A summer retreat expands into a permanent lake home
Program provides car seats for special needs children
Athletic trainer keeps the Musketeers in stitches
a guide for living in siouxland
Museum
makes a move
Director Steve hansen gives you a sneak peek
Vintage recipes
Food Timelessness preserved
March 2011
Siouxland Life is on the web! Visit www.siouxcityjournal.com/siouxlandlife
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Siouxland Life
Contents March
2011
38
incisionless surgery Radiation therapist Amy Sorensen makes adjustments on a control panel for sterotactic surgery at the June E. Nylen Cancer Center.
12 vintage recipes
19
On the cover Museum director Steve Hansen helps introduce the new Sioux City Public Museum facility. Photograph by Tim Hynds
features 4 Feature home: Lohry house 12 Food: Vintage recipes 14 Collections: String instruments 16 Q&A with Steve Hansen 19 Museum: New space for everyone 26 Museum: Looking for artifacts 28 Museum: What’s in the archives 30 Museum: Peirce Mansion
32 Museum: History 34 Museum: Other museums 36 Health: Musketeers athletic trainer 38 Health: Incisionless surgery 40 Health: Car seats for special needs 42 Out & About 44 Medical answers from the doctor 47 Parting shot: Pictures of life
Publisher Steve Griffith Editor Bruce Miller Editorial Joanne Fox, Tim Gallagher, Earl Horlyk, Nick Hytrek, Marcia Poole, John Quinlan, Lynn Zerschling Photography Tim Hynds, Jim Lee, Jerry Mennenga Presentation editor Amy Hynds Advertising Sales Nancy Gevik Advertising Design Stacy Pajl, Jill Bisenius Š2011 The Sioux City Journal. Siouxland Life is published monthly by The Sioux City Journal. For advertising information, please call (712) 224-6275. For editorial information, please call (712) 293-4218.
14
collections Adair Kaehlar of Whiting, Iowa, shares his large collection of guitars.
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Decorating Feature
Home
lake house
m
becomes permanent home Text by Joanne Fox | Photographs by Jim Lee
4 March 2011
Siouxland Life
McCOOK LAKE – Walk out the back door of the home of Dirk and Bonnie Lohry and you are steps away from – well, this time of year – a panoramic view of a lot of white. “We tell people one of best features of the house is its location on the west shore of McCook Lake,” Dirk said. “This time of year, with all the snow, is maybe not the best palette to show that off.” But when the weather switches to the milder seasons, the house’s large picture windows – from floor to ceiling – offer a breath taking view of the lake and the sunsets that reflect off of it. Realtors push location as a primary choice in a home, and the Lohrys bought the lake lot with that in mind several years ago. “What happened was Bonnie bought me a kayak, and I
was in search of a place to use it,” Dirk said. “I told friends the kayak became one of the most expensive items I owned, after I bought the lot,” he quipped. Dirk confessed originally he had thought of just building a modest house on the lot, “more like a man cave than anything else.” “That’s when I started to suggest we might need more room at the lake house,” Bonnie noted. “And a basement,” Dirk added. “And suddenly, it went from a summer home to our permanent home.”
Dirk and Bonnie Lohry wanted an angular look to their McCook Lake home. At far left, the large picture windows off the dining area showcase a view of the lake. Above, the Lohrys enjoy the loft, which presently serves as an office. At right, the earth tones of the home are covered with snow.
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Dirk began messing with “thousands” of plans and enlisted the help of architect Nathan Kalaher of PLaN Architects P.C. “I wanted a relatively new look to the house, more angular,” he said. That kayak needed a home as well, so the design included a boat house and garage under the detached garage. There is a ramp from the boat house to the lake. Boats can be wheeled into the lake from the boat house. In the winter, the ramp allows an ATV and ice fishing tent access to the ice. Of equal importance, the Lohrys decided to use the earth’s natural heat to keep utility costs down. It has resulted in a savings of energy dollars, as well as a consciousness of saving the earth’s resources. Since the mid-1970s, tens of thousands of homes and businesses in the United States, Canada and Europe have been heated and cooled by a system that bridges the gap between high technology and energy savings – the geothermal heat pump. In simple terms the heat pump in the winter transfers heat from the ground to the floors of the house. In the summer the cycle is reversed and heat is “pumped” from the house to the ground. The ground in this case is six, 200-foot wells located under the driveway. Radiant floor heat is used throughout the house in the winter months. All the floors, including the garage and shop
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have heated pipes sunk in the concrete. Each zone of the house is individually controlled with an indoor thermostat. Most of the water for residential use is heated for free using the waste heat from the heat pump compressor. This geothermal heat pump is unique in that is a “water to water” system. Heat is transferred from the ground to water in the wells and then to water in the floors of the house. In the summer the water is cooled and used in the air conditioning. The heat pump contains both the condenser and evaporator in one unit. It is located in the basement. Dirk watched the heat pump being assembled in a factory in Mitchell, S.D. Water, with anti-freeze added, is circulated from the heat pump in the house out to the wells and back. The other side of the heat pump circulates heated water to pipes in the floor. In the summer the central air system forces the air past a coil-cooled with the liquid from the heat pump. The heat pump, which is electrically powered, moves heat energy from the natural heat storage of the earth to the floors of the home. In the summer the cycle is reversed and heat is “pumped” from the house to the ground. This eliminates a noisy compressor sitting outside, adjacent to the house or “whooshing” hot or cold air flow, Bonnie said. “That sound you hear right now?” she asked. “It’s the dishwasher.” The house is also super-insulated, Dirk said. The walls and roof are six inches of Styrofoam, sandwiched between plywood, sealed with foam. The system is referred to as SIPs Structured Insulated Panels. They were prefabricated and assembled in a few days on site. “The house is so air-tight that forced ventilation was required,” Dirk explained. “An air-to-air exchanger preheats air from outside with air coming from the house.” It has paid off; the Lohrys’ December utility bill was $170 for their 4,000 square-foot home. But it isn’t all about savings. Comfort was important enough the Lohrys had in-floor heating installed throughout the four-bedroom, three-bath house, including the garage and boathouse. “Heat is provided by hot water pumped through tubes embedded in the floor,” Dirk said. “A heat pump heats the water directly.” All the floors are tiled. The only carpeting appears on the stairs that lead to the lower level. “The house is very allergy-friendly, for me,” Dirk said. “We have HEPA air filters
Since the mid-1970, thousands of homes have been heated and cooled by a geothermal heat pump. The efficiency is reflected in the December heating bill for Dirk and Bonnie Lohry – about $170 for their 4,000-squarefoot house.
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We really just wanted the house to be less formal. More user-friendly, than a showplace.
Above, the bathroom features a walk-in, tiled shower. At right Bonnie Lohry found online a ladder that rolls to allow access to their floor-to-ceiling bookcase.
