Time to share another collection of images from my road trip to Lee County & Van Buren County to harvest their town signs. All of these pictures are taken in Van Buren County. In the villages of Bonaparte and Bentonsport.

Bonaparte

Bentonsport

So let’s talk a moment about The Mason House Inn. It has had an absolutely fascinating history. From their website (masonhouseinn.com):

The Mason House Inn was built in 1846, originally called the Ashland House, and was owned by William Robinson. It was built as a hotel to serve the steamboat travelers going from St. Louis to Fort Des Moines and Fort Dodge on the Des Moines River. It was built by Mormon craftsmen from Nauvoo, Illinois, who stayed in Bentonsport for several years, working and gathering supplies before making their trek westward to Salt Lake City, Utah. (Several of the brick buildings still in use here in Bentonsport were built by these craftsmen.) In 1857, the Ashland House was purchased by Lewis Mason and his wife, Nancy. They changed the name to the Phoenix Hotel, but the townspeople called the place the “Mason’s House”, and the name stayed. It was Nancy who started the tradition of “a cookie jar in every room”.

Over the years, the Mason House has withstood 6 major floods: 1851, 1903, 1905, 1947 and, most recently, 1993 and 2008. Through it all, this magnificent building remains a stalwart landmark. During the Civil War, the Mason House was used as a “holding hospital” for the wounded soldiers who were waiting for the train or boats to take them to the hospital in Keokuk. It was also a station on the Underground Railroad. For a short time in 1913 the building was used as a tuberculosis sanitarium. But the building was too small for their needs and they moved to Des Moines. From 1920 to 1950, Lewis’ grand-daughter, Fannie Mason Kurtz, ran the hotel as a boarding house for the town doctor and his wife and also the local school teachers. When Fannie died in 1951, the place was rented as a house for the Downing family until 1956.

Here is a little more. Remember last Wednesday when we talked about the Mormons being ran out of Nauvoo, Illinois? They settled in Van Buren County for a time and some built the Mason Inn.

The Mason Inn is considered haunted and for this reason, they ban guns inside of the Inn:

DO NOT BRING ANY GUNS OR FIREARMS OF ANY KIND INTO THE INN! I don’t care if you have a conceal carry permit or not. This is our house. Our rules. Its not that we are anti-gun (we actually have a rifle at our farm) but the ghosts don’t like guns and 2 of the ghosts know how to pull the trigger. One guest brought a hand gun without us knowing. He placed it on the night stand next to his bed. In the morning he found the gun on the dresser, pointed at his head. The clip was out of the gun and on a different dresser across the room. There was still a bullet in the chamber. If the ghosts could do that, they could have just as easily pulled the trigger. This is a true story.

I would love to stay there sometime. Maybe I’ll put it on my list for next year.

There is still one more collection of images to share from this road trip!