What do you do when your county has five smaller museums, each wanting more visitors? You combine them under one roof and offer a complete experience in rural living.

That’s what happened in Clarion about 20 years ago. Five groups — the Arts Council, the Historical Society, a local teddy bear artist, an antique tractor group and the caretakers for the 6,000-plus hats of Alvina Sellers, better known as “Iowa’s Hat Lady” — decided to merge.

“It was a pretty disparate group,” says Mary Tesdahl, co-president and volunteer for the Heartland Museum. “How were we going to get these five groups...