in the central air system; there are limited carpets and there are no gas appliances, and the ventilation system keeps the air fresh.” The Lohrys moved into their home in June of last year and enjoyed hosting the
family Christmas celebration. The kitchen was a popular place where meals were created on the Corian countertops and tableware was pulled from the warm brown walnut cabinets. Off to the side, a grand piano is positioned, which Bonnie
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FOOD Bobs
Drive Inn
Vintage recipes
w
preserve real-food timelessness Text by Marcia Poole
Weeding out “clutter” from cupboards, closets, drawers and bookshelves is getting easier for me. That juicer I haven’t used for years? Somebody else can probably use it. That set of salmon-and-black fabric placemats? What was I thinking? Even some of the cookbooks that crowd my bookshelves are open to consideration. Do I really need that many holiday cookie titles? But some areas of the bookshelves are off limits when it comes to clearing out. Near the top of the list are precious vintage recipe booklets that serve up slices of food history and kitchen appliance marketing trends. Each offers a precious glimpse into where we’ve been, what was cool and why it no longer fits our lifestyles. Chafing dishes, for example, were stars of home entertaining in the 1960s when the likes of Beef Stroganoff, Lobster Newburg and flaming desserts were all the rage. Sterno-fueled versions gave way to electric buffet appliances about the time we started hiking up our hemlines and teasing out our hair. Other nostalgic recipe booklets show us that some products never really leave. They adapt to our changing ways, but the essential product endures. Such is the case of Jell-O. A recipe booklet titled “Joys of Jell-O” published by General Foods Corporation is a prime example of product staying power. There’s no copyright date in “Joys of Jell-O,” but the introduction holds a clue. It takes readers back to 1897 when Jell-O Gelatin first “grandly shimmered its way into American dining rooms... Just how many brands in your kitchen go back 65 years?” That makes this 95-page recipe booklet an early 1960s consumer piece. It followed many other Jell-O driven recipe booklets which started appearing early in the 1900s. Today, Siouxland isn’t likely to deny or even downplay its Jell-O heritage. Jell-O is part of our food past and present. We serve it plain, buy it packaged in its most basic form or as single-serve products. More and more,
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we scoop it up as a deli “salad” ready for It’s likely many of those ways were the table. inspired by General Mill’s collection of Back 25 years ago, Jell-O was less Jell-O recipe booklets, including “Joys of widely acknowledged. The 1986 Journal Jell-O.” It’s no surprise that the bulk of Cookbook called on two of the top food the early ’60s recipes were molded affairs authorities in the nation to comment complemented by several pages of ilon the pervasive food “snobbery” of that lustrated directions on the delicate art of time. Foods with genuine social roots, unmolding Jell-O. Additionally, “Joys” told including Jell-O, weren’t getting much readers how to whip, cube, flake, layer, respect as we were trying to distance scallop and crown Jell-O. ourselves from a meat-and-potatoes As for recipes in the vintage booklet, heritage. there’s plenty of familiarity with the likes Authors and food anthropologists of Cherry Waldorf Salad with diced apJane and Michael Stern served as our ples and bananas. Jell-O “ambrosias” tell 1986 Journal Cookbook judges. They us that some things never change. Other Michael and Jane Stern are shown in front of Bob’s embraced the opportunity to learn recipes are more curious. Herb-Glazed Drive Inn in Le Mars. (Courtesy photo) more about what people really ate Sandwiches, for example, go like this: rather than European-influenced Lemon Jell-O, salt and cayenne distrends that would never take hold in Siouxland. solve in a simmered mix of water, peppercorns, bay leaf and “The difference between Europe and America is that in dried dill. Next, vinegar is added to the hot liquid. After chilling, America when traditions get old, we throw them away. the syrupy mixture is poured over luncheon or tea sandwiches Europeans would sooner die than change anything of your choice. “Your luncheon or tea sandwiches stay fresh they do. Americans are almost embarrassed about and flavorful under a glaze,” according to the vintage recipe. our meat-and-potatoes cuisine.” Jane said that in a Among the suggested sandwiches for this Jell-O herb glaze? 1986 Journal Cookbook story. She was quoting anPumpernickel bread, spread with mustard and topped with other food writer with whom she agreed. Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and corned beef. The Sterns’ “Real American Food” (Alfred A. Just as intriguing are Jell-O recipes for Old-Fashioned Cole Knopf; 1986) had come out about the same time Slaw; Barbecue Salad; Chicken Salad Surprise; and even Easter as our annual cookbook. That accomplishment Eggs. Perhaps the most nostalgic of them all is Creamy Freeze – followed at least 10 other books, including an illustrated frozen treat molded in the type of metal ice cube “Roadfood” and “Square Meals,” by tray I haven’t seen for decades. the same publisher. The Sterns’ participation in the 1986 Journal Cookbook The authors crisshasn’t been their only link to Siouxland. Their visits have kept crossed the them in touch with some of our longest-running authentic nation in their Siouxland food establishments, including Tastee Inn and Out; Volkswagen, Miles Inn; The Green Gables; Milwaukee Wiener House; Bob’s always lookDrive Inn, and Archie’s Waeside both in Le Mars, Iowa. ing for food In our most recent reconnection, Michael reiterated his feelpeople really ing that our meals – wherever we eat them – are about much ate. In the more than something delicious to eat. They’re about our “food, Hawkeye community, heritage, cultural touchstones and values.” State, they As the judges for the 1986 Journal Cookbook, Jane and Mifound Jell-O chael chose Caramel-Apple Ladder Loaf as the grand prize. in a rainbow of No Jell-O in these warming rolls, but plenty of comfort. Hattie jiggly versions. Johnson, of South Sioux City, baked the winning entry. “When you buy cookbooks in Iowa, Check out more on Jane and Michael Stern’s road trip foods at: Check out more on Jane and Michael Stern’s road trip foods at: every little town has www.roadfood.com www.roadfood.com 100 different ways of making Jell-O,” Jane said. Brand X Pictures
Siouxland Life
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COLLECTION Stringed
Instruments
A collection on a
string
WHITING, Iowa – The walls of Adair and Nancy Kaehlar resound with splendor. That’s because they are decorated with a number of different types of stringed instruments. Adair Kaehlar recalled as a youngster singing with his dad in their truck as they transported hogs or cattle to market. “Dad played the piano, but not the guitar,” he explained. “I think it was for my eighth birthday that he got me a Hawaiian guitar from Flood Music Co. and told me I was to take guitar lessons. I think if I was to give a reason why Dad wanted me to take the guitar over the piano, it was because I could carry the guitar.” Kaehlar took lessons at the Monona Hotel in Onawa from a Sioux City woman.
“Her name is long forgotten,” he admitted. “But I remember if we did well, she would do the hula for us.” Kaehlar previously played with the Siouxland Country Music and with the Christian Minstrels. Once a week, Kaehlar, 81, and others play at area care centers as Monona Country Gospel. Wife Nancy does not play any instrument. She claimed not to sing either, but her husband disputed that: “She can if she wants to.” Because Kaehlar has more than just the guitars – he also has mandolins, ukuleles and banjos, he wasn’t sure just how many items were in the collection. “Let’s just say more than anyone ought to have,” he quipped. Kaehlar answered some questions about his collection. Q. Where have you found all of these guitars? A. When we owned the grocery story in Onawa (Kaehlar’s Onawa Foods), people would come in with guitars and just Left Adair Kaehlar, at left, talks about his large collection of stringed instruments in his Whiting, Iowa, home. Above A number of guitars with accompanying musical notes adorn a wall.
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Siouxland Life
Text by Joanne Fox | Photographs by Jim Lee
give them to me or offer to sell them to me. Then I’ve found some in stores and in catalogues. Q. What the most unusual guitar? A. I have a nine-string guitar that I know of only one other. That was from Branson, Mo. I got a six-string banjo from a lady from Orange City, who came to the Lewis and Clark Festival (in Onawa). It has quite a different sound. She said if I didn’t want it, I could give it back. Well, you don’t give a kid a lollipop and ask for it back. Q. Is it just you or is Nancy in on this collection as well? A. Nancy got me that Epiphone hummingbird guitar for our 50th wedding anniversary. I play it a lot. Q. Is there one that you have more memories with than the others? A. I have a “named” guitar, where I have about 45 people who have signed it. They’re people who I’ve played with. It’s meaningful because now there are people who are gone. Q. Which ones would you say are valuable? A. I have three Gibsons, which probably might be called valuable. Q. Since they’re on display, who dusts
Adair Kaehlar displays his “named” guitar that has close to 45 signatures on it. Below is a photo of a young Kaehlar with a banjo.
Are you a collector If you have a collection to share with Siouxland Life readers, contact Joanne Fox, jfox@siouxcityjournal.com. them? A. I do. In fact I spent about two to three hours tuning, dusting and polishing them yesterday (the day before the interview). Q. Is there a price limit on what you’ll spend? A. I was recently at Midbell Music in Sioux City and looked at a Takamine. It was $1,600. That was too much for me. And I don’t buy any of the instruments as an investment. It’s just fun. Q. What’s the oldest one? A. I have a Super Tone that sold out of a Sears & Roebuck catalogue. I’m sure it’s over 100 years old. I also have the original case and picks for it. Q. Is there a guitar player you admire? A. Chet Atkins. Although I have a friend in Jefferson, Iowa, who I really look up to. I’ve known him since we were teenagers and I really like his style. Q. Your guitars are impressive, but what about the other stringed instruments? A. I have a balalaika, that’s three strings, three woods and three-sided. I have a hammer dulcimer and a lap dulcimer. I have a dulcibro that has a dulcimer frame, but is played like a steel
guitar. I have a mandolin and an autoharp. I have two banjos, a four-string and six-string. Q. No harp? A. We did look at one once. (In the background, Nancy interjected, “We’re not getting a harp.”) Q. You have two banjos. Can you play “Dueling Banjos”? A. Oh, no! That’s too complicated for me. I used to do it on the guitar years ago, but I wouldn’t try it any more. Q. What about the accoutrements that accompany stringed instruments?
A. I’ve got microphones for when we have jam sessions. I’ve got amps coming out of my ears. Q. Do you collect anything else? A. No. Q. What do you think of today’s country music? A. I’m not a fan. It’s more pop than country. I don’t like that rock music that’s played today. But I have to give those kids credit. They can really play those guitars.
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Siouxland Life
march 2011
15
profile Q&A
20 questions with Sioux City Public Museum director
Steve Hansen Text by Nick Hytrek | Photographs by Tim Hynds
As work nears the end on Sioux City’s new Public Museum, Nick Hytrek talked with Director Steve Hansen about the facility’s future. 1. When is the new museum opening? We’re looking right now at late March. 2. When will the move take place? We moved the archives collection service over in the fall. By the time this (story) runs, we’ll be close. 3. How long do you think it will take for it to feel like home, like the museum? It’s a new facility, it’s a new home. I think it will take at least a year for the newness to sink in. 4. How much is the staff looking forward to working in a new facility? I think the staff is pretty amped up to be at the new site. We’ve been planning this for two years now. 5. Having a brand-new, up-to-date facility like this, does it make your job easier or harder? From a marketing standpoint, it makes it easier. From an operational standpoint, it certainly makes it more complex and more involved. 6. What will the new museum allow you to do that you haven’t been able to do before? It allows us to showcase artifacts we’ve never been able to show before. It allows us to expand educational programs. And it allows us to bring in temporary exhibits that we didn’t have the physical capacity to do. 7. What excites you most about the new museum? I just think it’s an opportunity to better serve the community. Every area that the museum operates in, we’ll be able to raise the bar.
