South of Jefferson, at the northwest corner of the old Panora Speedway (now S. Mulberry St/Neola Ave) and 250th St, there once was a small zoo called Totem Acres. The wooded site was developed in the 1960s by Carl Daubendiek, founder of the Jefferson Telephone Co., as nature retreat for his employees, according to Jefferson publc library director Jane Millard.…
Read MoreDay: March 25, 2026
Jefferson named a Tree City USA
Jefferson is among 71 Iowa cities to qualify for the Tree City USA award from the Arbor Day Foundation and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. To qualify for the Tree City USA award, a city must have either a city forester or an active city tree board, have a tree ordinance, spend at least $2 per capita annually for…
Read More‘And make America again!’
~a column by Colleen O’Brien My good friend Chris sent me a gift that is nearly a century old, a copy of a poem I read many years ago but forgot. It was written by Langston Hughes, published in 1936 in New York during the Harlem Renaissance. Because it is in the Public Domain, it is history; it is also…
Read MoreSecond scholarship presented by P.E.O. Chapter CZ
Chapter CZ of P.E.O. awarded a scholarship for 2025 to Danille Curtis of Gowrie recently. Curtis, a Simpson College and Paton-Churdan High School graduate, works full time as the Iowa director at Midwest Mission in Jefferson. The $500 local scholarship will be utilized by Curtis to help obtain her master’s degree in philanthropy and non-profit development from University of Northern…
Read More