Each year, Silos & Smokestacks National Heritage Area (SSNHA) celebrates the best in heritage development by presenting the “People’s Choice Site of the Year”. Voted on by the public, this special honor is presented to only one deserving SSNHA Heritage Area Site.
Voting will run from Oct. 19-23 and will be open to the public HERE with the winner announced on Nov. 5 during the SSNHA’s Heritage Area Annual Training at Cedar Falls Convention Center and Event Center. In no particular order, the 2026 nominees are:
The Phelps Youth Pavilion deserves the 2026 People's Choice "Site of the Year" Award because it makes Iowa's agricultural heritage come alive for the next generation. Through its hands-on "Grant's Farm" experience, children can step inside the world that shaped Iowa artist Grant Wood—driving a tractor through one of his iconic paintings and even milking a life-size cow. These playful experiences transform agricultural history from something children simply read about into something they can touch, imagine, and remember.
The Pavilion's greatest strength is its ability to connect history, art, agriculture, and community through active learning. With more than 40 hands-on exhibits, children can create art, explore other cultures, climb and play, and discover how the places and experiences around them shape the world.
It also makes a meaningful difference by keeping these experiences accessible. Waterloo public and private schools receive free admission for field trips, qualifying schools can receive bus funding, and the Pavilion participates in Museums for All, offering $2 admission to families using EBT benefits.
In a state where agriculture is central to our identity, the Phelps Youth Pavilion does something special: it helps children see that Iowa's agricultural story is not just history—it is part of the art, communities, families, and future they are creating today
Iowa's agricultural backbone runs through the Fossil & Prairie Park Preserve and Center, where farming history, scientific discovery, and Iowa's prairie heritage come together. Once home to the Rockford Brick & Tile Company—an original Silos & Smokestacks National Heritage Area site—the park tells how drainage tile produced here helped farmers improve productivity and reshape Iowa's agricultural landscape. Visitors can still see preserved beehive kilns, discover employee stories through interpretive signage, and explore internationally significant Devonian fossils.
Today, visitors can dig even deeper into the company's history through PastPerfect Museum Software, which provides access to historic photographs, sales samples, dealer giveaways, office materials, and interviews with former employees.
Since 2001, the Center has welcomed approximately 5,000 visitors, plus more than 2,000 students on field trips annually. Across 402 acres, more than seven miles of trails lead visitors through prairie, quarry habitat, wildflowers, wildlife, and historic features, while indoor exhibits interpret prairie heritage, ancient sea life, and the plant's working history.
In 2026, the Center celebrated 25 years of welcoming visitors and was featured on Iowa PBS's Road Trip Iowa: Highway 18. Continued improvements—including preserved historic features, refreshed interpretation, a picnic shelter, improved kiln-site parking, and diverse community programming—demonstrate an ongoing commitment to preservation and public engagement.
Here, history can be touched, nature can be explored, and Iowa's agricultural story continues to inspire.
Thousands of Norwegian immigrants settled in northeast Iowa in the 19th and early 20th centuries, bringing the knowledge and skills to thrive in an agrarian lifestyle. Vesterheim, the National Norwegian-American Museum and Folk Art School preserves the stories of these immigrant farmers who contributed so much to the settling of Iowa and the nation.
In 2027, Vesterheim will celebrate 150 years of preserving this way of life. Visitors explore 33,000 artifacts and walk through 12 fully furnished historic buildings in Heritage Park, including a blacksmith shop, school, drying shed, several houses, and the Painter-Bernatz Mill, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and houses a full exhibit on northeast Iowa's
agricultural history. Dozens of classes each year teach skills pioneers used daily, from metalworking and woodworking to weaving and cooking.
At Nordic Fest 2026, guests churned their own butter and learned traditional Norwegian cattle calling. More than 2,000 visitors toured the museum during those three days. Norwegian Christmas brings live goats to the museum each year. Annually, Decorah third graders grind corn, press apple cider, and twist rope, giving local children a living connection to their community's farming heritage. About 300 students and chaperones took part in 2026. Free Second Saturdays allow visitors to enjoy the museum and activities free of charge once each month.
The Mathias Ham Historic Site has been interpreting the humanities for 61 years, is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, and is a designated Silos & Smokestacks National Heritage Area.
The two-acre historic site includes National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) property, the Mathias Ham House, as well as the Humke Schoolhouse, Arriandeaux Log Cabin (Iowa's oldest log cabin), and a granary. Together, these structures initiate living history interpretation as the key to providing audiences with hands-on learning that educates about Iowa settlers' pioneer and early Victorian life. The Site depicts life in Dubuque, Iowa in the 19th century and presents tours, events, programs, and living history interpretation to ~10,000 visitors each year including ~2,400 school-aged youth and 80 teachers.
As a key informal history education partner in the region and a beacon of the power of historic preservation, the Mathias Ham Historic Site melds the built landscape with the natural landscape through an environmental history lens. It bridges the diverse Washington and Central Corridor Neighborhoods with the Eagle Point Park District completing the rich and varied story of Dubuque's Driftless North End.
With the completion of the Ham House's full interior restoration in 2026, visitors can now experience and appreciate its unique history as it was meant to be seen.
Seed Savers Exchange at Heritage Farm deserves to be named the 2026 People's Choice "Site of the Year" because it brings America's agricultural story to life: one seed, family story, and visitor at a time. For more than 50 years, Seed Savers Exchange has protected the nation's garden heritage by stewarding thousands of heirloom and open-pollinated varieties and connecting gardeners through the Exchange, one of the country's largest grassrootsseed-sharing networks. At Heritage Farm, visitors experience this history as something living: growing in preservation gardens and orchards, interpreted through tours and programs, and shared by gardeners across the country.
During the past year, the site expanded the ways people can participate in this work. Visitors explored behind-the-scenes preservation activities, attended educational field days and seasonal events, toured the historic barn and gardens, sampled 22 remarkable varieties at the annual Tomato Tasting, and joined virtual Seed School classes. The new "Sowing Connections"
podcast brought the voices of seed keepers, farmers, food leaders, and Seed Savers Exchange's own archives to audiences well beyond northeast Iowa.
Heritage Farm also connected local stewardship to global food security through another deposit of rare varieties in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. This work demonstrates that agricultural heritage is not simply about remembering the past; it is about protecting living resources, sharing knowledge, strengthening communities, and ensuring future generations can continue to
grow, save, and share seeds.
Silos & Smokestacks
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