Back to Van Petten

Last week I told you to story of Van Petten Illinois and the remarkable couple that still reside there. In addition to their duties as Mayor and Chief of Police, Dave and Babe also have a museum on site. Filled with treasured mementos of a life spent together as well as artifacts found around the area and former town. Taking up an entire room it is jam packed with everything one could imagine.

There's a lot of blacksmith material as both Dave and Babe are accomplished smiths. There's even a reproduction of a John Deere plow, historically accurate down to the number of threads in the bolts! Above the museum is the Library, filled near to bursting with books and journals of the area and local history in general.  They couldn't remember if they 7000 or 9000 books upstairs, they had lost count.  There's also a large white board upstairs where visitors have signed in to commemorate their  stop at this unique spot.  I made sure to have Lil' Nick sign our names to show we had passed thru.  We are truly blessed in that our state is chock full of interesting places like Van Petten for us to enjoy, relate to, and pass on to future generations.