

[KOHLSDORF] Iowans know if you build it, people will come.

[KOHLSDORF] Surrounded by the rolling cornfields of Sioux County, that promise holds true for the Slemp family. If you build a wood fired pizza shop in the middle of Iowa farmland, the people will indeed find their way.

[SHANNON SLEMP] Years ago, my father in law and my husband and myself, we kind of knew we wanted to do something fun here. And originally we were going to do artisan bread, and that kind of morphed into Neapolitan pizza. And 13 years later, here we are rated one of the best pizza places in the state of Iowa.

[KOHLSDORF] In the unincorporated community of Carnes, Sfumato Pizzeria and the family who run it make up the entire population. Every pizza here is made with Italian craft and Midwestern care.

[SHANNON SLEMP] What we do here is we are a wood fired Neapolitan pizzeria. Our tomatoes are imported from Naples, Italy. Our flowers imported from Italy as well. We make our own fresh mozzarella cheese in-house. Our dough is prepared fresh daily. We cook our pizzas in a 900 degree oven that we had custom made, imported from Naples, Italy. It takes 90 seconds to cook a pizza. We have one size pizza. It's a 12 inch pizza, and traditionally they are personal pizzas. We do a lot of classic pizzas, your traditional Margherita or the Bianca or the marinara, but we've done a couple twists on some of the more traditional Neapolitan pizzas, like our number one seller, the PBR. PBR is actually a ranch based pizza. It gets fresh arugula. It's got pepperoni, cherrywood smoked bacon, fresh sliced tomatoes, fresh garlic, fresh mozzarella cheese, and then it's hit with parmesan cheese when it comes out of the oven. Great pizza.

[SHANNON SLEMP] We get a lot of meat and potato people around here, and they try our wood fired pizza, and they're always quite surprised and they all enjoy it.

[KOHLSDORF] When Sfumato first opened in 2022, the dining room held just eight tables.

[SHANNON SLEMP] We knew pretty quickly that we needed to expand. Our first big mountain to climb was to build a kitchen. Two years after that, we built the additional room in the back, which allowed us to have some more seating.

[KOHLSDORF] Today, Sfumato is open four nights a week, Thursday through Sunday, as customers continue to find their way to the restaurant.

[SHANNON SLEMP] It's been so cool to watch families expand and build relationships with people in the community, people outside of the community. Being here, I've met so many different people from so many different walks of life. It's brought me a lot of -- me and my family a lot of joy.

[KOHLSDORF] We're pulling off the highway in Le Mars, famously known as the ice cream capital of the world. But here the Le Mars Arts Center is serving up a different kind of creativity. Through its galleries, studios and community events, the center brings Iowans together to celebrate art in all its forms.

[DRAVEN HAEFS] So we're in in the Le Mars Arts Center. It was founded by the Arts Council in the 70s, actually one of the first arts councils in Iowa, which is really neat. But it became the Arts Center in 1991. We're very fortunate. It's a beautiful old building, one of the oldest Carnegie libraries in Iowa. This upper level is where we host our exhibitions. We have three gallery spaces. Those will feature local artists, people from Le Mars, Sioux City, but also we'll have international artists featured here too. A lot of times you also get a little inspired. And so we want you to be able to do that too here at the Arts Center. So on our lower level, we have creative studios, pottery studios, and the DaVinci Art collective, which is a co-op for emerging artists.

[KOHLSDORF] So you said you make art downstairs. What are some of the things you can do here?

[DRAVEN HAEFS] There are many, many things. Every day you can come in and paint ceramics. You can do friendship bracelets. You can learn to paint on canvas. You can throw on the pottery wheel. Really anything. If you can think it, we can probably find a way to do it.

[KOHLSDORF] You also take your art out into the community, right? Tell us about that. 

[DRAVEN HAEFS] Yes, absolutely. For us at the Art Center, we not only want you to come in and see what we're doing, seeing art from around the world, but we also get out in the community. We do festivals. We'll join for ice cream days, Christmas and hometown Le Mars. All of these events really help people find their own community within our space, but also help us find community within the one that we exist in.

[KOHLSDORF] Why is it so important for communities to have art centers, places like this?

