Home Care In Clutier, IA

CLUTIER – Three live turtles who usually make their homes in the basement of Otter Creek Lake & Park Nature Center safely crossed several roads (by vehicle) earlier this month while on a field trip to Clutier as part of the public library’s summer programming.

The turtle ambassadors along with Naturalist Raina Genaw were greeted by a full house on Aug. 1 in the one-room library with 11 area children from babies up to middle schoolers in attendance alongside their caregivers and library director Patti Kupka.

Genaw began the program by introducing Van Gogh, a male painted turtle, to the gathered group.

“The reason that he’s called a painted turtle is because he has these really pretty lines all over him that people say look like brush strokes,” Genaw explained to the clearly captivated young audience. “So it kind of looks like someone took some yellow paint and just painted right on that turtle.”

Using both Van Gogh and two unnamed resident ornate box turtles, Genaw spent roughly 30 minutes sharing interesting facts and tidbits about turtles including how to tell the difference between land and aquatic turtle species (aquatic turtles have much smoother shells), and also why male box turtles appear to be so much ‘prettier’ (being fancy essentially helps the males ‘get a girlfriend,’ Genaw said with a chuckle).

At one point Genaw passed around a turtle scute for the kids to examine. A scute, she explained, is what makes up the outer layer of a turtle’s shell. Turtles shed their scutes as they grow with an adult turtle shedding the papery, thin scales about twice a year.

Iowa boasts 13 turtle species including the snapping turtle. While Genaw only brought two of the species to Clutier, the nature center also cares for a baby snapping turtle named Petunia.

“Every so often, I’ll pick [the snapping turtle] up, and it will not like that,” Genaw told the group.

While holding a biting snapping turtle — thankfully — wasn’t part of the program that day, participants were given the opportunity to hold Van Gogh and the box turtles as long as they remembered to keep their faces and hands away from the turtles’ mouths, to never turn the turtles upside down (they don’t like it), and to only touch the turtles’ shells.

“To the turtle, it kind of feels like you’re touching their nails,” Genaw explained. “So they can feel it – but just a little bit.”

As the kids gently passed the turtles around their half circle – or backed themselves away slowly from the whole ordeal entirely – Genaw shared one last fact, before taking questions, about how the ornate box turtle got its name.

“The reason that these guys are called box turtles, is because when they get really, really scared … they’ll tuck their head and their legs and tail and everything inside their shell. And then this little flap will come up and close their shell like it’s a box.”

Since no box turtles elected to wrap themselves up for USPS delivery during the Clutier visit, it’s safe to assume the trip to Clutier was a ‘turtle’ success.

For more information on arranging a Tama County Conservation educational program, email Genaw at [email protected] or call 641-484-2231.

A non-comprehensive list of the county’s Conservation program offerings can be found here: https://www.tamacounty.iowa.gov/files/conservation/educational_program_guide_63517.pdf

Bexley Stechcon, center, takes a peek inside a shell that once belonged to a painted turtle during a program held at the Clutier Public Library on Aug. 1. Her younger brother Berkeley, left, is pictured beside her. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

Inquisitive Clutier residents including (l-r) Kaylee and Sophia Quigley, Bexley and Berkley Stechcon, Briley Wildman, and Elora Burton get to know a pair of Tama Co. Conservation box turtle ambassadors on Aug. 1 at the public library. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

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Natalie Keller’s blue ribbon-winning photograph of a bumblebee pictured at the 2023 Iowa State Fair. Keller of Toledo is a member of the Young Guns 4-H Club. PHOTO COURTESY OF JENNY HULME

DES MOINES – Tama County 4-H and FFA members exhibits were on display in the 4-H and FFA Exhibits Building at the Iowa State Fair this year.

Divisions young people may exhibit in include agriculture and natural resources, creative arts, family and consumer sciences, personal development, and science, mechanics & engineering.

4-H members exhibit these projects at the Tama County Fair. The judges are then given the task of selecting a number of projects to move on to the Iowa State Fair. This number is determined by the State 4-H office. These exhibits are then taken to the fair to be judged again and displayed throughout the Iowa State Fair.

