FROM THE EDITOR
There ' s nothing like a good dig into history
Grandma Baldus ’ s basement was fascinating . In the proper end , with its dark gray cinder block walls , there were old wind-up metal toys , a small wooden tetherball-type bowling game and Grandpa ’ s huge tools . He had a crescent wrench the size of my 10-year-old arm . We loved to explore that end . It ’ s where I found a stash of Catholic Treasure Chest comic books and one outlier , a Marvel Avengers no . 2 when the Submariner and a pretty well-spoken Hulk team up . It ’ s beat up but is still in my collection .
The other end of the basement was through a big hole in the wall into a dug out dirt cave . The clothes washer and dryer were in there along with jars of fruits and vegetables . Other than that , we mostly found bugs and I saw my first centipede .
So , it should be no surprise that I like to dig , and the Clinton Herald has fascinating archives , but not in the basement , which is apparently scary . Maybe even centipedes . A newspaper ’ s archives are special with photos , original negatives , clippings and papers whose pages are yellow and brittle but whose black banger headlines don ’ t fade
— “ Reds Free Three More GI ’ s ” ( June 18 , 1955 edition ).
So while searching those archives for some of the historic photos in this edition of the magazine , I took a detour to a shelf of yellow photo paper boxes , with dates going back into the 1950s . Inside were big negatives from those old time box cameras . There was an assortment of pictures from Clinton ’ s centennial and this one shot of two little girls holding live raccoons . Made me a little nervous for them , but I guess Clinton kids were just more rough and tumble than me . One of my sons as a toddler grabbed and ate a little spider and my wife and I went white with panic , called the poison control line , hyperventilated and were eventually talked down from the ledge . The kid , oh he was fine the whole time and went looking for another spider .
I showed the picture to Gateway History Club members who told me about a petting zoo that used to be in on of Clinton ’ s parks . But that is a story for another time . Today , our writers Jenna Blount , Eric Schweizer , and Carie Kuhn have pulled together stories about the restoration of Clinton ’ s oldest
Catholic church , the River Kings path to a basketball championship and a legendary bucket that got them there , the growth of the Gateway History Club , a teenager finding his passion at the Sawmill Museum , and the 60th anniversary of Skyline .
We hope you enjoy this dig into local history .
Chris Baldus Clinton Magazine Editor cbaldus @ clintonherald . com
CLINTON LUMBERKINGS BASEBALL CLUB NELSONCORP FIELD 537 BALL PARK DRIVE , CLINTON , IOWA 52732 ( 563 ) 242-0727
@ ClintonLKings @ LumberKings facebook . com / ClintonLumberKings
WWW . LUMBERKINGS . COM
4 CLINTON MAGAZINE | SPRING 2024