The central Iowa community of Grinnell is -the- pick for the state’s newest museum, which will focus on how people get from one place to another. Mark Hudson is director of “Imagine Grinnell,” which has been given the nod by the state Transportation Commission to become the home of the Iowa Transportation Museum.The museum will be built inside the former Spaulding Buggy Plant, after an extensive overhaul. In the 1920s, the Spaulding plant was one of the nation’s largest makers of buggies and early automobiles. Hudson says there’s no longer any worry about Grinnell competing with other locations in Iowa for the new museum. The museum is expected to cost between six and ten-million dollars and will cover planes, trains, automobiles and other modes of moving people around — a history of transportation in Iowa. Hudson says it’s a wonderful victory for Grinnell.The Iowa Interstate Railroad and Union Pacific Railroad intersect in Grinnell and are the main reason the town came to be. Construction on the museum should begin next year with completion in 2004.
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