5 Ottumwa Schools Visit IHHC for January Buxton Exhibit

1 Museum Drive, Ottumwa, IA 52501

In January, the Iowa Heartland History Connection hosted a traveling exhibit from the African American Museum of Iowa called “No Roads Lead to Buxton.” This exhibit along with a few Buxton artifacts on loan and the KYOU documentary “Remembering Buxton, Iowa: A Town Lost to Time” made the perfect combination to teach our local second-graders about our area’s history.

Over the course of a few months, over 350 students came to the museum to watch the KYOU documentary and learn that the Iowa town of Buxton was founded by the Consolidation Coal Company. At its peak, Buxton was the home of around 5,000 people, over half of which were African American. Buxton was a special place at that time because segregation was not allowed and many professionals and business people were African American.

Three historical artifacts that came from Buxton were part of the exhibit and the students learned about how old they were and how they came to the museum, via donation and loan. In addition to talking about Buxton, the students learned about how widespread coal mining was in this area of Iowa. They saw a map of lots of different coal mining towns around Ottumwa and we talked about how many of those towns became ghost towns, just like Buxton, but some of them, like Chillicothe and Kirkville, still exist today.

The students participated in a coal mining activity where they used paper clip pick-axes to mine for “coal” in a chocolate chip cookie. Their goal was to dig “coal” out of the “earth” without harming it too much. Everyone agreed that eating the cookie was the best part of the trip.

We had so much fun seeing all the kids’ excited faces and teaching them many interesting things about Buxton, Iowa. The kids enjoyed their time at the museum so much that we even received thank you cards from some of the classes!

If you’d like to learn more about Buxton, our gift shop features two books written by local author Rachell Chase.