(Radio Iowa) – The eastern Iowa facility honoring the only American president who was born in Iowa will close for all of next year and likely into 2026 for what’s billed as a full remodel and renovation. Aaron Scheinblum, spokesman for the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch, says the 20-million dollar make-over is scheduled to start early in 2025 and will take at least a year.”Twelve to 15 months is a good way to look at it,” Scheinblum says, “so that’s a really long time for us to have our doors closed, but when you look at it in the perspective of, we really haven’t had a museum renovation or museum remodel since the early 1990s.”

The museum’s current exhibits tell Hoover’s story — from his birth, to his life as an engineer, Secretary of Commerce, the 31st President of the United States, and his continued humanitarian work after leaving the White House. The re-invisioned museum will tell those same stories, but with more artifacts and sophisticated, user-friendly technology. Scheinblum says it’ll take time to make such dramatic and extensive changes to the museum, which opened in 1962. “For us to be able to essentially gut the galleries, start from scratch, add space and do something completely different,” he says, “that’s kind of our goal, to be able to tell the Hoover story in a completely redesigned way that will appeal to all generations.” It’s unclear just when the West Branch facility will be shutting down for the major renovation.

Herbert Hoover Presidential Library & Museum

“Around January is how I would describe it. The exact date is still uncertain, and we’re hoping to iron out those details as construction is officially finalized,” Scheinblum says, “but ultimately, Quarter One is really as early as possible for what we’re looking to try to accomplish for that project.” The current layout of the museum is focused, appropriately, on Hoover’s life before, during, and after his time in office, but Scheinblum says the new edition will elevate the status of the First Lady, also showing her accomplished life prior to meeting the future president. “Being able to really watch how their timelines intersect, and then continue for the rest of their lives,” he says. “It’s meant to be very immersive. It’s meant to be an experience that allows you to touch things, that allows you to see things in a completely different way, really put yourself in these moments in time and understand history in a way that otherwise hasn’t been told here.”

For the remainder of this year, the library and museum will be open every day, with the only exceptions being Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.

(Radio Iowa) – It is the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Europe. Iowa Goldstar Museum curator Mike Vogt says Iowans participated in many different phases of what is the largest military amphibious landing in history. He says the war was the first time many of them had traveled out of the state, and they were very young with the average age of a World War Two soldier was about 21-22 years old. One of the soldiers, John Marshall, wasn’t in the fight long after parachuting into Normandy with the 82nd Airborne Division. Vogt says Marshall landed and looked up and there was a German soldier there. Marshall spent the rest of World War Two in a German prison camp. Vogt says D-Day was a major event in deciding the fate of the world.

“It was certainly the turning point once we had boots on the ground in Europe the invasion forces pushed inward and it was just a matter of time before Germany would be defeated,” he says.
The Goldstar Museum at Camp Dodge in Johnston has a special display on the Iowans who participated in D-Day. Vogt says some Iowans were in the very thick of combat. “Tech five Cecil Breeden from Council Bluffs, he served with company A 116th Regimental Combat Team of the 29th Infantry Division. He was wounded on Omaha Beach in the first wave on D-Day, and his unit suffered the highest losses of any U-S unit that day,” Vogt says. Another soldier from northeast Iowa took care of the wounded.

Iowa Gold Star Museum

“Captain Lawrence G Shafferly from Gladbrook, Iowa. He earned his medical degree in 1936. When the war started, he enlisted in the U-S Army, as all doctors were, he became a captain once accepted into the U-S Army,” he says. “And he went in with the first wave of D-Day at Omaha Beach, and as you can imagine as a surgeon had his hands full that day.” Other Iowans were in the air or climbing the cliffs.

“Lieutenant Blaine Swift from West Des Moines was a P-47 pilot, flew P-47 Thunderbolts. We have his log book on exhibit in our D-Day display. He has two entries for D-Day, the first says ‘first day of D-Day.’ The second line says ‘shot up trains in France.’,” Vogt says. “Another Iowan that served, first lieutenant Elmer H. Vermeer from Pella. His nickname was Dutch and he served with the Second Ranger Battalion that was assigned the daunting task of assaulting the 100 foot cliffs at Pointe du Hoc on the western edge of Omaha Beach. And we have on display his combat knife he strapped to his leg that day.”

The Goldstar Museum is free and open to the public.

(Neola, Iowa) – An accident this (Wednesday) afternoon in Neola claimed the life of a child. The Iowa State Patrol reports a 2024 Chevy Equinox driven by 67-year-old Rebecca Wood, of Walnut, was slowly moving through the parking lot of the Kum & Go, past the fuel pumps, when a two-year-old toddler from Omaha ran across the path of the vehicle and was struck. The accident happened at around 2:30-p.m.

The toddler was transported to Mercy/UNMC in Omaha by Neola Fire/Rescue, but died from their injuries. The name of the child was not immediately released.

The Patrol was assisted at the scene by the Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office.