[DRAVEN HAEFS] Yeah. It's interesting. Historically speaking, art is the cornerstone of how we understand civilization. It's how we understand what happened thousands of years ago and how people will look back on us. So when communities like ours that are small have a space like this to get creative and also get connected to the art world, it ends up really increasing the quality of life for people. As we go throughout time, we're finding more and more that our community is becoming what we call more artistically literate. They know more about art than they did before they stepped in the first time. And that's the most exciting thing about the exhibitions that we get to offer to our community.

[KOHLSDORF] Well, I'm feeling inspired now. I'd love to create something.

[DRAVEN HAEFS] Awesome! Let's head to the studios.

[REBECCA HOPKINS] Hi, Brooke, I am Rebecca Hopkins and I am the programming and curriculum director here at the Le Mars Art Center. And we are down in the creative studios, and we are going to work on a project together today.

[KOHLSDORF] Okay. What are we doing?

[REBECCA HOPKINS] We are going to make this stein that was inspired by an Iowa sunrise.

[KOHLSDORF] I think I can handle that. Yes.

[REBECCA HOPKINS] The first thing that we're going to do is turn our mug over. We're going to go into this brown color called bright ginger. We're going to just start going around this bottom ridge here. When we start, we say three coats. And that kind of makes people feel a little overwhelmed, like it's going to take a long time. But by the time you get done with your first coat, generally it's dry enough to start your second coat.

[KOHLSDORF] Okay, so when I'm done with my third coat here, do I need to wash my brush off or just get a new brush?

[REBECCA HOPKINS] So we will just get a new brush. We're going to go in with our yellow here. This is called sunkissed. You're going to go all the way up to this ledge here.

[KOHLSDORF] Okay.

[REBECCA HOPKINS] That way when we blend in our next color, we have a base underneath already and it's easier to blend the colors.

[KOHLSDORF] Okay.

[KOHLSDORF] I like the idea of art that you can use. I can use this to drink my morning coffee, right?

[REBECCA HOPKINS] Exactly. Well, that would be a lot of coffee. No judgment here. Like, sometimes we all need that much coffee in the morning.

[KOHLSDORF] Okay, next is the pink.

[REBECCA HOPKINS] Yes, so we're gonna go around the edge here and in the inside.

[REBECCA HOPKINS] We're going to take some of our coral and we're going to mix it into the yellow. We're going to start here up at the top with a thicker layer. Once we've gone all the way around without getting more on there, we're just going to start brushing downward until our paintbrush runs out of glaze. We're just blending it into the yellow. It's not going to be uniform and perfect because nature is not uniform. It's very beautiful, I think.

[KOHLSDORF] Thank you.

[REBECCA HOPKINS] I think you did a great job.

[KOHLSDORF] As someone who's not, you know, super artistic, it feels good to have something completed. So, we're finished. What's the next step?

[REBECCA HOPKINS] So the next step is that we take it and we'll put it in a kiln. It will get fired to a ridiculous heat over a thousand degrees. It takes about 12 hours to get up to that heat, and then it'll take about 12 hours to cool down. Then in about 24 hours, you will have a completed project. You get to come back and pick it up from me.

[KOHLSDORF] And it looks all pretty.

[REBECCA HOPKINS] It looks all pretty and usable.

[KOHLSDORF] Cheers. This has been fun.

[REBECCA HOPKINS] Thanks. Thank you for joining me.

[KOHLSDORF] Archie's Waeside is an Iowa dining destination seven decades in the making.

[BOB RAND] My grandfather came to this country from Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. His family all settled in the stockyards area. That's why they were here to work in the yards. And probably in the late 40s, looking for a little something different, he was big in the beef business and found this location here in Le Mars and bought it, and it was called The Waeside. So then he named it Archie's Waeside. He told me that he wanted people to know that there was a new person at The Waeside.

[KOHLSDORF] Established in 1949, the Chophouse is famous for its high quality beef aged and cut in-house.

[BOB RAND] The beef is our draw and a lot of people are always on the hunt for the best steak they've ever had. That's our goal, is to fulfill that need.

[KOHLSDORF] The salad dressings and seasoning blends are family recipes refined over the years by Archie and his daughter, Valerie. Each generation of ownership has brought something new to Archie's. For his grandson, Bob, that's wine.

[BOB RAND] Now we're actually up to about six labels at the same time. I didn't see that coming, but people have really enjoyed the entire Archie's experience when they come there. Having all of our beef, our wines. So just kind of everything Archie's that night.

[KOHLSDORF] Through every new addition, the Waeside has remained an institution among Midwestern steakhouses.

