Charles City, IA - Floyd County Historical Museum

Community Organization in Charles City, IA

Come explore the history of the heartland. The Floyd County Museum in Charles City, Iowa is one of the Midwest's largest rural county museums, with over 50,000 artifacts depicting early and recent prairie life, both agricultural and industrial.

Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the Museum's home is the former Dr. Salsbury's Laboratories building at 500 Gilbert Street. It is 40 miles east of Interstate 35 on the Avenue of the Saints (US Highways 18 and 218). For directions, go to our Planning a Visit? page.

In 1999, the Museum opened its climate-controlled exhibit area, featuring historic farm tractors, implements and tools of the last century.

Charles City is the birthplace of the gasoline-driven tractor, and the Museum displays several models manufactured here: Hart-Parr, Oliver, and White.

Be sure to see the turn-of-the-century drug store, the country school classroom, and other period rooms as well. The Museum owns Floyd County's oldest existing building, the Muchlar cabin, built in 1853. To learn more about the Museum's holdings, go to our collections page.

Stop by the gift shop for books related to local history, Oliver tractor toys, T-shirts, and other gift ideas. VISA and MasterCard accepted.

Map and Info

Floyd County, IA


Floyd County, IA

Visit our county page and you will find information about our town and county's points of interest, festivals/events and faith community. You also will find stories about the contributions made by farmers/ranchers located throughout our county and of course you will learn about the community organizations that have built and continue to build strong communities (chambers, community groups, and departments, etc) and much more when you visit the Floyd County, IA page.