“During the 4-H program year, members set goals for themselves, and their exhibits receive placings based on how well they’ve met their goals and on the evaluation standards for each class,” said Jenny Hulme, County Youth Coordinator at the ISU Extension and Outreach Tama County office. “We’re pleased to announce that these Tama 4-H members have received special recognition for their hard work by having their exhibits on display at the Iowa State Fair.”

Tama County State Fair 4-H Exhibitors

Emily Hulme, a member of North Tama FFA, pictured with one of her static entries, a toy box, at the 2023 Iowa State Fair. PHOTO COURTESY OF JENNY HULME

-Lillian Bru, Gladbrook, Wolfcreek Whirlwinds: Crop Production and Plant Science, Blue; Animal Science, Blue; Photography, Blue; Citizenship and Civic Engagement, Red

-Levi Murty, Traer, Buckingham Boosters: Fish and Wildlife, Red

-Rachael Murty, Traer, Buckingham Boosters: Home Grounds Improvement, Blue

-Ryan Hosek, Traer, Buckingham Boosters: Safety and Education in Shooting Sports, Blue; Food and Nutrition: Prepared Products, Blue

-Carlee Smith, Laurel, Young Guns: Photography, Red

Madison McKee pictured during the 2023 Iowa State Fair Awardrobe Clothing Event. PHOTO COURTESY OF JENNY HULME

-Colbie Fevold, Gladbrook, Wolfcreek Whirlwinds: Blue

-Amaya Peterson, Gladbrook, Wolfcreek Whirlwinds: Visual Arts, Red

-Codi Jackson, Garwin, Garwin Roughriders: Clothing and Fashion: Constructed/Sewn, Red

-Abigail Kemp, Beaman, Wolfcreek Whirlwinds: Clothing and Fashion, Purchased, Blue; Health, Blue

-Ty Guthrie, Clutier, Clutier Cowboys and Cowgirls: Citizenship and Civic Engagement, Red; Visual Arts, Blue; Welding, Blue

-Scout Ridout, Clutier, Clutier Cowboys and Cowgirls: 4-H Poster Communication Exhibit, Seal of Merit

-Claire Bacon, Tama, Toledo Techs: 4-H Poster Communication Exhibit, Seal of Merit

-Belle Werner, Toledo, Toledo Techs: Welding, Blue

-Bryce Lacina, Toledo, Toledo Techs: Welding, Blue

In addition to the ribbons, these Tama County 4-H members received additional recognition:

-Natalie Keller, Toledo, Young Guns: Photography, Blue and 4-H Photography Gallery Award (Sponsored by the Professional Photographers of Iowa)

-Emily Hulme, Clutier, Clutier Cowboys and Cowgirls: Health, Blue; Outstanding Health Special Award; College of Agriculture and Life Sciences of ISU $500 scholarship; Iowa Department of Ag and land Stewardship Award

-Emily Hulme, Clutier, Clutier Cowboys and Cowgirls: Veterinary Science, Blue; College of Agriculture and Life Sciences of ISU $500 scholarship

For more information on 4-H opportunities, please contact Jenny Hulme at the ISU Extension and Outreach Tama County office at [email protected] or 641-484-2703 or visit the Iowa 4-H website at https://www.extension.iastate.edu/4h/

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CLUTIER – The Clutier, Dysart, and Traer fire departments were able to successfully respond last Friday to a large field fire that ignited northeast of Clutier during harvest.

Oneida Township resident Dave Degner, who lives in the 2300 block of V Avenue, said he was out watering some trees while farmer Eric Anniss was combining on a field nearby when he suddenly noticed smoke.

“The field was just north of my acreage,” Degner told the Telegraph in a series of text messages over the weekend. “Eric was running the combine and [his dad] Ernie was in the grain cart. … I saw smoke in the field and waved but he didn’t see me. I jumped in the loader tractor and headed out thinking I could knock it down. But by the time I got there, there were three or four small fires – something on the combine was hot and spreading it, and the south wind was too much.”

