Hail damage to the Traer Historical Museum’s Canfield (Winding Stairs) building roof pictured recently. A new roof is scheduled to be installed this fall. PHOTOS COURTESY OF GEORGE KADRMAS

TRAER – The Traer Historical Museum will hold its 2nd annual fundraiser lunch on Sunday, Sept. 13, and invites the community to attend.

The event will take place at the Traer Memorial Building. Lunch will be served from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The dine-in or carryout menu includes grilled pork burgers, tenderloins, sides, dessert and a beverage. Farmers Savings Bank, Hometown Foods and the Tama County Pork Producers are sponsoring the fundraiser alongside the museum.

The Traer Historical Museum is a local nonprofit museum, preserving the history of Traer and northern Tama County. It is operated entirely by volunteers. The museum owns the museum building – formerly the Farmers Store – and the Canfield and Star-Clipper Building, which is rented by the North Tama Vet Clinic. The museum also maintains the historic Winding Stairs.

In recent years, the museum has sandblasted and painted the Winding Stairs and installed a new HVAC system in the museum. Future museum plans call for new exhibits about the history of local churches, the Opera House, the movie theater, and Traer entertainment.

The museum’s buildings were evaluated by an engineering firm two years ago, with building repairs prioritized in the report. Repairs and improvements over the past year to the Canfield building include new basement stairs; cleaning out items left by tenants in the 1950s and 1960s; replacement of a cracked cast-iron sewer stack; removing knob-and-tubewiring; and tuckpointing one limestone wall in the basement.

The Traer Historical Museum Board thanks its loyal members who make annual donations to the museum, and to the City of Traer for its support. Unfortunately, donations are less than current repair costs.

The City of Traer has provided $8,000 in fiscal year 2027 local option sales tax money toward tuckpointing the remainder of the basement; the bid is $12,000. A recent hailstorm severely damaged the roof. Insurance claims will provide about $12,000, but a new roof will cost about $24,000. Future building projects will include adding more telescoping floor supports in the basements of both buildings.

Please support the museum by stopping for lunch on Sept. 13. Also during that time, a Sunbonnet Sue quilt donated by Ripley Quilters will be raffled and a silent auction will take place with more than 30 items for bid, including a Masterbuilt electric meat smoker; a coat tree with deer antlers as hooks; a string-art wall hanging of the Traer Winding Stairs; a set of four framed Traer landmark sketches by Rebecca Dahms; a Gordon Smith Store packet including a commemorative plate, Dutch Boy Wet Paint signs and Dutch Boy painter hats; a Bella triple slow cooker; a Traer CNW commemorative plate; a Sports in Fashion red wooden purse; a turtle-shaped cutting board; two “Welcome” signs; a rustic bookshelf; a wooden “cat” toilet paper holder; a coffee and snack basket; a cleaning supply basket; and several books including “Gulliver’s Travels,” “In Defense of Outlaws,” “History of the Spirit Lake Massacre,” “Lucile,” “Garrison Centennial Recollections,” English literature books from the 1930s, “Our Literary Heritage,” “Prose and Poetry of England,” and a 1939 Traer B.P.W. Club Cookbook.

There will be individual sale items as well on tables marked White Elephant Sale. These items will be available for a freewill offering. The Traer Shaker Gallery will have a table of salt and pepper shakers for sale.

Please support the museum by coming to the Memorial Building for lunch on Sunday, Sept. 13. It’s Grandparents Day, so bring them along. Thank you for your support.