Header Graphic
Newsletters > It’s a busy year!
It’s a busy year!

Apr 2, 2024

With heavy hearts we begin this newsletter with tragic news in Tampico. Last week an accident claimed the lives of three youth and injured two others. Emotions are strong in our village but like a small town always does- it prevails. The families of this town have stepped up and created activities as a way for the peers to expel grief. Currently our buildings on Main Street are adorned with #TampicoStrong and support for our first responders. If you have a moment please stop and give thought to the pain and suffering of our residents. If you follow the Tampico Connections Facebook page you’ll find the obituaries, meal trains, and any other information to keep you up to date and if you’re interested in helping.

April 1st is upon us! The Ronald Reagan Birthplace has opened its doors for the year! Curator Joan Johnson is always looking for volunteers to help guide tours or spiffy up the place. Stop in or give her a call if you’re interested!

Sesquicentennial planning has been going well! We would love to hear from you if you are an “out-of-towner” and plan to travel to Tampico in 2025. Many events and reunions are being planned! If you are interested in helping with contacting classmates please send us an email: tampicoareahistory@gmail.com. Or if you just want to let us know you’re interested in coming! Joan Johnson is working on a Saturday morning brunch for the Tampico High School Alumni. There will be many activities for the week. If you can make it in 2024 that would also be thrilling! Stop in the birthplace and the historical society museum to see the changes we’ve been working on!

Also in the terms of “Sesquicentennial
Planning” we received a nice donation from Larry and Bonnie Anderson and the Kickback Saloon to begin our funds. They hosted a St. Patrick’s Day meal and donated all proceeds. Thank you!

The bank in Tampico is also donating as a sponsor for our logo contest you’ll hear more about in the next few months. We appreciate all of the community support!

Our next Sesquicentennial Meeting is planned for Wednesday April 17th at 6:00 p.m. at the historical society museum.

This past month we heard from Gordon Kelm at our March meeting! What an experience it was to learn how very active the Tampico area youth have been in 4-H! Gordon spent so much time preparing for this meeting and researching the history of 4-H. It will be so nice to have something like this in our collection! Thank you to “Gordy” and to everyone who attended his presentation whether in person or virtually!

On the docket for April is our Illinois Humanities Road Scholar Cynthia Clampitt. Here is an excerpt on what is to come:

About 10,000 years ago, a weedy grass, growing in Mexico possessed a strange trait known as a "jumping gene," transformed itself into a larger and more useful grass--the cereal grass that we would come to know as maize and then corn.

Most textbooks only mention corn in the context of rescuing a few early settlers, but it in fact sustained the colonies and the early United States, and then virtually created the Midwest, a region settled faster than any other region in history.

It also created the region’s cities, especially Chicago, where everything from grain elevators to the Chicago Board of Trade to the 1893 World’s Fair to time zones to the stockyards were made possible by the golden flood flowing into the city.

Cynthia Clampitt will detail the history of corn and how it transformed the Americas before First Contact; how it traveled the world after First Contact; and its stunning impact on the creation of not only the historic Midwest but just about everything in it today.

Remember these presentations can be watched virtually. We would love to have you in house- but we know many of our supporters live at a distance.

Also- Joan Johnson has also equipped our museum with a mesh system so our WiFi is abundant throughout the building. This should help with the streaming. Just go to our event on our Facebook page at the start of the event and join our Live Streaming!

On Deck for May is Nicole Palsa. She will be traveling here from Tennessee and volunteering her time to share her geneology tips and tricks and how she found a long lost relative in our archives!

Don’t forget you can catch the past presentations and more on our YouTube page!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxbPiJA-yP___rynqFQTB_A

Just copy and paste the link into your browser.

Spring is here and these wet rainy days have you itching for some Havana nights? We are excited to announce Dana and Jodie Fellows will be returning later this year to show us what it was like to venture to Cuba. This meeting will coincide with our annual potluck and will be held at the Tampico Area Community Building. More details to come!

Duane has met with some contractors to estimate repairs. We would love if anyone with grant writing experience or interest could join our team. We will be planning an indoor/outdoor work day in June. We have some scrap in the back that needs hauled away as well as pictures and clippings to file.

The officers decided the chili contest went over well and will be preparing for another contest this fall. Be on the lookout for more information!

More to come! Stay tuned to our Facebook page for immediate updates! Thank you for supporting and being a part of the Tampico Area Historical Society!

TAMPICO AREA HISTORICAL SOCIETY - MUSEUM - FAMILY HISTORY LIBRARY/RESEARCH CENTER  119 Main St., P. O. Box 154,  Tampico, IL  61283   www.tampicohistoricalsociety.com   tampicoareahistory@gmail.com  We are an all-volunteer organization so your donations are always appreciated!  Sign up to receive our e-newsletter. Thank you!  Visit us on FACEBOOK.