Little Wolf First Bridge / Buttolph Memorial Bridge
A crowd of historical enthusiasts and friends of Kenny Buttolph gathering under a steady drizzle on Saturday, May 6, at 11 a.m. to witness the unveiling of a two-sided historical marker. The first side celebrated the bridge across the river and the second face the renowned car collector and Krause Publications Old Cars staffer Buttolph.
Cliff Mishler, president of the Iola Historical Society, presented the historical background of North Main Street bridges across the South Branch of the Little Wolf River in the Village of Scandinavia. He also recalled several humorous stories about Kenny, his cars, and Chet Krause, founder of Krause Publications.
Greg Loescher, historical marker coordinator and creator of the marker program, illuminated the audience – numbering about 40 – about the program and the quality of the black covering used for veiling the marker.
Ceremoniously unveiling the marker were Mary Schwartz and Ali Johnson, both members of the Iola Car Show staff.
After the unveiling, the crowd availed itself of wheel cookies and beverages while sharing some of the fond memories of Kenny H. Buttolph.
Following are the inscriptions on the marker.
Little Wolf First Bridge c. 1853
In 1853 Silas Miller identified a suitable point on the South Branch of the Little Wolf River coursing the countryside to impound the river. A sawmill established on the stream’s north shore became the genesis of the Iola community. Ownership of the enterprise passed to Henry Wipf and his sons Jacob and Conrad in 1857. The mill and adjoining properties were controlled by the Wipf family for more than 100 years.
As other businesses and residences spread to the south, construction of a bridge across the river was required. The first was probably built of pine structural timbers and planked decking. A light steel structure superseded that original structure in an undetermined year – a January 10, 1906, breaching of the impoundment dam washed away its abutments – in turn being replaced by two stone faced, concrete based, culvert style structures.
Morton Lovdahl commenced construction of the stone arch culvert structures on July 23, 1906, with essential completion announced in the October 4, 1906, Iola Herald. The present replacement structure was built July-October of 2020, with the inauguration on Oct. 13.
The Wipf enterprise expanded to include a flour mill – Iola Mills – in 1861; a shingle mill was added later, on the south side of the river’s impoundment outlet. IN a series of transactions over 30 years – 1968, 1983, and 1998 – this area was acquired by Sheveland-Taylor Post 14 of the American Legion for their Memorial Park development.
Buttolph Memorial Bridge 2020
It’s improbable that anyone ever crossed Iola’s bridges over the South Branch of the Little Wolf River more often than Kenneth “Kenny” Buttolph (b. 1938, d. 2016). A “road warrior” in every sense of the phrase, Kenny loved cars and being on the road. He enjoyed being on the road for Old Cars, in a career that epitomized his loves for nearly four decades.
Kenny settled north of Iola at Peru in 1981, thereafter crossing the Little Wolf River multiple times daily as he drove to and from Iola and Krause Publications. Kenny’s duties included representing Old Cars embraced driving country-wide. A preponderance of those trips found Kenny driving the Old Cars 1954 Chevrolet panel truck, affectionately referred to as “Buck,” built-out for his travels.
Kenny possessed an expansive car collection that he regularly exercised crossing the Little Wolf River for 35 years, often uncounted times on a given day. Many of his cars were displayed annually in the Iola Old Car Show’s Blue Ribbon Concours, the establishment for which Kenny was the driving force. A preponderance of the prime examples of automotive history featured in the Blue Ribbon Concours were invited by Kenny. His contributions from the earliest days (1970s) of the Iola Old Car Show (see Historic Iola markers #4 & #22), were manifold to its growth into the renowned attraction it has become.
This bridge, then, is dedicated to Kenneth H. Buttolph, a man who, throughout his lifetime, loved to be on the road … especially behind the wheel of an old car!