Creameries

Having spent many, many hours in creameries, long before "Take Your Daughter To Work" was in vogue - they've always held a certain intrigue for me. From the child's wonderment at the amazing disappearance of a tank full of milk through intricate miles of plastic tubing to the incredible awe at realizing how few farms produce so much milk. Creameries are a disappearing lot - those remaining have experienced many changes along the way. These pages attempt to gather the photographic, www and general history of creameries in Iowa.

The Iowa Extension has a report on the history of the dairy foods processing industry in the state. In this 1995 report, by W.S. LaGrange cites "A century of Progress in the Dairy industry" by Professor J. Mortensen, Dairy industry department head at Iowa State University (ISU) and published in the 1945 Iowa Year book of agriculture. Mortensen contends that in the mid- and late 1800s people from northern and central Europe emigrated to Iowa and brought with them cows, including milk cows. The first cooperative creamery in Iowa was built either in 1877 at Spring Branch or at Maynard in 1876, according to separate claims made during those times. From the 1930s to the 1960s, Iowa creameries manufactured more than 200 million pounds of butter each year - placing Iowa 3rd in the nation. In 1960, 240 butter manufacturing plants remained in Iowa. During the 1960s as cooperative creameries merged, the butter industry declined. The change from farm-separated cream to whole milk delivered to dairy plants in bulk tanks also changed the face of the dairy industry. This took place in the 1950s and 1960s. LaGrange's 1995 report cites that at that time, 68% of the milk in Iowa went to cheese manufacturing (including cottage cheese) and 25% went to fluid milk bottling plants.

Little Cedar Creamery - Little Cedar, Iowa got a little smaller
the day the creamery closed. Here's a photo taken in July of 1999.

Stacyville Creamery - According to a March 4, 1999 article in the Monitor Review, the Stacyville Creamery handled 133,171,000 pounds of milk in 1998 [An increase of 6,520.000 pounds over 1997]. At this writing, Grade A milk goes to Des Moines (A&E Roberts Dairy) and the rest of the milk is hauled to Fredricksburg where it is made into various cheeses.

Wayne Township (Jones County, IA) includes several area creameries in their history section.

Tipton, Iowa Creamery History