It’s great to be back in Storm Lake.
At least, that’s what it feels like. Over the last few weeks, “Researching Midwestern History” has been convening for the second time. With a new roster of students—19 undergraduates, and 3 Master’s candidates—we have begun to investigate Storm Lake’s past and present once again.
This year, introducing students to the town has been a whole lot easier. The documentary, Storm Lake, offers a view into the local setting better than any lecture I could pull together, though its emphasis on the important issue of local journalism sidelines to a degree other aspects of town that make it so fascinating. To these ends we hope that our work can contribute in a significant way to Anchor Pictures’ The Americans.
The research completed by students in 2021 also offers a tremendous boost to this year’s group. It has been wonderful to review completed notes and interview transcripts as a way to jumpstart our investigations. Students now are copyediting transcripts from past interviews, and preparing them for publication or donation to the BV County Historical Society. Before long, we will begin publishing online the profile pieces written from these interviews in a series, “Small Town, Big World.” Central to this was our previous collaboration with Dr. Andrea Frantz’s class at BVU, and the assistance of Superintendent Stacey Cole.
So things are more developed, the second time around, as we expand upon the work of those before us. Importantly, we have kept one “tradition” to class. Doc Whitlatch visited us two weeks ago, to speak on his own experiences in town. We couldn’t ask for a better visitor. Doc, as most of you know, was once a long-time resident of Storm Lake and professor at Buena Vista, who now lives near Dayton, and (believe it or not) is an alumnus of Miami University! As a professor of theater, he knows a few things about oration and holding an audience’s attention. When I think back on the creation of this class, I had no idea Doc lived near us. Now it’s hard to think of teaching it without his visit to kick off the semester.
Starting next week, student blogs will resume. The first couple of posts will bring you all up to date on our early conversations. We have spoken with two guests and read two books already. But get ready for some older news stories to frequent the posts. Students will be researching the period of 1880-1940, so that we can have a stronger comparison point to contemporary Storm Lake.
And I’ll add this: we will continue our interviews with local residents. If you would be open to participating in this project, please reach out to us at any time.
We look forward to working with you all in the coming weeks!
Dr. Andrew Offenburger is associate professor of history at Miami University and can be reached at offenba@miamioh.edu or at https://offenburger.miamioh.edu.
