danish windmill museum

We stopped here recently while returning home from Des Moines. A great new museum and gift shop commemorating the Danish culture. Very interesting displays and information. And a wonderful gift shop with a nice selection of items and books.

Decided to stop on are way home from omaha. Nice little stop to get out and stretch. Made for some nice photos. The gift shop was closed on our visit. Worth the stop

1848 Danish windmill transported to Iowa and reassembled in largest Danish rural villages outside Denmark. And a good gift shop with small town friendliness.

Just a couple of miles north of I-88, the windmill makes a for a nice respite from the highway. The windmill was built in Denmark in 1848. Then about 30 years ago, someone had the crazy idea to take it apart and restore it in the middle of Iowa. We enjoyed browsing through the museum store. http://www.danishwindmill.com/

a good place for some pictures. very interesting place to stop by and look around.you will be glad you did.

went here on our way back to Omaha via Des Moines. Nice Windmill and museum. Small yes but neat none the less. If you are afraid of heights don't go all the way up.

Nice little place with kind staff and lots of info on Denmark. Good shop with reall danish stuff. Try the liqourice (spelling)

It was fantastic. We highly recommend to anyone Danish or not!We learned a lot about the Danes we didn't know before.

This is an amazing, working authentic windmill from Denmark is located on an adorable little piece of property that includes a little old danish cabin as well! We arrived to late to tour it but we did visit the grounds & the gift shop which was very nice. It was so big & very well maintained. I would love to go back & see the inside someday soon.

My wife loves windmills and we decided to stop and take a look. It is a big mill. We got there to late for a tour. It has a store where you can buy flour ground there and a great area where you can see a danish home thats half buried in the ground. A great stop on our vacation.

Any parent who has put together a toy on Christmas Eve will appreciate the task of dismantling and re-assembling this building, one continent to another. That is why it's amazing.

The windmill was actually acquired in Denmark and relocated to this location. We enjoyed climbing around it and learning the history. Quite an accomplishment. Good to see the Danish museum in the same area.

A working windmill awaits visitors who take the trip to Elk Horn, Iowa. The windmill, built in 1848, has called Elk Horn home since 1976. A group of residents led a drive to bring an actual windmill across the Atlantic Ocean from Denmark.The windmill greets visitors to the small town. It’s part of the visitor’s center. Elk Horn area residents are proud of their Danish ancestry. The towns within a radius of about 30 miles make up the largest percentage of Americans with Danish blood in the United States. Only California’s Solvang region has more Danes.Touring the windmill takes less than an hour. The tour starts with a 15-minute video highlighting the history of bringing the windmill to Elk Horn. Very interesting is how it was disassembled in Denmark and then reassembled here. It took about a year to reassemble it, using 300 volunteers and about 1 million hours of work.You can climb to the third level of the windmill. If you are concerned about tight spaces or steep ladder steps, I would avoid going higher than the second floor.The windmill, as I previously mentioned, is a working one. Theoretically, you could grind grain in it. The gears actually turn.Walking outside, you can visit the bust of famed Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. Check out the grounds and you’ll see a small-scaled model of a Danish Lutheran church, cabin and apple trees.

There are great gifts to purchase as you do your Christmas shopping. The staff is very friendly and helpful in making your selections.

Coming back from Des Moines to Rapid City we've seen the billboards for the Danish Windmill so we just had to stop. Great place to stretch and walk around a very interesting old windmill even more interesting is that it is in the middle of Iowa.