The second of two sesquicentennial celebrations in Iowa County will be taking place the weekend of Aug. 24-26.
This time, the destination of the three-day celebration is Ladora.
Events on Friday, Aug. 24 include slow-pitch softball games starting at 5 p.m., with the first game pitting players over 40 against those under 40; live music with Kurt Gillette, a Little Mr. and Miss Contest, with participants riding in the parade on Saturday; and pit barbecue from 6-7 p.m.
On Saturday, Aug. 25, there is a car show, parade at 10 a.m. and a special dedication event at noon. There will be plenty of activities for the family, including bags, family games, tug-of-war, inflatables and rolle bolle. There is a quilt show and the University of Iowa Mobile Museum will be on hand. The final Saturday event is every local Baby Boomers' wildly popular band, “The Days End,” from 8 p.m.-midnight. These Ladora and Victor “boys” are reuniting after 50 years.
Sunday, Aug. 26, will begin with an outdoor community church service, with an old-fashioned community potluck to follow. Afterward, there will be water ball fights and cow chip bingo, with events slated to end by 5 p.m.
On Aug. 24-25, there will be food trucks and a beer tent; while the vintage machine show runs all three days.
TOWN HISTORY
The history of Ladora has been published several times using this statement:
“Ladora was surveyed and platted by James A. Paine Sept. 19 and 20, 1867. The plat was officially acknowledged Oct. 25, 1867.
“At November (1879) term of court, an order was obtained to call an election to decide the question of incorporation. January (1880) it was decided to incorporate. On March 1, 1880, the following officers were elected: Mayor, J.H. Gray; recorder, O.F. Williams; assessor, O.F. Williams; marshal, F.E. Dennis; common council, F. Pike, L.W. Wilson, F.P. Starrett, M.D. Snavely and I.D. Smith. Soon after election, J.H. Gray resigned and W.S. Foster was elected mayor.”
The town celebrated its centennial in 1968, and had a 125th birthday bash in 1993.
According to information published in its centennial publication, squatters settled in what is now Ladora in the mid-1800s. By 1865, a post office was established on the Wilson farm, about a mile west of the current city limits.
The first census was taken in 1870, showing eight families in town, and 40 adult residents, with 17 women and 23 men).
According to a 1986 article that was published in the Pioneer-Republican (when RAGBRAI was a town along that year’s route), there were several stories about how the town name of Ladora came to be.
One was that a music teacher, Mrs. Glen Scofield, who lived on the old Wilson farm, combined the three notes on the minor musical scale – “La,” “Do” “Ra” – to form the name. Another suggested that the names of a vocal music teacher, L.A. Marble, and his wife, Dora, were combined to form the name, a city name that didn’t conflict with others in use around Iowa.
The town’s first church was a Presbyterian congregation that established in 1869, sitting at the site of the former Ladora school. The church was destroyed by a tornado in 1880. Today, a United Methodist church serves the town’s religious needs.
Ladora had a considerable downtown business district well into the 1960s, particularly before Interstate 80 was completed in 1964. The last of major businesses was Shuall’s Store, which still had a big local clientele until it closed in 1983.
These days, folks visiting from out of town – or perhaps the locals as well – stop at the Ladora Bank Bistro, the former Ladora Savings Bank. The building was completed in 1920 and did well for several years, but fell victim to the Great Depression and closed July 27, 1931. Brad Erickson and Colleen Klainert opened the Bistro in 2008, the last in a long line of uses for the facility since the bank closed.
Ladora had its own school, atop the bluff and overlooking the town, for many years. A gymnasium was completed in 1951 and was the home of many community activities, plays, celebrations and sporting events. This continued into the 1980s, long after Ladora became part of the HLV (for Hartwick-Ladora-Victor) school district. The elementary building and gymnasium closed in December 1985 when a classroom and gymnasium addition to the Victor school was completed.