In less than 10 minutes, Degner estimates the fire easily spread half a mile across the bone-dry field of beans, moving ever close to the nearby farmstead of Justin Hosek.

Currently, the Clutier area is experiencing D4 drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor on Sept. 28. The area is part of a bullseye of “exceptional drought” centered over the eastern half of Tama County and the western half of Benton County.

The drought in these two counties is some of the worst in the state.

After spotting the fire, Degner said he tried to help put it out with five-gallon buckets of water and his “little tractor” but the effort proved futile.

Thankfully, emergency services were contacted and both the Clutier and Dysart volunteer fire departments showed up shortly after the fire started.

“Clutier [Fire] showed up first with one truck, then Dysart [Fire] showed with several trucks. Within a few minutes, there were three other farmers here with tractors and discs working to slow it down,” Degner recalled. “Traer [provided mutual aid] and started a mile north at the next gravel trying to keep it from hitting Hosek’s house.”

All told, Degner said there were close to 10 trucks responding from among the three fire departments. Dysart Ambulance also responded as did two Tama County Sheriff’s deputies and several farmers with tractors and water tanks.

“[It] still took a good 45 minutes to put out,” Degner said. “I’d say it cooked probably 20 or 30 acres.”

As it burned, the fire managed to clip its way north to the very edge of Hosek’s farmstead located on 230th Street between U and V avenues.

“It made it to his fence but luckily they got it out in time. So, no buildings and no equipment was lost,” Degner said.

Although fires during the harvest season are not necessarily uncommon, the drought is creating a tinder box of sorts on the fields this year.

“It’s somewhat normal for fires during harvest,” Traer Fire Chief Tyler Sell told the Telegraph following the fire, “but the exceptionally dry conditions will make it worse by allowing fire to spread quicker and easier.”

Conditions that are making rural, volunteer fire departments like Clutier, Dysart, and Traer all the more important this harvest season.

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CEDAR RAPIDS - When floodwaters swallowed the city in 2008, Sonya Darrow - a Czech-American artist splitting her time between her native Cedar Rapids and the Czech Republic - watched as the waves washed away precious Czech heritage.

After the water receded, Darrow stood outside a Czech Village garage with other volunteers as they picked through damaged artifacts. She was devastated to see so much destruction, but in the same moment saw an opportunity.

'It was a moment forever marked in my memory because I realized I needed to help preserve and cultivate Czech culture,” she said. 'It made me realize I wanted to be a keeper of tradition.”

From there, Darrow developed the identity '319 Czech” with an idea to connect Czech culture in the community and explore her own 'Czechness,” she said.

She began collecting stories from Czech community members and found objects symbolizing Czech heritage to be repurposed into folk art.

'I like to tell stories through things you might not think of,” Darrow said.

In December, Darrow received a $10,000 grant from the Iowa Arts Council - a division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs - funded by the National Endowment for the Arts to begin working on 'Stezky/Pathways,” a project in which she used her '319 Czech” identity to explore the 'pathways across Iowa inspired by Czech settlements,” according to her website.

The project kicked off this spring and concludes with an exhibition at the National Czech & Slovak Museum and Library through July 13.

'We're a national museum and we feel very strongly that Iowa's Czech history extends far beyond Cedar Rapids,” said museum Vice President Leah Wilson. 'There are many stories in these smaller Iowa communities, and we want to do more to tell them,” she said, describing Darrow's project as a 'great way to connect rural communities with Czech heritage.”

For the past three months, Darrow has traveled across Iowa to engage with rural Czech settlement communities including Vining, Clutier and Protivin. She gave presentations about herself and her project in each community and collected audio recordings of people's stories, soundscapes of the area and objects from people willing to donate or lend them to the exhibition.

Wilson said one of the project's strengths was the way it 'involved these communities in the production of art.”

'She's not just taking an exhibit into a community. It's really an active and participatory process,” Wilson said. 'When she goes into a community and talks about herself and her artistic journey, it brings all kind of emotions, ideas and memories to the surface. What you end up with is a treasure trove of new information and stories that you didn't have before.”

