Making Eldora a tourism destination

ELDORA - She comes from Stanhope, Iowa, where they set aside a weekend every summer to celebrate Watermelon Days. So Ann Vogelbacher, who recently visited Eldora as executive director of the Central Iowa Tourism Region, already knows tourists come to small towns looking for small things. They are not expecting the Grand Canyon at every stop.

Small towns need to make “a fest” of the small things they’ve got, she says.

“And, they always have much more to work with than they think.”