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8. How much more exhibit space will there be? The whole Peirce Mansion (the current museum) is 9,500 square feet. Our permanent gallery space will have 12,000 square feet and temporary gallery space is approximately 7,500 square feet. 9. How much more of the museum’s collection will you be able to display? We will be in a position where anything we want to display, we can. 10. What will people notice most when they walk in? I think people will think it’s not their concept of an old museum. It will be a very open concept, and they’re seeing history they weren’t aware of. Hopefully they’ll see it as a fun, exciting place. 11. Is it already generating interest from schools planning field trips? Schools, service groups. The good news is, the interest isn’t just local. We’re getting interest expressed from a 60-mile radius, so that’s encouraging. 12. What kind of interest do you sense from the general public? We’ve had a really high level of interest and support. I don’t go anywhere without people asking me about the museum, when it’s going to be open. 13. From an operations standpoint, what is the best thing about the new museum? Being all on one level. It will be truly accessible to everyone. 14. Will everything in the museum’s collection now be at one site? Yes. We still have the Sgt. Floyd Welcome Center. As far as the museum, the archives all are on one site. No more Pearl Street Center.
Siouxland Life
15. What’s the biggest adjustment you and the staff will have to make? I think it will just be time management. We anticipate that we’ll serve triple the numbers we now do, and it’s going to take more time and energy. 16. Did you visit other museums to get ideas for the design and floor plan here? We did – dozens, and we appropriated some really good ideas from them. 17. What are some of the more notable museums you visited, and what ideas did you integrate from them? The Smithsonians. A whole range from some of the largest museums to the smallest. The State Historical Building. Some of the things we picked up is a better way to deal with collections, different ways of making the museum more visitor-friendly. 18. How do you think visitor numbers will be this year? I think initially visitation will see a real spike. I think the first two or three years, there will be a lot of interest, and after that it will be up to the staff to keep it fresh. 19. How does Sioux City benefit from having a new museum? I think bringing in traffic downtown, bringing people in from out of town. It’s a new showcase piece downtown. 20. How do you think being downtown will affect the museum? We chose downtown because we thought it would be great for the museum. I always said we’d be part of the solution to downtown. We want to be part of the evolving downtown. I envision the museum to be a community meeting place. We want to be utilized by the public.
“It’s a new showcase piece downtown.”
Siouxland Life march 2011
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The popular replica of French-Canadian fur trader Theophile Bruguier’s log cabin has been moved from its longtime home on Jackson Street to the new museum. In 1849, Bruguier established a trading post at the future town site. His original cabin sits in Riverside Park.
wow factor new museum has space
for everyone to enjoy Text by Lynn Zerschling | Photographs by Tim Hynds
T Above Vintage Sioux City beer bottles are part of an exhibit on brewing and grain milling at the new Sioux City Public Museum.
he Wow Factor. That’s what backers of a new Sioux City Public Museum sought when they talked about remodeling the former JC Penney department store five years ago. Now that the new museum nears an April opening, did they get it? To those involved in the project, the answer is a resounding “Yes.” “I think the scale of the place will be part of that ‘wow’ factor,” businessman Irving Jensen Jr., said. “Your eyes will take in two stories seeing the Kari-Keen plane. That Corn Palace entry is almost two-stories tall.” A copy of one of the original architectural drawings of one of the city’s famous corn palaces surrounds the doorway into a theater. The video that will be aired in the 48-seat Orientation Siouxland Life
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Disaster wall The wall will commemorate three major calamities that hit the city and the community’s responses to them: the Dec. 23, 1904, Pelletier Department Store fire, the 1953 Floyd River flood and the crash of United Airlines Flight 232 at Sioux Gateway Airport on July 19, 1989.
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Above A timeline outlines the history of Sioux City’s packing industry. Left Museum director Steve Hansen stands in front of a vintage paving machine.
Theater illustrating Sioux City history will be another “cool factor that will set the tone for the whole museum,” Karen Van De Steeg added. Van De Steeg is president of the nonprofit Siouxland Heritage Foundation that is overseeing planning, construction and fundraising for the project. To her, the biggest wow factor is the free-standing Disaster Wall showcasing three major calamities and outlining how the community came together in coordinated responses. The wall illustrates the 1953 Floyd River flood that inundated businesses and homes in the Hoeven Valley and the stockyards; the crash of United Flight 232 at Sioux Gateway airport on July 19, 1989, and the Pelletier Department store fire on Dec. 23, 1904, which destroyed 2½ city blocks in what is considered the worst fire in the city’s history. “To me that wall is interesting, perhaps because of my medical background,” said Van De Steeg, executive director of Health Inc., which oversees the June E. Nylen Cancer Center, Hospice of Siouxland and Siouxland Paramedics Inc. “It’s a good example of how the city survived these different disasters over the years, came together and still is strong.” Museum Director Steve Hansen admitted he enjoys the view from the skyway’s glass windows overlooking the interior from a second-floor vantage point. “And, my favorite deal right now is to go down at night and sit at Fourth and
Temporary exhibits Rotating exhibits will feature various displays, such as Sioux City-produced bricks from the Lower Brick Co. and other companies in Riverside in the late 1800s to early 1900s, surveying equipment used by Dr. John Cook, who laid out city streets, and wood from the coffin of Sgt. Charles Floyd, who was buried in 1804 after he died on the Lewis and Clark expedition.
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Nebraska and just look inside the windows. You can see the Kari-Keen plane backlit. It’s pretty cool! It’s all coming together like we had planned it.” In no way does the remodeled space resemble the building’s former home as a department store. “It’s open and airy,” he said. “The ceilings are white. It doesn’t feel like you’re walking into a dark cave.” “I think it will be easier for people from out of town to find once the museum is located downtown,” Jim Jung, chairman of the city’s Historic Preservation Commission, said. “It will add to the cultural activities in the downtown area in addition to the Orpheum Theatre, the Tyson Events Center and the Art Center,” Jung declared. “I think this museum will be the crown jewel for downtown.” Jensen added, “I think it will blow people away when they go in there.” More Room The new $12.5 million museum at 607 Fourth St. will have space to showcase the majority of the museum’s permanent collections, storage for the rest and will display traveling exhibits. In the Peirce Mansion, at 2901 Jackson St., Hansen said there only was room to display about 15 percent of the collections – which includes more than 50,000 objects. At the Pearl Street Research Center, at 407 Pearl St. the vast majority of its collection – including more than a quarter of million photographic images – were in storage. The Peirce Mansion contained about 9,500 square feet of space, while the Pearl Street Research Center contained 8,000 square feet. At the new museum, there are 55,000 square feet of usable space on the first floor. An atrium has been created on the southwest corner of the building for the museum. The rest of the second floor is leased to Delta Airlines for its reservation center. Permanent Exhibits One of the children’s favorite exhibits is a replica of French fur trader Theophile Bruguier’s log cabin, which has been installed at its new home. His original cabin still stands in Riverside Park. The permanent collection includes that free-standing disaster wall and exhibits on the Sioux City Stockyards and meatpacking industry, the Native American Gallery, as well as displays on Sioux
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Heritage Foundation raises majority of money
The new Sioux City Public Museum carries a $12.5 million price tag. “All the bids came in lower than predicted due to the competition for work during the recession,” Steve Hansen, museum director, stated. “We still have between $25,000 and $40,000 yet to raise in our capital campaign.” The City Council bought the former JC Penney building for the museum’s long-needed home, as part of its overall $1.5 million contribution. The state’s Vision Iowa Community Attraction and Tourism program awarded the city $2 million for the project. The nonprofit Siouxland Heritage Foundation Board has raised the majority of money for the project. Hansen said an endowment fund has been created. The goal is to raise $500,000 and to date, $385,000 has been donated. Anyone wishing to make a donation or make a pledge should send a check made out to the Siouxland Heritage Foundation, in care of the Sioux City Public Museum, 2901 Jackson St., Sioux City, Iowa 51104. More information is available by calling (712) 279-6174. Donations to the foundation are tax deductible.
corn palace A two-story replica of an architectural rendering of one of Sioux City’s corn palaces serves as the main entrance to an orientation theater and exhibit space. The 48-seat theater will air a 12-minute video on the history of Sioux City three times each hour and will feature special effects. Nearby is “The Attic,” where unusual items will be displayed that usually get stored in the attic since no one wants to throw them away.
medical equipment Sioux City dentist Frank Epstein used this chair and related equipment in his office in the 1950s. Epstein was born July 15, 1909, in Russia and immigrated to the United States with his parents as a child. He was known to his patients as “Dr. Pickle” and was a practicing dentist for 57 years, specializing in children’s dentistry. He died Dec. 23, 2006, at age 97.
Floor plans for Sioux City Public Museum by design firm Gerard Hilderty & Associates, Inc.