[BOB RAND] I've been here for 45 years now, and when this place is humming, there's no greater feeling in the world. When it's just really clicking and everybody's having a good time you can hear it, you can see it, but you can hear it.

[BOB RAND] How does this work in Le Mars, Iowa, with 9000 people? It works because it doesn't matter if you just finished mowing the yard. It's your anniversary. Your friends are in town. Your family's in town. It doesn't matter what the occasion. It works for everybody. If it was a special occasion restaurant only, we wouldn't have the population to do it.

[KOHLSDORF] Archie's fame extends far beyond Iowa. In 2015, the restaurant was honored by the James Beard Foundation as an American Classic. This award recognizes time tested, locally owned establishments that have become cornerstones of their community.

[BOB RAND] You have to have some reason why you're successful. It's not an accident. And with us, it's the aging, the cutting, and the cooking of our beef that is the main deal for us. 

[KOHLSDORF] 75 years in, Archie's Waeside remains a family run steakhouse with enduring appeal. I would give just about anything I could to have my grandpa come back for one day and watch what we do here now and what he started and how much it's changed. But yet it hasn't changed. That would be my dream. I think that he would absolutely love to see that it's still going and in our family, I think he'd be proud of our entire family and all the people that work here.

[KOHLSDORF] There's a sweet stop along Highway 60 in downtown Le Mars, a city where more ice cream is made than anywhere else on the planet. And in the ice cream capital of the world, the best way to begin your visit is to grab a spoon.

[BETH MEYER]  We are the Wells Visitor Center and Ice Cream Parlor. You walk in the door and your senses are instantly heightened. It's fun, it's vibrant, and there's a lot of ice cream. We have 28 different flavors in our three gallon tubs. We have eight feature flavors. So there's a lot to choose from.

[KOHLSDORF] From shakes and floats to cones and sundaes, there's no shortage of ways to enjoy a scoop of this ice cream. The parlor serves several exclusive flavors like huckleberry and mocha almond fudge. Samples are encouraged.

[BETH MEYER]  So the visitor center is really the culmination of our history and where we're at today and how we're growing. The gift shop is the only place that you can get Blue Bunny merchandise, our bomb pop merchandise. One of my favorite things to do is to give tours to groups. They ask a lot of really good questions, but I enjoy sharing our story. It started out 1913 to where we are today. We have four production facilities, two offices outside of the Le Mars area. The fact that a family owned company has sustained and grown and thrived for that long is pretty amazing.

[KOHLSDORF] In 1913, Fred H. Wells invested $250 in a horse, wagon and dairy cans to start what would become Wells Enterprises. Wells sold the ice cream distribution and naming rights in 1929, but six years later, in 1935, he was ready to make frozen treats once again.

[BETH MEYER]  We held a name that ice cream contest, and a little boy named John Vandenbrink saw a blue bunny in the window and said, hey dad, how about Blue Bunny? And his dad happened to work for the Sioux City Journal at the time, so his dad actually created our original Blue Bunny logo and the son named it.

[KOHLSDORF] Today, Wells produces roughly 200 million gallons of ice cream each year, and the visitor center and ice cream parlor remains the cherry on top of this longtime Iowa ice cream tradition. 

[BETH MEYER]  Here we get to celebrate everything that Wells gets to do as a company. All the products that we make, the history that we have. The minute you walk in the door, you kind of are transported back. You feel like a kid again. I think everyone, even if you are a kid, kind of feels like a younger version of yourself, and it just makes you feel really good.

[KOHLSDORF] Highway 60 proves that even a short stretch of road can be packed with history, character, and unique places to explore.

[KOHLSDORF] We summited Iowa's highest peak at Hawkeye Point.

[KOHLSDORF] Tiptoed through the tulips in Orange City. Took lessons in painting at the Le Mars Art Center. And sampled the dry aged steak at Archie's Waeside in Le Mars. 

[KOHLSDORF] From Sibley to Le Mars, each stop along Highway 60 offers an authentic taste of northwest Iowa. For more on the history, culture, and landscapes along Iowa's highways, join us next time on Road Trip Iowa.

[ANNOUNCER] Musco Lighting is an Iowa company that travels across the US and to more than 125 countries to light community recreation fields, stadiums, airports, monuments and more. While our reach is global, we're committed to our local communities. 

[ANNOUNCER] Beverly Thomassen Schultz -- honored to support local programming on Iowa PBS.