Primrose, Iowa

Primrose Mill is a historic structure located in the unincorporated community of Primrose, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The steam powered flour mill was established in 1871 by J.W. Pierce. Pierce immigrated to the United States from Prussia in 1861 and settled in Primrose seven years later where he worked as a dry goods merchant. The mill provided both commercial and custom grinding. While it was in continuous operation into the 20th century, the mill experienced a rapid succession of operators during those years. The mill itself is a three-story, rectangular, brick structure capped with a combination gambrel-jerkinhead roof. It is built on a limestone foundation. A corbelled brick frieze with a dentil pattern and a corbelled cornice follows the eaves line around the building. The cornice is partly returned at each corner. A Gothic gable dormer with a tall arched window is centered on each side of the roof. Its founding and operation is associated with the German population of the village, which may also explain the high degree of craftsmanship and the attention to decorative details found on the building.

John McGreer Barn and Crib are a historic building (barn) and structure (corn crib) located in rural Harrison Township, Lee County, Iowa, United States. They are located on a farm northwest of the town of Donnellson. The agricultural buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. The barn was built in 1884 in the Pennsylvania barn style. It measures 76 by 48 feet (23 by 15 m), and features a cupola on top. While the basement level, composed of rubble limestone walls, is banked into a slight slope, it is largely exposed all-around. The upper portions of the barn are covered with vertical board-and-batten siding. A pole shed has been added off of the back of the building. The corn crib is located west of the barn. The 32-by-26-foot (9.8 by 7.9 m) structure was built around the same time as the barn. It is also banked into the same slope. Like the barn, it has a rubble limestone basement, board-and-batten siding on the upper level, and a round arch window in its front gable end. The barn and corn crib were two of 13 extant buildings at the time of their nomination on the former John and Julia McGreer farmstead. The farm itself had been established in 1837 by John's parents Alexander and Jane McGreer. The extant farm buildings are largely from John McGreer's ownership. They are historically significant for their association with his "large and prosperous livestock operation."

Harrison Township is a township in Lee County, Iowa. The unincorporated community of Primrose lies within the township.

Shimek State Forest is an Iowa state forest maintained by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Its five units are strung along the Des Moines River a few miles above its confluence with the Upper Mississippi River in Lee and Van Buren Counties in the southeast corner of Iowa. Its 9,148 acres (37 km2) contain one of the largest remaining contiguous forests in the state with large stands of mixed oak-hickory forest with about 1,000 acres (4 km²) of planted pine. The Farmington (2,207 acres (9 km2)), Lick Creek (2,866 acres (12 km2)), Donnellson (1,330 acres (5 km2)) and Croton (1,827 acres (7 km2)) units are near Farmington, where the Iowa Bureau of Forestry administrative office is located. The Keosauqua (918 acres (3.7 km2)) unit is upriver, opposite Keosauqua and adjoins Lacey-Keosauqua State Park and wildlife management areas. The Croton unit is near the site of the Battle of Athens, the most northerly battle of the Civil War, and the only one fought (in part) in Iowa. The forest has extensive recreational facilities. Campgrounds, fishing, hunting, hiking trails, horseback riding trails and equine facilities are offered. Its earliest development was by the Civilian Conservation Corps on exhausted, abandoned farmland. In 1950 it was named for Dr. Bohumil Shimek, a Czech-American naturalist, conservationist, and university professor at the State University of Iowa.

Donnellson ( DON-əl-sən) is a city in Lee County, Iowa, United States. The population was 885 at the time of the 2020 census. It is part of the Fort Madison-Keokuk Micropolitan Statistica Area.

Van Buren Township is a township in Lee County, Iowa.

Franklin Township is a township in Lee County, Iowa, in the United States.

Croton is an unincorporated community in southwestern Lee County, Iowa, United States. The Des Moines River flows past the southwest side of the community along the Iowa-Missouri border.

Farmington is a city in Van Buren County, Iowa, United States. The population was 579 at the time of the 2020 census.

The Battle of Athens was an American Civil War skirmish that took place in northeast Missouri in 1861 near present-day Revere and southeast Iowa along the Des Moines River across from Croton (3 miles southeast of Farmington). The Union victory has the distinction of being the most northerly of Civil War Battles fought west of the Mississippi, and also of being the only such battle fought along the Iowa border.

Battle of Athens State Historic Site is an historic battlefield and state park located in Clark County, Missouri, along the banks of the Des Moines River. It is the site of the Battle of Athens, fought in 1861 during the American Civil War. The site serves as an open-air museum interpreting the battle and its aftermath. It is one of the northernmost places in the state.

The Burg Wagon Works Building is a historic building located in Farmington, Iowa, United States. A native of Bavaria, Lewis Burg settled in Burlington, Iowa 1853 where he joined his brother John's wagon works. He moved to Farmington and set up his own shop in 1865. He had this two-story stone building constructed from 1867 to 1868. By 1869 he had competition in town, but he maintained the largest shop nearly doubling his production in the next ten years. Burg sold the building in 1892, and is thought to have moved to Dallas City, Illinois to manufacture automobiles. The building has been used for a variety of purposes over the years. Apartments were built on the second floor around the turn of the 20th-century. The first floor has housed different mercantile businesses. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.