Members of the Jim Vogel family pose with the RATH Packing exhibit containing items donated by Jim. From Left to Right: Joe, Jim, Pat, Rhonda, Marty, and Matti.
Exhibits at Heartland Acres come from some of the simplest ideas. One recently opened exhibit, RATH Packing, came about by the generous donation of items from Jim Vogel. Last year Jim moved from his home in Jesup to assisted living and needed to downsize. After coming to terms with all of his RATH memorabilia he elected to donate them to Heartland Acres.
The exhibit contains a variety of meat and lard buckets along with items used by employees, toys and signage. The exhibit also attracted the attention of other museum visitors who came forward with clothing, related exhibits items, as well as historic paperwork and media articles to add to the exhibit.
After many years of being one of Iowa’s largest employers and producer of a variety of food products, RATH filed for bankruptcy in the early 1980’s. The closing left employees looking for new jobs during the trying times of the Farm Crisis and ended the history of one of our nations’ largest meat packers.
Our agricultural heritage is filled with many other stories telling how agriculture has survived and changed over the years.
For more information about Heartland Acres please visit our homepage, give us a call (319.332.0123) or find us on Facebook.
