Iowa’s Two Best Fall Festivals That You Haven’t Heard About

It's Fall Festival Season in Iowa, and while many have already taken place; two, under the radar festivals are coming up in the next few weeks.

Each of these Fall Festivals has its own, unique way of celebrating the harvest season, with plenty of family-friendly events and decades-long traditions that keep visitors coming back, year in and year out.

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Osborne Heritage Days in Clayton County

Osborne's Heritage Days is one of the best Fall Festivals that Iowa has to offer and is right around the corner on October 14 & 15.

Here's what the Clayton County Website has to say about Heritage Days:

Heritage Days began in 1975 as a way to bring life back to the tiny community of Osborne, Iowa.  Tucked in among the rolling wooded hills between Elkader and Strawberry Point, the once thriving town has lost most of its inhabitants to other areas since its heyday in the 1930’s.  Heritage Days was planned to take visitors back in time to this community, and all other Iowa towns of the pioneer era, through living history demonstrations, contests and other activities.

-Clayton County Conservation Board Website

Heritage Days have all kinds of fun activities, including rope making, basketry, buffalo chip throwing, a chili cookoff, pumpkin decorating, and more. You can also check out the Osborne Nature Center while you're at it, which holds several animals, like buffalo, cougars, wolves, etc...

Check out the Clayton Country Conservation Website for all the details.

Fort Atkinson Rendezvous in Winneshiek County

The Fort Atkinson Rendezvous is coming up on September 23 & 24 in Fort Atkinson, Iowa, located in the far northeast corner of the state. This one-of-a-kind event is all about reenacting what life was like back in the 1800s. It also has plenty of tasty food and family-friendly events.

Here's what the Fort Atkinson Website has to say about the rendezvous:

In the year 1977, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the Fort Atkinson community, with permission of the Iowa State Preserves Advisory Board, organized a frontier rendezvous to re-enact life as it was in the 1840s. Participants, dressed in authentic costumes worn in the 1840s, recreated the time period in regards to general military life at the Fort as well as when hunters, trappers, & traders displayed their furs & supplies for barter and trade at a frontier rendezvous as existed further west in the Rocky Mountains. Re-creation of the frontier rendezvous and the 1840s military life at Fort Atkinson has continued every year since.

-Fort Atkinson Website

Story Sources: Clayton County Conservation Website, Fort Atkinson Website