City businesses and some whopper-sized vehicles. The Stockyards wall consists of more than photographs and narrative information. Cattle pens stand in front of it, with a Black Angus cow and pig gazing back at onlookers. “It will be an interactive exhibit with some hands-on activities for children” Hansen noted. The museum always has excelled at presenting exhibits on the area’s Native American history, Jensen said. In addition to the variety of pottery, clothing, arrowheads and other artifacts in the collection, Hansen said the Iowa State archaeologist at the University of Iowa has agreed to allow the museum to display a number of items from the Mill Creek Culture dating to 11,000 A.D. “These people were farming up and down the Sioux River Valley,” Hansen said. The artifacts on loan from the state were found in the Kimball site in southern Plymouth County, just north of Stone Park. Some of the tools were made out of large mammal bones, while gardening tools, hoes and fish hooks were crafted out of fragile bird bones. “Sioux City has one of the best Native American collections in the state of Iowa and the region,” asserted Jensen, who also is a member of the heritage foundation board. A rotating display will feature Sioux City businesses. “We built a trolley car and you can go inside and watch a screen,” Hansen added. “You can choose from one of five topics.” Flying high over the exhibits is the Kari-Keen coupe, a two-seater
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manufactured at the aircraft plant in Leeds. It is one of only three known to exist out of the 40 to 50 Kari-Keens that took to the skies in the early days of aviation. “From our standpoint, this is one of the most significant donations we’ve every received,” Hansen said. “It would sell for $85,000 to $100,000 on the open market, but for us it is priceless.” Towering into the second floor atrium along a nearby wall is the red Bus Hotel sign. Jensen, his son, Irving Jensen III, and their family have donated a 1918 Mack fire truck and a 1957 Diamond T dump truck used in the family’s construction business. The Jensens had both vehicles painstakingly restored to mint condition. The Sioux City Fire Department once used a similar fire truck. “You can walk down one hall you will find the stuffed animal displays and Dr. (James) Hartje has given them a magnificent collection of rock artifacts,” Jensen added. The permanent gallery covers 12,000 square feet of space. Temporary Exhibits Another 7,200 square feet of space will be available for rotating exhibits out of the museum’s extensive collections, as well as for traveling exhibits. “We have the capacity to expand to 9,500 square feet if we need the room,” Hansen stated. “Most traveling exhibits need at least 5,000 square feet, like the Titanic exhibit. … A Hawkeye truck also will be on display which was manufactured at a plant on Hawkeye Drive here.” One of the first new exhibits? Sioux City fourth graders’ history projects. The pupils’ renditions of Sioux City landmarks will be displayed in May. Van De Steeg, a former Sioux City mayor, said another of her favorite exhibits is The Attic, located inside the Nebraska Street door. “They are kind of these old, eclectic items you might find in the attic that merit being on display, but not a separate exhibit of their own,” she noted. Such as? The bison head. The original Thorpe’s jewelry store clock. “There will be an interactive mirror there,” Hansen revealed. “You look in the mirror and will see your image. If you hit a button, you will see the Rev. Haddock or John Peirce pop up in the mirror and there will be a two-minute film on them” shown in the mirror. The Rev. George Haddock was a fiery 24
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MEDIA The museum has a display representing Sioux City’s media.
temperance pastor who was murdered at Fourth and Water streets on Aug. 3, 1886. His assassination catapulted Sioux City into the national spotlight. Peirce was an 1890s entrepreneur who once owned the mansion that has served as the museum’s home since 1961. Other Spaces Holding educational classes at the Peirce Mansion was limited to a dozen or so people who met in a small backroom. In the new place, Hansen said one classroom will hold twice that many people, while two other rooms will be separated by a partition, which can be opened to a larger room for meetings and classes. That flexible space will be available for community groups. The Pearl Street archives’ new home is on the Jackson Street side of the building. Storage room is available on the north side. Crews who back trucks into the loading docks off Fifth Street will be able to unload exhibits into the temporary gallery or into the storage area. Another storage area on the southeast corner of the building has been designated for future expansion. Administrative offices are located near the Nebraska and Jackson street sides of the building. The gift shop is located just inside the Nebraska Street entrance. The Museum Trustees and heritage foundation board decided not to include a café in the building. “We didn’t want to compete with private restaurants,” Hansen explained,
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noting there are sandwich shops and restaurants nearby. During warmer weather, he expects a number of people to brownbag their lunches to the outdoor plaza facing Fourth Street, which will contain green space, plantings and benches. Events also will be held in the plaza. Parking People driving to the museum may park on the street at the meters or in one of the nearby city parking ramps. The city allows free parking at the meters and in the ramps on the weekends. “If you have a product worth seeing, people won’t worry about having to pay for the parking,” Hansen maintained. “The museum is free.” Attraction “Our designers believe they have designed a four-hour experience,” Hansen said. “Even if you are visiting for just 60 minutes, you will get to see a lot and want to come back.” The exhibits will bring the past to life through the use of state-of-the-art technology, interactive displays, hands-on elements and presentations. The hope, planners said, is that the exhibits will inspire the imagination and encourage the desire to further explore the rich history of the area. “With our educational programs and exhibits, we’ll only be limited by our own creativity,” Hansen said, with Van De Steeg adding, “It will be a lot of fun.”
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museum always on the lookout for
artifacts Text by Nick Hytrek | Photograph by Larry Myhre
If you watch “Pawn Stars” and “American Pickers,” you know there are all sorts of interesting, historical stuff sitting in garages and old buildings all over the place. Steve Hansen would love to see what’s stashed in Sioux City and the Siouxland area. “I’m convinced that every day something gets thrown away or goes through the thrift shop,” said the Sioux City Public Museum director. “If it’s Sioux City history, we’d like to get a chance to look at it. “Part of our mission is collecting Sioux City history, preserving it and showing it.” The museum has what’s known as its “hunt list.” It includes areas of Sioux City history the museum may be short on. Hansen said it’s hard to list specific items because it’s not known if they even exist. “It’s hard to say we want something when we don’t know what’s out there,” he said. And what museum officials consider historical might not fit the same definition to people cleaning out their closets. The museum isn’t interested only in artifacts from the 1800s and early 1900s. Hansen said the museum would like to show more recent history – artifacts or photos since 1950.
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The market board in the lobby of the Sioux City Livestock Exchange Building.
signs, old promotional materials. Some specific businesses Hansen mentioned were Hawkeye Truck, Wetmore Automobile Company (especially an old tractor) and old Sioux City Stockyards Hansen said the museum has only two pieces Sioux City bank notes and other currency. of video footage from the stockyards: the last Hansen said more recent photos would be nice, too. The museum has few photos of auction and a promotional piece from the downtown Sioux City since 1950. late 1940s or early ’50s. “We know there’s got to be more out there,” Native American artifacts he said. Hansen said the museum could use more The museum would welcome more video items to tell the story of the Indians who lived on the stockyards and is always interested in in the Sioux City area. expanding its collection of photos and arti“We’re always looking to expand our collecfacts from an industry that made Sioux City tion there,” he said. famous. Here are some of the things Hansen said the museum is most interested in obtaining:
Construction industry The museum is seeking photos of construction projects: roads, buildings and other structures, especially from the 1940s and ’50s. As an example, Hansen said that around Christmas, an individual brought in several photos taken during the construction of Allee Gymnasium at Morningside College. Sioux City businesses before 1960 “The earlier the better,” Hansen said. Just about anything goes here: artifacts,
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Period furniture from the 1890s As the Peirce Mansion is converted from the home of the museum to a period home, furniture from that time period will be needed. Military artifacts Hansen said the museum’s collection of artifacts, especially uniforms, through World War II is very good. The museum could use more items from the Korean War, and especially needs more from the Vietnam War and recent wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
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Sioux City Public Museum archivist Grace Linden talks about the museum’s collection and its new home.
The attic
It’s all about the archives Text by Tim Gallagher | Photographs by Tim Hynds
Slots, drawers and neat stacks of paper don’t amount to a feast for the eyes or ears. No lights. No bells, whistles or whirls. But to a museum that’s all about local history, these papers amount to the foundation. The nerve center. “We are the attic of Sioux City. We keep these things because the next generation must know what happened in the past,” said Grace Linden, curator of history for the Sioux City Public Museum. Linden and staff take documents such as personal histories, family trees, diplomas and Bibles and carefully examine, catalog and store. In a word: Archive. “We take an item in and we accession it,” she said. “That means we get all of the information we can from the owner. We find out where they got it, the object’s provenance; who made it, how it was used, when it was used and who used it.” 28
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Without that history, the document (or the item; be it a uniform, a buggy, a truck, a tool, etc.) is just a thing. The Sioux City Public Museum is more than things. It is history, stories behind those things. This is a must for an entity whose mission is to educate people about Sioux City and its surrounding region. A formal selections committee, in fact, meets to decide what artifacts should be archived and admitted to the collection. At times, items are turned away. If they have a local tie, chances are they’ll be received and archived by Linden or a fellow staff member. “We’re not here to tell people about Chicago,” she says. “We’re here to tell about Sioux City.” Telling those stories would be next to impossible without organization. Sioux City Public Museum staff members find
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order through a system that enumerates items by subject, by giver, by time frame and more. While complicated to a visitor from the general public, Linden and the staff breeze through the digits via two computer databases and often produce the item, document or collection sought
Framed prints are stored in the museum archives.
“We put the big puzzle of Sioux City together here in the archives.”
