On Monday, August 18, I set out on a road trip to Oklahoma City for the ANA World's Fair ofMoney. Mark Anderson was driving and Shawn Hewitt was another passenger. Our goal for thefirst day was the Higgins National Bank Note Museum in Okoboji. Iowa.

Waiting for us outside was the current curator, George Cuhaj. The museum was formed around thecollection of William R. Higgins, Jr. (1913-1991) in 1978. According to George, John Hickman(1927-1995) was curator until 1994. He was followed by Merry Coleman for 1996-1999; GlennMcConnell for 2000-2005; and Avis Touville briefly in 2006. Larry Adams was hired in 2007.Larry did not drive and was killed as a passenger in a car accident in the fall of 2022. GeorgeCuhaj was hired in the spring of 2023 and has served as curator since then.

The 9000 square foot building was built on a plan originally made for a nursing home. There is acentral hall with six wings. The entrance area has two offices and two exhibit rooms withbanking equipment, coin counting machines and safes. On the entry wall is a tribute to the donor,William R. Higgins, Jr.

On the sides are four wings with "state themes." Two are devoted to Iowa National Bank Notes,one devoted to Minnesota and one with notes from Nebraska and South Dakota. A smallerexhibit of Missouri notes is in the main hall.

The central hall has wall displays with a basic type collection representing 72 years of NationalBank Notes (1863-1935). There is a red seal collection and representative notes for the otherstates and territories. Examples of bank charters are shown plus a wall from a teller's cage. Thereis a small spider press like those that would have printed banknotes. This was purchased toreplace an earlier exhibit on loan from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Higgins alsocollected postcards of bank buildings. There are thousands of them available for view in thecentral hall.

The four state wings are more for the bank note collecting nerds who appreciate the notes issuedby local banks and the signatures on them. With about 2600 notes in the collection, it is thelargest collection of National Bank Notes on permanent display in the country.

The sixth wing has administrative areas not open to the public. They include a board room,library, utility closet and an apartment for the curator. There are also small guest rooms where wespent the night. During our night in the museum, none of us reported hearing the ghostly voicesof old bank presidents.

The museum is open 11 to 5:30 on Tuesday through Sunday from Memorial Day through LaborDay. George stays in town for the summer but returns to Iola in the off season. The museum hassponsored paper money symposiums in even numbered years. The next paper money symposiumwill be on August 12-13, 2026, with five speakers.

The bank notes are displayed in locked Allstate cases that are bolted to the wall. When themuseum closes after Labor Day, all the notes are taken out of the cases, put in envelopes andboxes. The boxes are secured at a local bank while the museum is closed. George says that withone helper, it takes 15 hours to take down the displays for storage.

After we had an introduction to the museum, George led us through a tour of Okoboji and nearbySpirit Lake. I was interested in sites of the 1857 Spirit Lake Massacre. In that spring, SanteeSioux, led by Inkpaduta, killed about 40 white settlers.

On our return trip from Oklahoma, we stayed at the museum again on Saturday, August 22. Wehad dinner at a restaurant overlooking Lake Okoboji. Mark is on the museum board and therewas much discussion of future plans to modernize some of the exhibits and possibly expand themuseum in the future.