(Arnolds Park)– If you’re a local history buff, there’s an event coming up later this week in Arnolds Park you need to be aware of. Mary Dreier of the Friends of the Abbie Gardner Cabin tells KUOO news they’ll be holding an “Abbie Walkabout” this Thursday, September 24th. Dreier says those attending should gather at 6:00 pm at the shelter house located just south and across the street from the Abbie Gardner Cabin. From there, she says attendees will be split into groups for guided tours and narrations…
“We take folks to the place where the Luce cabin may have been. We’re not sure but it might have been there. We show people the gravesites, we talk about the cabin, we talk about what it would have been like to have lived there through the horrible winter of 1856, and many, many other stories also.”
Dreier says they’ve held several “Abbie Walkabout” events prior to this and that they’ve had a lot of participation…
“There’s a lot of interest, a lot of buzz, in the Abbie Gardner story. And not just about her experience on March 8th of 1857, but how she lived her life after the events of 1857 and how she was living in the neighborhood and how she was a part of the community, and how she was one of the first women entrepreneurs in the state of Iowa and created the first, if not the first, tourist attraction in the entire state of Iowa with her cabin.”
Thursday’s event is free of charge and pre-registration isn’t required. Additional information in the event of inclement weather will be available at the Friends of Abbie Gardner Facebook page; the Lakes Area Museum Alliance Facebook page and KUOO.