A soapbox derby car is shown as part of the Sioux City Public Museum’s collection.
in just minutes. In a way, this is a library on steroids. In addition to books, there are carefully aligned rows of papers, pictures and negatives – the two-dimensional artifacts. Then, there are the three-dimensional objects, things like military uniforms, sewing machines and toys. The additional space at the new Public Museum site in downtown Sioux City gives Linden and Co. a badly needed boost, allowing staff members and 15 volunteers to store more and find more with ease. “We put the big puzzle of Sioux City together here in the archives,” she says. She shares an example. Say John Q. Public visits the new museum’s reading room and asks to see a family genealogy to which he’s connected. Linden would enter the name in a database and quickly return with any documents connected to the family. It might be an old Bible with notes, or a family scrapbook left with the museum eyers ago. There may also be references to John Q. Public’s family in past newspaper articles that Linden can access. “For the public’s protection and ours, we do handle a lot of our items with gloves,” she says. “The books and papers that aren’t fragile can be handled by the public.” A woman recently showed up with two granddaughters. She told staff members that the Sioux City Public Museum had an oral history shared by her late husband. “We had it here,” Linden says. “I brought out the oral history and the girls listened to their grandfather talking about life in Sioux City years ago. I also had the transcript of the oral history; it was 8-10 pages long.” A tape-to-tape machine allowed Linden to record the tape for the granddaughters who were hearing their grandpa’s voice for the first time.
How to donate to the museum If you have something you think might make a good addition the Sioux City Public Museum’s collection, contact the museum at (712) 279-6174. Director Steve Hansen said the museum relies on the donation of its artifacts. Donors can get a tax write-off for the value of the item they donate.
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old
museum to return to period home concept
Text by Nick Hytrek | Photographs by Tim Hynds
Once the Sioux City Public Museum has moved into its new downtown site, its home for the past 50 years will return to its roots. The Peirce Mansion, which has housed the museum since 1961, will return to a period home concept that will be available for receptions, parties, meetings and other functions. “It will have a different flavor to it. We’ve had some interest already from people wanting to have their weddings here,” Museum Director Steve Hansen said. The Victorian-era mansion at 2901 Jackson St. was built in 1891 by real estate developer John Peirce. It was sold and occupied by many families over the years until 1958, when the Junior League of Sioux City purchased the house for $10,000 and donated it in 1959 to the City of Sioux City for use as a cultural building. Once converted back into a period home, the mansion, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, will be under the operation of the Sioux City Museum and Historical Association. 30
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A book and pair of glasses in a period bedroom in the Peirce Mansion.
“It will loosely be under our umbrella,” Hansen said. Hansen said the mansion’s conversion will begin once the museum has vacated it in March. Hansen said preliminary plans call for restoring the secondfloor bedrooms and filling them with furniture from the 1890s time period. The third floor will be available to rent for special occasions. It should be available for rentals sometime this summer, Hansen said, but the complete conversion may take longer than that. Some of the museum’s collection of Victorian-era furniture likely will remain in the mansion to help return that residential feel to it. Hansen said the new
Steve Hansen, director of the Sioux City Public Museum, is shown in a period bedroom in the museum’s Peirce Mansion. The mansion will be restored into a Victorian period home after the museum moves into its new downtown Sioux City headquarters.
museum will have information directing visitors to the Peirce Mansion if they want to see a furnished Victorian-era home. Hansen has mixed feelings about leaving the Peirce Mansion. The stainedglass windows and pleasant view from his third-story office will be missed, he said, but it’s hard to compare with having a new, state-of-the-art museum. “It’s time to move on. The museum outgrew this facility decades ago,” he said. “It’s a great old mansion, but where we’re going is going to be better in so many ways.”
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1858-1885 – Sioux City Lyceum, lecture/debate club. Became the Scientific Association.
History of the Sioux City Public Museum
1858
Text and photographs contributed by
Grace Linden, Sioux City Public Museum
1885 The Sioux City Public Museum can trace its beginning to 1885, when the Scientific Association (1885-1903) was formed and started collecting artifacts or even back to its predecessor, the Sioux City Lyceum (1858-1885). However, there is no evidence the Sioux City Lyceum (a lecture and debate club) maintained a collection. There is evidence the Scientific Association did have a collection, as early as 1885, and this became the basis of a museum, maintained by the Sioux City Academy of Science and Letters (1903-1941), (the Scientific Association’s successor), until 1939 when it merged with other collections and became known as the Sioux City Public Museum. The first reference of a museum (maintained by the Scientific Association) was written by the Sioux City Academy of Science and Letter’s curator, H. C. Powers, in the Proceedings of the Sioux City Academy of Science and Letters, 1905: “On November 19th, 1887, the County Board of Supervisors granted to the Scientific Association the use of the room of the County Superintendent of Schools in the Court House for its meetings and also space in the same room for its cases of specimens.” Then a second reference to the Scientific Association’s collection was in the curator’s Report of the Proceedings of the Sioux City Academy of Science and Letters in 1906: “As a pearl grows from 32
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its small nucleus by 1885-1903 – continued accretions Scientific Assofrom without, so has ciation. Lecture/ our collection grown debate club/mufrom its first single seum. Became the specimen brought Sioux City Acadto a meeting of the emy of Science old Scientific Assoand Letters. ciation back in the year of its beginning, 1885, until now (1906) when we have a large lot of specimens, thousands in number.” The meeting place, and supposedly the collections of the Scientific Association, moved around the city from the courthouse to the high school to the city library. Then on March 31, 1903, a proposal to change the name (and broaden the scope of the work of the Scientific Association) to the Sioux City Academy of Science and Letters, stated, “The object of the organization shall be the diffusion of knowledge and the promotion of original investigation in the Natural Sciences, History, Political Science, Sociology, Literature and other branches of useful knowledge, by the reading and publishing of original papers, establishing and maintaining a museum and library and by other suitable means.” This resolution was adopted Oct. 27, 1903. The collection of artifacts, under the newly formed Sioux City Academy of Science and Letters, found a home at Morningside College.
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1903
1903-1939 –Sioux City Academy of Science and Letters. Lecture/debate club/museum.
A 1916 exhibit at the Peirce Mansion, an early facility of the Sioux City Public Museum.
2011 – Downtown location. The Sioux City Public Museum moves into its new facility in the former JC Penney building.
2011
1961
1939
1961 – Peirce Mansion, at 29th and Jackson streets, was donated to the City. Museum moves out of the library space into the Jackson Street facility.
The Carnegie building served as the public library and housed an early facility of the Sioux City Public Museum.
The collection was moved in the spring of 1906 to the library on the second floor of the old city hall at Sixth and Douglas streets. This collection was moved from that location to the new city library at Sixth and Jackson streets around 1920. In 1938, the Lion’s Club decided to take on a project of revitalizing the old Academy of Science and Letters’ museum collection and merging that collection with a large Native American collection, the George G. Inman Collection. Inman was designated education curator of the Native American collection by the Sioux City Board of Education. The Woodbury County Pioneer Club also donated historical manuscripts to the museum that it had been collecting. By late 1939 the City of Sioux City became involved in the museum when the City Council approved the appointment (designated by Mayor David F. Loepp) of Mrs. Ralph A. Henderson as curator of the museum. A Sept. 22, 1939, article stated, “Acting on suggestion of the members of the Museum board present, Mayor Loepp then mentioned M. H. White and Judge A. O. Wakefield as members of the museum board and the appointments were confirmed by the council.” The museum was now being called the Sioux City Public Museum. In 1941 the City of Sioux City became known as Iowa’s only municipality to operate a museum. The Woodbury County Historical Society (including the Academy of Science and Letters) at some point became defunct. The museum collection was kept in the public library during the 1940s and 1950s. On May 1, 1959, a City resolution No. R-8611, “… providing for establishment of a Sioux City Museum Board and for the conduct of a museum program by a museum director” was passed by the city. The Junior League bought the Peirce Mansion in 1958 and deeded it to the City for a cultural center. The Sioux City Public Museum moved out of the library into this facility at 29th and Jackson streets and opened to the public in 1961.
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1939 – Sioux City Public Museum. The Academy museum merged with other collections to become the Sioux City Public Museum. The lecture/debate club merged with the Woodbury County Historical Society in 1941.
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Museums
look forward to collaborative relationship Text by Joanne Fox | Photographs by Jim Lee
Spokespersons with Siouxland historical institutions viewed a new Sioux City Public Museum positively impacting their own missions. “The Sioux City Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center/Betty Strong Encounter Center and the transformed Sioux City Public Museum share a commitment to honor our past, present and possible future,” said director Marcia Poole. “Our approaches are distinct and different, yet, they complement rather than duplicate each other.” Poole said the museum collects, preserves and interprets precious, often irreplaceable artifacts and archives pertaining to local history. “The Interpretive Center/Encounter Center connects to themes of our regional relationship with Lewis and Clark, the Native peoples who were here before the Corps of Discovery, our rivers, land and other natural resources,” she clarified. “The Center focuses on stories and ideas expressed in diverse ways, including photo exhibits; cultural and educational programs; traditional games and heritage food activities.” Larry Obermeyer, executive secretary of the Siouxland Historical Railroad Association, agreed the museums are not in competition. “We don’t see us competing,” he said. “Rather, we will be looking at how do we develop a commonly shared visitor base that will learn from the educational experiences offered by both museums.” The addition of the Sioux City Public Museum can only enhance the railroad museum, Obermeyer added. “The public museum will have the ability to interpret the railroad’s impact on the historical development of Sioux City,” he said. “We are focused on developing the Milwaukee Railroad Shops as a science and technology museum blended with historical themes focused on the railroad worker and the broader industry.” 34
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Todd Clair, left, of Chicago, and Siouxland Historic Railroad Association volunteer Sam Zimmerman, of Sioux City, look through a book about the history of area railroads in the gift shop at the Milwaukee Railroad Shops.
