By Jody Spear
Rock Falls Fun Days is the biggest annual event celebrated there. It is held on the third weekend in August to help raise money for the Rock Falls Community Center, which at one time was the School.
Festivities traditionally include softball and volleyball tournaments, a children’s carnival, a dinner at the Community Center and an evening dance.
The Softball tournament started Friday night at 6pm and continued Saturday morning at 8am. The co-ed Volleyball tournament was at 9am Saturday morning. Also Saturday morning, starting at 8am was a Run/Walk and Relax event. This consisted of a 5K Fun Run and a one mile walk.
The children’s carnival was provided for the kids from noon to 3pm and a kids pedal tractor pull was from 3 to 5. A bean bag toss and volleyball games continued all afternoon and into the evening. There was free entertainment in the afternoon by Scott Cooper, Nick Cooper and Billy Bramsen. Nick is Scott Cooper’s, and Scott explained why Nick wasn’t there for the whole gig, “Nick is underage, so when he plays with us, he is used to leaving after an hour. Well, today, he did the same thing. He took off to go camping.” They were done playing, but continued the playing tapes to entertain the crowd until the DJ showed up.
There was plenty to eat, with a concession stand from 9am to 7pm. A Pulled Pork Sandwich Dinner was served from 4 to 7pm for $8 a plate. After the last hamburger was bought from the concession stand, they started selling pulled pork sandwiches for $3. The men and women did a terrific job getting the meal out to all the people. One worker said, “I’ve worked in three different places since this morning, I’m really tired.” As soon as those words came out of her mouth, she went back to work, and helped to clean up.
Marie Whipple, age 80, was taking the money for the pulled pork dinner. She was a Mason City graduate in 1950. She was willing to tell us a little of Rock Falls history. “I ran the Post Office for 21 years. The front part of my house was the lobby. I went without a dining room for that whole time. Now there are boxes uptown were people pick up their mail.” She still lives in the same house that is kiddy corner from the community center.
At the same table as Marie, was John R. Cunningham. He was selling prints and postcards of the old Shell Rock Falls, later changed to Rock Falls. He is the author of two hardback books. Rock Solid, A History of Rock Falls and Rocky Hill, A History of Cerro Gordo County. Rock Solid was being sold for $20 and 100% will go the community center. Rocky Hill is his newest book and is being sold for $30 with $10 of it going to the community center. It tells the 100 year history of the towns in Cerro Gordo County.
A little more history of Rock Falls:
Rock Falls is older than Mason City; in 1853, Elijah Wiltfong noticed a waterfall in the river. “This would be a good place to start a town, for we need water and wood to have people want to build here. With a waterfall we could have water power to run mills to grind whear for flour, and run a saw for a saw mill to make lumber to build with. In 1855, he bought some land and laid out lots for his town. Since the river was already named Shell Rock, he called his town Shell Rock Falls. They had trouble keeping a dam built, every spring when the ice flowed down the river it would take out the dam. Finally, a twenty foot dam was built and it lasted for many years. A great mill was built by the bridge, but in 1888 the ice took out the dam, the bridge and some of the houses on the south part of town and washed them down the river. They tried steam power, but the saw mill was never able to work right again. It was the largest in the state of Iowa, at the time. Several years later, the owner ordered the mill blown up. The oldest business in town was the gas station, it is now a beauty salon. In 1962, the Farmers Savings Bank was robbed of $700. The banks casher’s son, John Wilkinson, was working at the bank durning his summer break from the University of Minnesota. After giving the robbers the cash, Wilkinson and Lloyd Hansen followed the outlaws through Plymouth, Manly and Nora Springs. They eventually went in the ditch and the robbers got away. The bank moved to Mason City and is now City Hall. The Wilkinson Pioneer Park on the Shell Rock River was established when Edith and Rufus Wilkinson gave 19 acres to the Cerro Gordo County Conservation Board for a park. The conservation board added more property to the park and improved the picnic grounds and camping areas. “The added land goes all the way to Nora Springs, it’s called The Greenbelt.” a former resident of Rock Falls was explaining to us, as we ate our pulled pork. We were purchasing a print from John Cunningham and it had the covered bridge (in Wilkinson Park) in it, “The original covered bridge was burnt down by vandals and then rebuilt,” he told us. When I was taking a picture of the old school bell, a man who was putting tables away told me, “That bell used to be on top of the roof, on the back left hand side. You couldn’t see it, but it rang to let the school kids know when it was time to come in from recess.” More information and details of any of these events can be found on “History of Rock Falls” plus it tells a cute story about a man who lost his wedding clothes on the day of his wedding.
The Main Event DJ Service provided the music for a street dance from eight to midnight. A beer tent was provided from 10 am to midnight, but asked that people drink responsibly. All the cans that are seen in the pictures, were picked up and put into bins. “The cans go to a good cause,” said Scott Cooper.
Watch video:
