Clinton Engines museum opens
MAQUOKETA, Iowa — It’s still a work in progress, but the Clinton Engines museum will have a dedication ceremony today to honor the largest employer in Maquoketa’s history.
From 1950 to 1985, Clinton Engines Corp. was the world’s largest producer of small gasoline engines. They exported products, all made in Maquoketa, to 91 countries.
The museum will feature interactive professional exhibits as well as the hometown feel of pictures of past plant employees.
Bonnie Mitchell, curator for Jackson County Historical Society, which also owns the new museum, said not all of the exhibits will be ready for today’s grand opening and reunion. A ribbon-cutting is at 1 p.m. after a waffle breakfast from 8 a.m. to noon. A reunion of former employees and families will be afterward at the museum.
Anyone who worked at the plant won’t have a hard time finding the new museum — it’s the former Clinton Engines administration office at Clark and Maple streets in Maquoketa. The company employed about 5,000 people over the years it was open.
“We knew we wouldn’t be completely finished,” Mitchell said. “But we had to honor a contractual agreement with Iowa’s Great Places to open.”
The museum received a $324,000 grant from the Great Places program. Museum directors anticipated the museum would cost $1.3 million. So far, they’ve raised $800,000 in grants and donations as fundraising continues.
Mitchell said when they started the process in 2004, they figured they would hear mostly from Clinton Engines collectors. They’ve gotten responses from former employees from around the world.
“We’ve been overwhelmed with the response to be part of this,” she said. “People are saying to be sure their name is included.”
One of the exhibits is a computer listing names of Clinton Engines employees. It allows former employees to add their names and what area they worked and update their biography.
Former employee Betty Miller has written a book that has gone through two reprintings. Mitchell said people come into the historical museum, buy the book and sit down to read it before they even leave the building. She is working on a second book.
Jean Davidsaver, a society board member, said Clinton Engines was the 10th largest employer in Iowa in the 1950s. A foundry on the site made the parts for the engines.
“They did it all here. A full engine would ship out the door,” Davidsaver said. “They made a go-kart with the highest-rated engine to the race set.”
An interactive exhibit will feature an original go-kart. Visitors will be able to sit in the machine and drive around a computer-generated race course.
Mitchell was in high school when Clinton Engines was at its peak.
“I remember my mother saying we had to get to the store and back before Clinton Engines let out. There were traffic jams. It was a busy place,” she said.
Mitchell said in the 1950s, people would come from around the world to learn to put the engines together and then go back to their countries to sell them.
“There were not enough motel rooms. People would rent a room in their home to them. They had charter buses coming from Illinois and Wisconsin every day with employees,” Mitchell said.
Glen “Red” Henton worked at Clinton Engines for four years in the receiving department.
“It was one of the highlights of my life,” Henton said. “I saved enough money to buy a 50-acre farm.”
Henton said engineers from Clinton, Mich., would come to the plant frequently.
“They really loved going down on Main Street on Saturday night when it was so busy. They would tell others to come so they could see the farmers in their bib overalls come to town. That’s all they talked about. It was so homey here.”
Henton also recalled the owner, Don Thomas, would sometimes pay his employees with $2 bills to show the community how much of an impact Clinton Engines had on the town.
The new museum has been the focus for the historical society for four years, but they will keep open the original museum at the Jackson County Fairgrounds. Its focus is history of the entire county and agriculture.
The Jackson County Genealogical Society will move its base to the Clinton Engines museum, where there’s more room to work. It will also house the Iowa Orphan Train Research Center and Clinton Engines Historical Association.
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