People view the exhibits at the Mid America Museum of Aviation & Transportation.
Board member Lily Higman with the proposed Children’s Museum of Siouxland shared the organization’s support of the public museum’s downtown presence. “When we were looking for a location for the Children’s Museum we specifically wanted to be in downtown Sioux City, so, when we heard that the public museum was moving downtown we were thrilled,” she said. “The move
definitely made us more excited about being downtown, because in one stop, visitors can go to all of Sioux City’s cultural hot spots – Public Museum, Children’s Museum, Orpheum Theatre, Art Center and others. We believe that all the museums should be working together to make Sioux City a culturally diverse and exciting place to be for our residents as well as our visitors.” Larry Finley, executive director of the Mid America Museum of Aviation & Transportation, sees the opening of the new museum downtown as a continuation of the representation of Siouxland history in other venues. “The new Sioux City museum will enhance our city as a ‘destination city’ for vacationers, travelers and those seeking more historical information on our area,” he added. “It will complement the other cultural entities. Plus, it will be a focal point for new growth and activity in our downtown area.” The consensus was all of the historical institutions enhance the quality of life in Siouxland. “Ultimately, we both seek to nurture pride in Sioux City and enhance our
community’s image as a quality place to live, work and visit,” Poole said. “Informal education is becoming more important in our everyday lives,” Obermeyer said. “The new museum will enable many of our residents and community visitors to have more access to public programs and expanded exhibitions. Our community now has almost 175 years of community history, and the new museum gives an opportunity to showcase that heritage.” “A Children’s Museum is about the future,” Higman said. “When a community takes the bold commitment to create a children’s museum, they are opening their hands to hold and nurture their future. A children’s museum, thus, becomes a place of possibilities and promise, the very heart of a community.” The Mid America Museum of Aviation & Transportation is looking forward to a great working relationship with the new museum, Finley said. “We have some exciting plans for promoting the various historical, religious and artistic venues which call Sioux City home.”
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health Athletic
Trainer
Keeping ’em In (And away from)
STITCHES Text by Tim Gallagher | Photograph by Jim Lee
There’s at least one non-player at the Tyson Events Center with his gloves available when the Sioux City Musketeers take the ice. And it has nothing to do with keeping his hands warm. He’s Ron Peterson, a certified athletic trainer with Tri-State Specialists. For two seasons, Peterson has handled cuts suffered by Musketeers in this contact sport. “Facial cuts are part of the game,” says Peterson. “When they do get cut, they come off the ice right away and, ideally, they won’t miss a shift. I try to get it under control so it’s done by the time their shift ends.” Every team in the league has a certified athletic trainer on the bench for this purpose. Peterson, 25, travels with the Musketeers. “I wouldn’t say I see someone at every game. But at least every other game there’s a minor cut or a bloody nose,” he says. Bloody noses can come via a brawl. 36
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They can also occur with contact that’s part of the rough-and-tumble sport. Cuts happen in fights occasionally. More often, a cut is the result of a wayward stick. The glove-donning trainer works quickly with cuts, applying a towel and gauze to clean the affected area. Direct pressure and a Vaseline-type substance called Skin Lube (it’s thicker than Vaseline) help stop the bleeding. Peterson does not rely on warm saltwater or coffee grounds, a couple of popular home remedies some use to stop shaving nicks. What if that doesn’t work? “If it is bleeding worse, I have little tubes of (a thicker Skin Lube substance) that will clot the blood and it will hold,” he says. For more complicated cuts, Peterson has the player head to the locker room to see a Tri-State physician who is always on hand as well. “I’ll have the player go off and get sutured so they don’t miss a period,” he
Siouxland Life
Musketeers trainer Ron Peterson watches from the bench as Sioux City takes on Chicago during hockey action at the Tyson Events Center.
says. “We’ve probably had a total of five to seven guys cut during the course of a game where they’ve required stitches afterward.” Peterson enjoys the excitement and pace of hockey. He also appreciates being a part of the team, and is considered as such by virtue of his presence at each workout, practice and game. But, fights? When the gloves go down on the ice, his go on. “I enjoy fights, yes. But I know there’s a chance I’ll be pressed into duty,” he says. And while nicks and bruises around the mouth, eyes and nose are badges of honor in this sport, they’re something Peterson didn’t have much in his athletic career. The former Lewis Central prep in Council Bluffs played football at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. “I never had any stitches,” he says. “Just scrapes.”
ask a professional Can you give me some Simple Healthy Living Ideas for the year 2011? 1) Get adequate rest daily -People with the best health and longevity get at least 7-8 hours of sleep daily -Just recently discovered- Lack of sleep also is a major cause of obesity 2) Get regular physical activity -Aim for 30-60 minutes of physical activity on most days of the week 3) Eat more plant based foods -Aim for at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables daily -Most of our diet should consist of foods we could leave on a table and come back two weeks later and not be afraid to eat it. (ie peas, dry beans, nuts, grains, fruits, etc.) A GOOD daily multivitamin can help with this 4) Ask for whole-grain breads and cereals when at any counter -Tastes just like white bread but better for you. Aim for 3 servings Dr. Sneller (including brown rice and oatmeal). Limit white bread, pastry, and sugary cereals. 5) Choose healthy fats -When available, choose unhydrogenated vegetable oil and trans fat free margarine in place of animal and solid fats (ie butter, margarine, shortening) 6) Achieve/Maintain a healthy weight -A waist girth less than 37 in. for men and less than 32 in. for women is ideal -Using a physician managed weight loss plan is always advised 7) Be FREE of dependence on tobacco, illicit drugs, or alcohol -85,000 people die prematurely every year due to alcohol -Over 45,000 people die prematurely every year from smoking 8) Give your body proper spinal care and daily stretching -About 80% of all work comp injuries happen within the first two hours of work. Most of these were from not “warming up” their backs with stretching. -Your spinal column control ever cell, tissue and organ throughout your entire body. The # 1 cause of disability after age 50 is spinal problems. Therefore, spinal checkups by your local chiropractor are vital. 9) Maintain a Cheerful Outlook on Life -Choose to see the bright side of life. Be Happy! Laugh a lot! Pass on joy and hope to those you work and live with daily. -Supportive relationships build strong hearts and happy minds. Practice a spirit of friendship, love, and acceptance. Share kindness with some today! 10) Take time for spiritual renewal -Plan a quiet time each day to read, pray, meditate, and seek spiritual renewal. A heart primed with gratitude, forgiveness, and service helps you soar over life’s difficulties and challenges. Partial Source: Lifestyle Goals for Healthy Living by Wellsource Inc. 2003-5. www.wellsource.com
Multicare Physicians Group can help you this year to achieve your goals! E-Mail your questions to Dr. Sneller at: info@multicareclinic.com
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health Incisionless
Surgery
Neurosurgeon Grant Shumaker stands outside the June E. Nylen Cancer Center stereotactic radiosurgery treatment area as radiation therapist Amy Sorensen works in the background.
Technique takes the
incision out of surgery Text by Nick Hytrek | Photographs by Jerry Mennenga
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Siouxland Life
Mention the term “brain surgery” and thoughts of an hours-long procedure followed by days or weeks of recuperation in the hospital come to mind. A surgical technique not often available in cities the size of Sioux City can reduce surgery on certain brain tumors to an outpatient procedure requiring no hospitalization. Stereotactic radiosurgery allows surgeons to do surgery deep inside the brain without making an incision. Instead, a high dose of radiation beams is aimed at the tumor. For the patient, it obviously shortens the recovery time and is not nearly as dangerous. “Those people would be at a higher surgical risk and often be in the hospital a week or more following surgery,” said Dr. Grant Shumaker, a neurologist at CNOS, who is involved with fellow CNOS neurologist Dr. Matthew Johnson in doing the procedure at the June E. Nylen Cancer Center. Shumaker said Sioux City is fortunate that the Cancer Center has a Trilogy machine, which can perform stereotactic
“It’s very useful in treating tumors that are difficult to treat surgically, if they’re close to a critical formation or deep.”