In conversations with community members, Darrow said she often heard people say it had been a long time since they'd talked about their heritage. They were excited to see someone trying to preserve it.

Wilson described Darrow as a 'rare find” who uses her 'own brand of magic” to join people, places and cultures.

'They definitely trust her,” she said. 'They see her as this person with whom they can share everything about their culture - even the quirky things. I don't know how else to describe it. It's just hard to find somebody like her who can connect to people like that. ... She's been telling me stories that bring tears to my eyes. Stories about people who we might describe as founders of our museum, people who are deeply connected to the culture.”

'They understand I'm wanting to keep culture alive,” Darrow said. 'Culture doesn't have to die with people or buildings being demolished.”

l Comments: (319) 398-8364; [email protected]

Editor's note: This is a continuing series of Eastern Iowa sports history 'Time Machine' articles. Mark Dukes worked at The Gazette from 1973 to 1998, the last 14 years as sports editor.

The buildings have long since been razed or repurposed. Countless rural Iowa communities have lost their high schools but memories of basketball glory decades ago will not be forgotten.

As the path to the 90th girls' state basketball tournament continues, it is a much different game than those small communities remember when their school was queen. It's 5-on-5 now, not 6-player or even the three-court game. It's a five-class tournament, not all for one.

For the first 50 years of the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union-sanctioned tournament, rural communities were at the forefront and the fabric of the game's history.

Newhall. Clutier. Maynard. Garrison. Van Horne. Wiota. Kamrar. Those long-forgotten high schools all won girls' state championships. There were more that made it. Brooklyn, Coggon, Stanwood and Walker, for example.

It was a game dominated by small schools in the early years, largely because metropolitan districts did not offer girls' basketball. It was not until the early 1970s that Metro area schools began offering hoops for girls, mostly due to the passage of Title IX legislation in 1972.

Small schools have since merged into larger districts. But their basketball history still resonates in the rural communities of Iowa.

THE BEGINNINGS

John W. Agans may be as responsible for anyone for preserving and perpetuating girls' basketball in Iowa.

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Non-sanctioned state tournaments started in 1920 but it wasn't until 1925 that the IGHSAU was formed and it began sanctioning the sport in 1926.

Despite the popularity of basketball in small-town Iowa, larger school districts did not follow. In fact, some administrators at the time believed the sport may be too 'strenuous'' for girls.

At the 1925 Iowa State Teachers' Convention at Central Presbyterian Church in Des Moines, superintendents and principals decided competitive basketball was not for girls and should no longer be sponsored by the Iowa High School Athletic Association.

A debate ensued and Agans, the Mystic High School superintendent, delivered an impassioned opinion. 'Gentlemen, if you attempt to do away with girls' basketball in Iowa, you'll be standing at the center of the track when the train runs over you!' Agans said, according to the IGHSAU.

An impromptu meeting ensued and 25 men, mostly representing smaller schools, decided they would form a new organization if the IHSAA would not sanction girls' basketball. It was then the IGHSAU was born.

The game enjoyed remarkable success in the years that followed, the 6-player state tournaments becoming a rite of spring. In 1993, Iowa was the next-to-last state to end the 6-player format and go to the traditional game. Two years later, Oklahoma followed suit.

NEWHALL 1927

It was a game with which few today are familiar: Three courts, six players each side.

There was a forward court, a center court and a guard court. Players could dribble only once. After each basket, the ball was returned to center court for a jump ball.

Newhall did it best in 1927. After an undefeated regular season — including wins of 85-2 over Blairstown and 84-2 over Shellsburg — the Newhall girls boarded a train that traveled to Marion and eventually to Mystic, where they had an overnight stay. They went by car the remaining six miles to Centerville, site of the state tourney.

The format then was a four-team, round-robin. Newhall reversed an earlier outcome against Sioux Center in the championship game, 38-37. Newhall trailed 21-10 at halftime and things looked bleak, with three starters having fouled out by the third quarter. A furious rally was completed on sophomore Luella Gardemann's late basket. She totaled 28 points in that game, then an incredible sum.

