Mapping the path

WESTERN MIDWEST BASEBALL

Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Our tour of Cedar Rapids begins with Czech Village and its excellent museum and finishes with a bounty of Midwestern art.

Because we had driven an extra hour after the previous night’s ballgame in Waterloo, Dad and I had the rare luxury of an easy morning in Cedar Rapids, lounging about in our hotel room, absent a single care in the world… until 10:00 a.m., when we needed to get on with our lives more respectably.

We started in Czech Village, a neighborhood in Cedar Rapids where Czech immigrants settled in the 1850s, drawn by growing opportunities in meatpacking, agriculture, and other industrial work. Czech Village is centered around 16th Avenue, where Czech-speaking families established businesses, schools, and community institutions. This heritage is still very much in view in the village today: We were just a few weeks early for the Houby Days festival (“Houby” is Czech for mushroom), a two-day celebration of all things Czech, with a parade, music, dancing, crafts vendors, food — a kolace-eating contest! — and the crowning of Miss Czech & Slovak Iowa.

We were particularly interested in Czech Village because my great-grandparents — Dad’s grandparents — immigrated from the modern-day Czechia to southern South Dakota in the 19th century.

Czech Village’s centerpiece is the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library, which first opened to the public in 1974 to preserve and share the Czech and Slovak experience.

That the museum exists on this spot at all is a story of resilience and engineering ingenuity. In June 2008, the Cedar River crested at a record 31.12 feet, submerging large portions of the city — one of the worst natural disasters in Iowa history.

The museum, located right on the river, was hit hard. Some exhibition spaces were completely submerged. Galleries, offices, and numerous mechanical systems were ruined. Mud, oil, and river goop covered the interior.

Thankfully, most of the core collection was saved. A lengthy cleaning project was undertaken. And to prevent future flooding, the entire museum was lifted 11 feet higher. That’s right: The entire 1,500-ton building was very slowly lifted 11 feet by dozens of computer-synchronized hydraulic jacks.

The museum is a well-presented expression of culture, immigration, freedom, and identity through personal stories, traditional clothing, everyday objects, and prized artifacts. It also includes an extensive genealogy library.

Just outside the museum building is the Buresh Immigration Clock Tower, a Prague-style astronomical clock (or orloj), the only one of its kind in North America. It is modeled after a clock built in Prague in 1410 that has an astronomical dial showing the positions of the sun and moon, the phases of the moon, and the zodiac calendar. It had just been unveiled in 2024.

On the hour, 12 hand-carved figurines rotate to tunes by Czech composers such as Antonín Dvořák and Bedřich Smetana. The figures represent the various immigrant professions — farmers, miners, and meatpackers — of the people whose journeys helped build the community.

Lucky’s on Sixteenth

For lunch, Dad and I sat at the bar at Lucky’s on Sixteenth, a Czech Village cafe with walls covered in albums.

We chose Lucky’s in part because it had a Reuben on the menu. But, favorite sandwich or not, I’d been put off by my second in a row the day before and could not bring myself to order a third. I chose a good Cobb Salad instead. Dad had the Farmer’s Omelet (they do all-day breakfasts) and loved it.

After lunch, we crossed the Cedar River, passing through the New Bohemia district on our way to downtown. Originally a mix of warehouses, light manufacturing, and other commercial buildings, the neighborhood has been elevated by artists and entrepreneurs who have opened galleries, breweries, restaurants, and markets.

Cedar Rapids

At least 26 Native American communities — Omaha, Ponca, Ho-Chunk (Winnebago), Otoe, Miami, Peoria, Potawatomi, Pawnee, and Dakota, and many more — lived in the Cedar River Valley before European settlers arrived, and there is evidence of habitation dating back 9,500 years. The Cedar River’s name derives from the Meskwaki, who called it the Red Cedar River for the trees along its banks.

Settlers dammed the river, which spurred the growth of lumber and milling industries. The arrival of the railroad in 1859 supercharged commerce and made Cedar Rapids a hub for agriculture, livestock, and manufacturing. Today, with a population of about 137,000, Cedar Rapids is the second-largest city in Iowa after Des Moines. Companies that maintain a sizable presence in town include Quaker Oats, General Mills, Archer Daniels Midland, Transamerica, and Collins Aerospace — the largest employer in the city.

Cedar Rapids Museum of Art

Another day, another terrific, free art museum to explore. Dad and I ended our afternoon at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, which boasts a collection of more than 7,800 works. It has a strong focus on early 20th-century American art — including the world’s largest assemblage of works by Grant Wood — but also contains permanent collections of contemporary art, Roman art, statues, etchings, printed works, and more.

Wood was a Cedar Rapids native best known for American Gothic, a painting depicting a stern father, his serious daughter, and a pitchfork. The Wood family moved to the city in 1901 after Wood’s father died. He went to Washington High School, painting scenery for plays and artwork for school publications, and also making ornamental metalwork and jewelry.

Wood portrayed rural American life in the Midwest with a precise and meticulous brushstroke. To me, it conveys a stillness, a timelessness. Unchanging. Enduring. But his style also conveys an upbeat whimsy, with bulging, pregnant hillsides and lollipop trees.

A few blocks away, the museum operates the Grant Wood Studio, on the site where the artist worked while living in Cedar Rapids.

We made our way through the two floors of the museum, taking in more interesting paintings, a temporary exhibition of Mexican ceramics, Roman busts, and more.

Even the entrance to the gift shop had some artistic flair, which drew us in for potential loot to bring home to our respective (and understanding) wives. Then it was off to the hotel for the nap du jour. On deck: the biggest night of our three-week ballpark road trip.

> Cedar Rapids Kernels