Photo belongs to the City of Adel

There will be a program educating people about prominent leaders that are laid to rest in the Adel community happening on Monday.

The Oakdale Cemetery will host a walking tour to learn about the lives of Adel’s early town leaders. According to Co-Organizer Dave Sande, the event originated in 1997 for Adel’s sesquicentennial with Steve Straight and Kelly Daugherty did research on the town’s leaders who had passed away, then created a tour to share the history with others. 

Sande says that in 2022, for Adel’s 175th anniversary, his wife Nanci and him decided to do a new tour. Dave details that people were asking about doing more tours in the future, and after years of being busy, Dave and Nanci found some free time to host one in 2025. Dave gives a glimpse of some of the popular names that will be on the tour.

“Benjamin Greene, Adel’s got Greene Street. Benjamin and his wife had a daughter Arleta, who married a guy named George Washington Clark, who became the Governor of the state of Iowa in 1912. And they had a daughter named Francis, who married a guy named William Kinnick. William had a son named Nile (Kinnick) Senior, and they had Nile (Kinnick) Junior. Nile (Kinnick) Junior is the Heisman Trophy winner.”

Dave states that the tour will last about an hour, and if people don’t want to walk, they are allowed to bring golf carts to ride along in. He confirms that it doesn’t cost anything to participate and people are welcome to show up without registering beforehand. The event is taking place at the Oakdale Cemetery on Monday at 6pm.