Above June E Nylen Cancer Center radiation therapist Kara Honslo, left, looks over a chart for a treatment chart for a patient. Left Radiation therapists Kara Honslo, left and Amy Sorensen prepare a patient for treatment at the center.
radiosurgery and other radiation treatments. The expensive piece of equipment is rarely found in cities with a population of less than 500,000 people, Shumaker said. It means Siouxlanders who meet criteria for the procedure can stay close to home rather than drive hours for treatment. The Cancer Center received the Trilogy machine in 2007. Shumaker said it’s used for stereotactic radiosurgery on about 30 patients a year. The treatment can be used on both cancerous and benign tumors, usually small ones found deep inside the brain. The focused radiation procedure is in many cases safer and more effective than traditional surgery, Shumaker said. “It’s very useful in treating tumors
that are difficult to treat surgically, if they’re close to a critical formation or deep,” he said. Stereotactic radiosurgery focuses the radiation on the tumor. In whole-brain radiation, normal brain tissue as well as the tumor is exposed to radiation. The focused treatment allows doctors to protect healthy brain tissue while
maximizing treatment of the tumor. Shumaker compared it with using a magnifying glass to burn ants. Patients who receive the treatment are in and out of the Cancer Center the same day, though it can take a few hours. Patients arrive in the early morning for a CT scan, which is then analyzed along with previous MRI images. Then the neurologist, radiation oncologist and physicist spend an hour or more crunching numbers to figure out the configuration of the radiation field around the tumor. Once that’s done, Shumaker’s part in the procedure is done. The technologists administer the treatment, which can take from 20 to 60 minutes. Stereotactic radiosurgery is not the best way to treat all brain tumors. Shumaker said traditional surgery still works best on treating large tumors near the surface of the brain. For now, stereotactic radiosurgery is used only on brain tumors, brain blood vessel malformations and to treat trigeminal neuralgia, a painful facial nerve condition. Shumaker said that within a year, it will be used at the Cancer Center to treat tumors on or near the spinal cord. He said it someday could be used to treat tumors in the lung and liver.
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Call 274–7477 or visit our shop at 5312 Morningside Avenue And browse through our fabric samples Siouxland Life
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Emergencies Window
of Opportunity
Mercy program provides
car seats
for special needs children
Text by Joanne Fox | Photographs by Jerry Mennenga
Research indicates motor vehicle crashes remain the leading cause of injury-related deaths in children age 14 years and under. Statistics point to one reason for the high number of injuries and fatalities – children are traveling in vehicles unrestrained or improperly restrained. However, of particular concern are those children who don’t fit a traditional car seat. They become even more at risk. Mercy Medical Center – Sioux City Special Needs Car Seat Program was created to help all children travel safely, said Heather Mehlhaff, Mercy physical therapist and Heather Mehlhaff child passenger safety technician. “Families with children with special health care needs have an especially difficult task of making sure their child is properly restrained,” she said. “Last year, we started focusing on our inpatients who might need a special seat and putting protocols in place.” Children and adolescents who may need a special car seat include children in long leg casts or hip spica casts, children with poor sitting balance or head control, increased muscle spasticity, or range of motion limitations. Diagnoses of children that may be served by the program include cerebral palsy, spina bifida, 40
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traumatic brain injury, genetic disorders, orthopedic issues or autism. Mehlhaff, who moved to Siouxland from Lincoln, Neb., had previous experience with special car seats at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital. “I saw the need and started a car seat program there,” she said. “I became certified as a technician and when I came to Sioux City and Mercy, I knew we needed a program like that.” For children who don’t have strong head or trunk control, traditional car seats put them at risk, Mehlhaff said. “An added challenge is some traditional car seats don’t fit correctly into a family’s vehicle,” she added. “The American Academy of Pediatrics has
specifications in place for children who need a special seat. Some need to be upright. Some need to lie down. All are at different levels and we make sure the child is restrained in the correct seat.” Many special needs seats have higher harness weight limits – greater than 100 pounds in many instances and special positioning features to meet the needs of children with special needs. Travel vests may be used for children with behavioral disorders to prevent the child from unbuckling themselves while traveling. Because the car seats are customized – even for use on an airplane – they can be costly for a family, Mehlhaff acknowledged. Mercy has a variety of special needs car seats available for clinical trial
A Hippo car seat, left, for children who might be wearing a lower body cast, the Roosevelt, center, and Traveller Plus, right, both used for children with special needs such as a child with spina bifida or cerebral palsy.
Siouxland Life
Left An Assura baby car seat for children under 22 pounds and an AngelGuard car bed for infants with special needs that are required to lie flat. Below Back seat car bench seat straps secure children with a body cast that need to be transported.
through a grant from the Iowa Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau. Mehlhaff said families have been very appreciative of the program. “They don’t know where to go for information about seats and there’s a lot of information out there, so families tend to feel lost,” she said. “Research shows that about 80 percent of people don’t use a children’s car seat correctly and when you add special needs children on top of that, it’s an alarming situation.” Stacey Cobb, the mother of 7-year-old Janessa, expressed her frustration with seeking out a car seat for her daughter, who doesn’t walk or talk and moves constantly. “There’s no store to shop for these seats,” she said. “Plus, you look at them and wonder if they will work for my child, with my car.” Mehlhaff explained a child would come to Mercy for an assessment by a physical therapist trained in special needs child passenger safety. Recommendations for appropriate adaptive child restraint would be made based on the child’s individual needs and outcome of trial with available seats in the family’s vehicle. The physical therapist works with a physician, a special needs safety seat vendor, and an insurance company to assist families in acquiring the most appropriate safety seat for the child. “With this program, all of the measuring and evaluating the child’s needs really helps the parents,” Cobb said.
“This program is so much easier for the parents, who can see the seat and talk to someone about their concerns. Gone is that whole ‘I-think-this-might-work’
worry.” Individuals may call Mercy Medical Center’s Scheduling Desk 279-2576 for more information.
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snap shots Fundraisers
Out & About
15th Annual Siouxland Heart Ball Above Abraham Widjaja, Tyler LaPlant and Paige McGrath, all from Sergeant Bluff at the annual fundraiser for the Siouxland American Heart and Stroke Association held at the Marina Inn in South Sioux City on February 12. Top right Jaclyn Buttermore, South Sioux City, and Randy Wasmund, Sioux City.
Photographs by Jim Lee
Winter
Jim and Helen Anderson, Sioux City.
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march 2011
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Carley Adams, South Sioux City, and Jackie Alexander, Sergeant Bluff.
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advice Medical
Answers
‘Doc, I’ve got a question …’ answers to your medical questions
I’ve heard you shouldn’t drink grapefruit juice with medicines. If I take my vitamin with my morning orange juice and eat breakfast within the hour, am I still getting the benefit of my vitamin? Grapefruit juice and grapefruit product consumption have potential health benefits; however, their intake is also associated with interactions with certain drugs, including calcium channel blockers, statins, benzodiazepines, ACE inhibitors, immunosuppressants and antihistamines. There are no studies showing that taking a multivitamin with either grapefruit juice or orange juice will have any negative result on the effectiveness of your multivitamin. You can continue to take your multivitamin as you have been. It is important, however, to meet with your doctor or pharmacist to review all of the medications you are taking to make sure there are no other medications that would interact with the grapefruit juice. I recommend bringing all of the medications you are taking (both prescription and over-the-counter) with you to your doctor’s office. It is also important to keep your medication list up to date in case of any medical emergency that may arise.
Is it true men over 50 are more prone to back pain? Actually, anyone over the age of 50 is susceptible to back pain. As we age, our spines age with us. Aging causes degenerative changes in the spine. These changes can start in our 30s, or even younger, and can make us prone to back pain, especially if we overdo our activities. Understanding your spine can help you understand why you have low back pain. Your spine is made up of several vertebral bones that are stacked one on top of another. Your spine is made up of 7 cervical vertebrae, 12 thoracic vertebrae and 5 lumbar vertebrae. Your sacrum and coccyx (tailbone) form the inferior portion of the spine. Inside this stack 44
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of vertebrae is a canal in which your spinal cord lies. Between the vertebrae are intervertebral disks that function to cushion your spine and act as shock absorbers with activity such as running or walking. Along the spinal cord there are several nerves that branch off the cord itself and innervate other parts of your body including muscles. There are both motor and sensory nerves. These spinal nerves travel through the intricate structure of the vertebrae to get to where they need to go. The muscles and ligaments of your back provide support and stability for the spine by connecting the vertebrae and holding the spine in position. Of the several causes of back pain, strains and sprains of the paraspinal muscles caused by minor trauma and strenuous activity are the most common. With major trauma we see damage to the intervertebral disks causing them to herniate or rupture. Disk degeneration is the next in line for causes of back pain in people over 50. As we age, the disks in our spine begin to shrink and in some cases may collapse completely. This is known as degenerative disk disease. Disk degeneration causes a lot of pain and stiffness due to the effects of bone on bone friction with movement of the spine. We cannot avoid the normal wear and tear on our spines that goes along with aging. We can, however, take an active role in lessening the severity of low back problems. Exercise and a keeping a healthy body weight are vital factors in maintaining a healthy spine. Combining aerobic with strength training exercises will help build the core muscles in your abdomen and back. Strong core muscles help prevent unnecessary sprains to the spine with daily activity or minor trauma. Also, use proper lifting techniques by bending at the knees while keeping your
Siouxland Life
meet the docs Drs. Nicole Gullickson, left, and Amanda Schoenherr Dannenbring are resident physicians at the Siouxland Medical Education Foundation, a family medicine residency program. back straight. This will help prevent unwanted injuries and back sprain. Finally, stop smoking. According to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, both smoke and nicotine cause your spine to age faster than normal. If you are already suffering from back pain, speak with your doctor to see what changes you can make in your life to help relieve your symptoms.