Only a handful of Newhall residents attended the tournament, as Iowa weather had turned rural roads to muddy messes. About 200 people gathered at a Newhall restaurant for the title game. Emmett Johnson and Merril Deklotz leased a phone line in Centerville and relayed play-by-play back to the restaurant.

Newhall's coach, William Franklin, was described as a taskmaster and disciplinarian in a 1997 Gazette story. Gardmann said Franklin banned sugar from the girls' diets and the players were not allowed to date except on weekends.

Newhall High School merged into the Benton Community School District in the 1960s. According to a Cedar Valley Times story, most of the school's trophies — including the 1927 state championship trophy — were inexplicably taken to the dump during the reorganization.

CLUTIER 1942

No high school was more dominant in girls' basketball than Clutier in the 1940s. From 1939 to 1948, Clutier teams had a 201-18-1 record, made six state tournament trips and won the Iowa title in 1942 with a 40-26 win over Wiota.

The Chargin' Czechs went 31-0 in 1942. Community members followed the team's every step. Since basketball was essentially the only extracurricular activity for girls then, every female in the school tried out for the team. Betty Mundt of Clutier was the 1942 state tournament's top scorer with 75 points in four games.

The Clutier high school was closed in 1961 when it merged with Traer to form Traer-Clutier. In 1965, with the addition of Dinsdale, Clutier became part of the North Tama school district.

In 2007, Clutier further commemorated the 1942 team by dedicating an entry into town. At a cost of $8,000, a fence and brick monument were constructed.

The Iowa Hall of Pride in Des Moines hasn't forgotten about Clutier, either. The Hall has an area dedicated to the 1942 team as part of its Six-Girl Basketball in Iowa display, complete with the championship trophy, the white basketball that was used then, a team picture and a uniform.

In 2007, Clutier's mayor proclaimed Sept. 15 as Chargin' Czech Day in perpetuity.

BENTON COUNTY

From Newhall's 1927 team to the Benton Community School District opening in 1965-66, Benton County towns were wildly successful in basketball. If teams weren't making the state tournament, they often were eliminated on the tourney trail by a Benton County neighbor.

Van Horne (1962) and Garrison (1957) were other Benton County towns that won girls' state basketball titles. Keystone, Norway, Vinton and Blairstown all had teams make a boys' or girls' state tournament.

The Van Horne Hornets, coached by Larry Wiebke, topped tradition-rich Mediapolis in the title contest, 62-57.

The 1962 tournament was noteworthy because it was the only one ever played in Waterloo. A bowling tournament in Des Moines that March forced the move to Waterloo.

Benton Community is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its first graduating class. Students from eight towns in the county attend Benton. Before its opening, five of them made state tournaments out of their old high schools: Newhall, Van Horne, Keystone, Blairstown and Norway. Three boys' teams and three girls' squads have made state tournaments since Benton Community was formed.

ICONS

Two icons of the girls' state basketball tournament were E. Wayne Cooley and Jim Duncan.

Duncan, former Drake University professor and broadcaster, presided over dozens of halftime shows. In his unique voice, he would introduce Hall of Fame inductees starting with, 'The yeeeeaaar was ...'

Duncan long was affiliated with the Drake Relays and the track at Drake Stadium was named after him in 1988.

Cooley was the longtime executive director of the IGHSAU and fought for the Iowa Girl as much as anyone. The state tournament has been televised since 1951 and was shown in nine states as late as 1968, the year Union-Whitten beat Everly, 113-107, in overtime for the title. Union-Whitten was led by Denise Long, who scored a state-record 6,250 points in her career.

Cooley brought national attention to Iowa girls' basketball, resulting in two Sports Illustrated essays, Long's appearance on 'The Tonight Show' when she was taken in the 1969 NBA draft and several features in national publications.

He staunchly and stubbornly defended the 6-player game that had been the staple of rural Iowa for years. But with the passage of Title IX and pressure from many angles, Cooley relented. Five-player basketball was introduced to larger schools in 1985 and the state went to 5-player basketball for every school in 1994.

l Contact Dukes at [email protected] with your thoughts and ideas