Get Your Goat Cheese Her first goats served as hiking companions and comic sidekicks. Since Sharon Oamek and her husband, George, took over his family’s 160-acre century farm on the Lincoln Highway in Honey Creek 14 years ago, she’s grown the Nubian, Saanen, and Alpine herd to about three dozen, half of them milking goats (and, yes, all individually named through negotiation with daughter Paige). Flavored by the unique Loess Hills vegetation that’s nourished by that distinctive soil, the milk produced by free-roaming goats becomes small-batch fresh chèvre in Honey Creek Creamery’s four-day process, operating from May to November. Oamek
came
to
Iowa
from
Pennsylvania by way of Colorado, and says she wasn’t sure what to expect in Iowa but was delighted by the hills, rivers, fertile soil, and natural beauty that greeted her. A career transition to local foods felt natural, she explains, ticking off the area restaurants, grocery stores, and farmer’s markets she serves. Complementing her chèvre with fresh organic herbs grown by a neighbor half a mile away is just
The $189,000 raised far exceeded the amount needed for the first of three matches for three restoration grants. By the time Reed/Niland Corner stood fully restored in 2008, the total project cost was in the neighborhood of $1 million, to which Colo had contributed nearly a third. Volunteers and donors who helped in the fund-raising efforts have a special place of honor in today’s Niland’s Cafe. Huemann-Kelly points with pride to a large black and silver board with row after row of names mounted near the front door. “They made it all happen with their contributions of cash and labor.” The Reed/Niland Corner is expecting many visitors during this centennial year of the historic road. “It’s a great time to drive the Lincoln Highway,” says Huemann-Kelly, who ticks off a list of travelers who have already contacted the complex, including groups from New York City following the route as well as a group of Norwegian auto buffs driving the distance in antique automobiles, a touring club of deaf motorcyclists, Corvette and Model A owners, even the Red Hat ladies. She guarantees that they’ll find a touch of the past in homemade pies, hamand-bean soup with corn bread, and a bottomless cup of coffee. “We call it good food with a side of history.”
one example of the entrepreneurial culture and strong collaboration in the area, says Oamek. “Everybody wants you to succeed.” HO NE
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Honey Creek Creamery is open to visitors as part of Living Loess every third Saturday, May–October. Learn more online: honeycreekcreamery.com, livingloess.com.
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transcontinental highway from New York City to San Francisco. Second, they wanted the Lincoln Highway to be an object lesson that would demonstrate the need for similar roads around the country. The Lincoln Highway Association achieved both goals.” Funding would fall short, as would the 1915 timetable to finish the paving. Within a year, Lincoln Highway boosters shifted the ambitious mission of upgrading road surface to promoting the highway 42
THE IOWAN | iowan.com
(encouraging state, county, and municipal officials to improve the road), marking it, and educating the public. Combating confusion over a growing number of named trails, the Bureau of Public Roads (later the Federal Highway Department) — led by Iowan Thomas MacDonald — established a new route numbering system in 1925 as federal road financing and oversight replaced private dollars and
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