NEWS CHRONICLE PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY — From left to right, Montour Area Community Club members and Sesquicentennial volunteers Susan Eberhart, Judy Butler and Geri Hoskey pose for a photo at the community center Tuesday afternoon as they prepare for the big celebration on Sept. 9.

MONTOUR — Montour is one of the oldest and proudest communities in Tama County, and on Sept. 9, a special celebration will be held to commemorate the 150-year anniversary of the incorporation of the town under its current name.

Earlier this week, three members of the Montour Area Community Club who are serving as volunteer planners for the event — Susan Eberhart, Geri Hoskey and Judy Butler — sat down with the News Chronicle to talk about what attendees can expect, what Montour means to them and why the small community of approximately 200 residents continues to endure so many years later.

“There’s not very many of us, but we’re mighty,” Eberhart, the onetime mayor, said.

Hoskey, who has lived in Montour all of her life other than about a year in Toledo and a few months in Minnesota, joked that her original idea was just to have “a potluck and birthday cake” and call it good, but the celebration has since “exploded” and will now include a parade with appearances from the Meskwaki princess and dancers beginning, a car show and an antique tractor show all beginning at 10 a.m., hot wheel races at noon and cemetery tours from 2 to 6 p.m. along with a host of other activities like Amish buggy rides, fry bread and tacos, face painting at Rube’s, Iowa/Iowa State football game drawings and door prizes, kids games, a pulled pork lunch and a quilts of valor ceremony. Hoskey is hoping to have four trolleys on hand, and one will be used to shuttle people to and from the cemetery.

Eberhart recounted the long and winding road that led her back to her hometown. She was all set to go back to Iowa City about 20 years ago when her daughter suggested she stay in Montour because “there was a guy she should date.” Although she initially wasn’t interested, they got together in 2008 and are now happily married.

Butler can trace her Montour lineage back to the town’s founding as her own ancestors founded one of the three settlements — Butlerville — that eventually consolidated into Orford and then Montour. Her great-great-grandfather also notably sold the land that is now known as the Meskwaki Settlement to the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi all the way back in the mid-19th century.

And while there will be a special emphasis on those who either grew up in Montour or still call it home today, all are welcome — near, far and in between — to join in the family friendly fun.

“All of us that have lived here, we bleed Montour. I swear we do,” Hoskey said. “Like my husband says, ‘What’s gonna happen when you guys aren’t doing this anymore?’ I hope I don’t live to see that. Until that happens, I wanna keep Montour as alive as possible.”

Anyone interested in volunteering for the celebration is encouraged to contact Eberhart (641-751-5507), Hoskey (641-750-2230) or Skip Ridout (641-481-2010), and more information can be found at https://www.facebook.com/events/1646428809211663