Winnebago opens visitor center

Fans of Iowa’s Winnebago motor homes now can go right to the source to learn about the Fortune-500 company. The second floor of the Winnebago visitors’ center now has a display of early models, as well as memorabilia from founders John and Louise Hanson. Dennis Burkholder is General Manager of WIT, the Winnebago-Itasca Travelers. On the first level, there’s a display of vintage Winnebago motor-coaches, and a modern chassis people can view from the under the floor to see just how the construction’s done. He says as visitors move upstairs they’ll find a shift from modern-day products to telling the Winnebago story. Starting back in 1958 with “Modernistic Industries,” it’s a series of picture-boards and text telling how Winnebago rose to become the number-one motor-home maker in the world and, he says, “a modern-day success story.” The visitors center and new display of Winnebago history are in Forest City. Winnebago made history again this week by reporting record fourth-quarter earnings, record annual revenues and its first-ever revenues over a Billion dollars.