Southern Iowa

Work took me to southern Iowa yesterday. I stopped off at Lucas.



This used to be the headquarters of Farmers and Miners State Bank, which was for a long time the smallest bank in Iowa, with capital of under $2 million. If you are wondering how small that is - really, really small. It is now a branch of Community State Bank of Indianola, but it looks like it hasn't changed a lot.

It now has a nice "Community State Bank" logo across the window. Before it was bought by them, the only indication for passerby of the building's contents was the safe in the window with the bank's name. It's still there:



I would have liked to have gone inside and looked around, but bankers hours in Lucas are, you might say, unambitious:



I suppose after working four hours on Saturday, you can't expect more than two hours of anyone the rest of the week.

The bank overlooks the BNSF mainline - largely built by McCaughey Construction, operated by Grandpa and Great Grandpa McCaughey back in the day.



My mom (hi, Mom!) would visit down the road in Thayer when Grandpa was out here with the construction crews. I don't think Lucas has changed much since then.