What’s the difference between a break and a sprain? Do they feel differently?
While fractures (breaks) and sprains are two different things, sometimes their symptoms can feel similar. Fractures are breaks in bones. They are typically the result of high impact force or stress on a bone. Sometimes they are caused from minimal trauma if you have a medical condition that weakens the bones such as osteoporosis or bone cancer. Symptoms of fractures include pain, swelling and muscle spasm. At times the fracture also causes an obvious deformity in the affected limb. The bone itself does not contain pain receptors, however the lining of the bone, called the periosteum, contains many. If there is a break in the bone, the periosteum is damaged which causes pain. Also, there is usually swelling of the soft tissues surrounding the break which is from bleeding from the broken bone and periosteum. The muscles in the affected area spasm as well, causing pain when they try to hold the broken bones in place. Also, there may be an inability to move the joint involved if it is broken. Fractures typically require pain medication and immobilization of the affected area for treatment. Sometimes surgery is required. Sprains occur when there is injury to the ligaments across joints. Ligaments
are strong fibrous tissues that connect bone to bone. Sprains can occur at any joint however are more typical at the ankle. Typical symptoms of a sprain include pain, swelling, bruising, decreased joint mobility, difficulty using the affected joint and at times a popping sound is heard if the ligament actually gets torn. Sometimes severe ankle sprains are actually more painful and take longer to heal than fractures in that area. Treatment of sprains typically includes rest, ice, compression and elevation (RICE). Icing, using ace wraps or bandages, and elevating the affected joint help decrease inflammation which will help alleviate pain. The joint is typically rested however if immobilized too long, healing is actually delayed. Range of motion exercises may be recommended as soon as the day following the sprain.
If you take blood pressure medicine can you still have a stroke? What could prevent it? According to the National Stroke Association, in the United States, stroke is the third leading cause of death, killing about 137,000 people each year, and a
leading cause of serious, long-term adult disability. High blood pressure is the most common risk factor for stroke. As many as 50 million Americans age 6 and older have high blood pressure. Of the one in every four adults with high blood pressure, more than 30 percent of them are not aware they have it. Because of this, it is known as “the silent killer.” If left untreated, it can lead to life-threatening medical problems such as heart attack, stroke and kidney disease. High blood pressure is one of the most common causes of stroke because it puts unnecessary stress on blood vessel walls, causing them to thicken and deteriorate, which can eventually lead to a stroke. It can also speed up several common forms of heart disease. When blood vessel walls thicken with increased blood pressure, cholesterol or other fat-like substances may break off of artery walls and block a brain artery. In other instances, the increased stress can weaken blood vessel walls, leading to a vessel breakage and a brain hemorrhage. Everyone has some stroke risk. Some risk factors are beyond your control, including being over age 55, being a male (stroke is more common in men than women at younger ages, but more
What kids of health questions do you have? Submit your questions and they may be used in this monthly feature. Write to Siouxland Life at 515 Pavonia St., Sioux City, Iowa 51102. women experience strokes at older ages and more women than men die from stroke), being African American, having diabetes, and having a family history of stroke. If you have one of these risk factors, it is even more important that you learn about the lifestyle and medical changes you can make to prevent a stroke. Medical stroke risk factors include previous stroke, previous episode of TIA or mini stroke, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease, atrial fibrillation and carotid artery disease. These medical risk factors can be controlled and managed even if you have already had issues with any of them in the past. Talk with your doctor about what will work best for you. Lifestyle stroke risk factors include smoking, being overweight and drinking too much alcohol. You can control these lifestyle risk factors by quitting smoking, exercising regularly, watching what and how much you eat and limiting alcohol consumption.
Celebrate earth Day every Day at home Every year, April 22 marks the worldwide celebration of Earth Day. But you don’t have to wait until April 22 to incorporate the concepts of Earth Day in your own home, however. These simple environmentally-friendly household suggestions can make you an Earth Day advocate all year long. Conserve Water - and Your Pocketbook The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the average family of four uses 400 gallons of water every day. To combat this, the agency suggests that you: • Don’t let the water run while shaving or brushing teeth. • Take short showers instead of tub baths. • Keep drinking water in the refrigerator instead of letting the faucet run until the water is cool. • Scrape, rather than rinse, dishes before loading into the dishwasher; wash only full loads. • Wash only full loads of laundry or use the appropriate water level or load size selection on the washing machine. • Repair all leaks (a leaky toilet can waste 200 gallons a day). • Water the lawn or garden during the
coolest part of the day (early morning is best). • Group plants according to their water use so you don’t overwater. Check with your local extension service or nurseries for advice. • Set sprinklers to water the lawn or garden only - not the street or sidewalk. • Use soaker hoses or trickle irrigation systems for trees and shrubs. • Keep your yard healthy — remove dead grass from your lawn, use mulch, and set your mower on a high setting to encourage grass growth and eliminate weeds naturally. • Sweep the driveway and walkways outside instead of using a hose to spray it down. A few behavioral changes in your water usage can make a big difference to the environment, and to your pocketbook. Incorporate Energy-Efficient Appliances into Your Home When the time comes, replace appliances with energy-efficient models. Tankless water heaters, for example, are comparable in cost to traditional gas water heaters but are 30 percent more
efficient, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Another easy option is to replace your old thermostat with a programmable one. “These types of automatic thermostats will lower the heat when home owners are at work, but will automatically raise it to make the home comfortable again when they return home,” said Doug Conrad, President of the Home Builders Association of Greater Siouxland. These suggestions are just the tip of the iceberg. To help you find a green builder or remodeler, visit your local home builders association web site at www.hbags.com or visit the National Association of Home Builders’ green building web site at www.nahbgreen.org.
Doug Conrad President Heritage Homes of Siouxland
Siouxland Life
712-255-3852 www.hbags.com march 2011
45
Ring in 2011 with a Great Smile! Make your New Year’s Resolution to take care of yourself. Call today and resolve to reward yourself with the outstanding dental care you deserve. Where comfort, quality & value meet! Complete Preventative Dentistry for the Entire Family!
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march 2011
Siouxland Life
parting shot By
Bruce Miller
The pictures of life A big box arrived in the mail last week. It was from my favorite aunt who, repeatedly, tells me she’s going to send treats. With my mind set on devouring a couple of chocolate chip cookies, I cracked the box and realized there wasn’t a crumb to be found. Instead, there were pictures. “I thought you might like these,” she wrote. More than 200 in all, they basically documented my family’s life. Some – of my high school graduation, for example – were familiar. But most were new. There, with a curly permanent and a smile as wide as the state of North Dakota, was my mother as a 5-year-old, proudly displaying a new dress. Several photos later, I saw my dad, beaming in a military uniform, eager to serve his country in World War II. There were photos of them as teenagers and young adults. And there were ones of them proudly holding my sister and me (but looking like they didn’t have a clue what to do with these kids). Two thoughts came to mind as I pored over the black-and-white “early years”: 1. We were always good at marking holidays with photographs; 2. Mom always made sure we were dressed up. As a kid, I wore a lot of suits, donned a fedora (no kidding) and seemed to have a drooling problem. My aunt had photos of me with just about every birthday cake I got. Some were a little lopsided. Others bore the fruit of a mother who had taken a cakedecorating class. As I reached the color photo years, I saw specific poses emerge. Strangely, we always stood in the same places when our photos were taken. One year my sister and I wanted to have our cat in a family photo. Dad didn’t think it was right (“We’ll just get cat hair on our good clothes,” he argued) but we insisted. It may have been our best photo ever – in it, my sister and I were laughing while mom held the cat and dad looked mad. In our 20s and 30s, the settings shifted. Photos that were once taken at home now came from
apartments – my sister’s and mine. You can see the do-it-yourself bookshelves in the back and a clever attempt at duplicating what we had learned from mom. Hairstyles ran the gamut (I was probably the worst offender, sporting long hair, short hair, permed hair, blond hair, brown hair, streaked hair and buzzed hair), heights shifted. Sis and I got taller; mom and dad got shorter. In my parents’ retirement years, you could see how they had surrounded themselves with family photos. Because we weren’t together on everyone’s birthdays during the later years of their lives, we’re not in most of mom and dad’s post-70 celebration photos. But the events were still captured. There, you’d see dad and his brother, proudly holding a cake. Or mom and a sister cooking in the kitchen. Our last family photo – taken in the Black Hills in the early part of the last decade – brought instant memories and tears. Standing near bears at a South Dakota tourist attraction, we looked like we were still young, still as excited as we were 40 years earlier. On the last three pictures, my aunt had included Post-it notes, explaining who was who. “These are from your mom’s last birthday at the nursing home,” she wrote. “She wanted a pizza party, so we decided to bring it to her.” There, dwarfed in a wheelchair, was my mom holding a slice of pizza so big I doubt she could have eaten it. But she was smiling. And she was in the place where you’d usually find her in a family photo – left side with space for sis, me and dad. Seeing it in photo form, I felt her life had gone by too quickly. I had just gotten to see her as a little girl and then she was gone. But isn’t that the way life is? Over in the click of a shutter.
Siouxland Life
march 2011
47
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