Group-Friendly Attractions
Winterset Historic Courthouse Square
Shop the award-winning Winterset Historic Courthouse Square. Let your group eat on their own (we have plenty of restaurants in walking distance) and give them time to shop the over 20 retail/gift shops around the award-winning retail district, including Piece Works Quilt Shop (one of Quilt Sampler’s Top Shops.) The Winterset Retail District won the 2019 Iowa Tourism Award for Outstanding Retail Experience!
Iowa Quilt Museum
Tour the Iowa Quilt Museum, located in the former J.C. Penney building, on the Winterset Historic Courthouse Square. The museum welcomes quilters, quilt lovers, history buffs, and all appreciators of American art and culture. Their mission is to promote appreciation of the American quilt and the art of quilting through displays of quilts and information about quilt history. The museum offers changing exhibits—three to four per year—of American quilts both vintage and new.
- Admission is $6 per person for groups of 20 or more
- Estimated time to tour: 45 mins
John Wayne Birthplace & Museum
Tour the award-winning John Wayne Birthplace & Museum. Since the John Wayne Birthplace Society was established in 1982, more than a million visitors have journeyed to historic Madison County to tour his birthplace home. With the opening in 2015 of the 6,100 square foot museum, visitors now have the opportunity to see the largest diversified exhibit of John Wayne artifacts in existence, including original movie posters, film wardrobe, scripts, contracts, letters, artwork, and sculpture, and even one of his last customized automobiles.
- Your $15 admission fee (for groups of 20 or more) gets you into the museum and his birthplace home (which is located on the same block)
- Estimated time to tour: 1 hour 15 minutes
Madison County Historical Complex
The Madison County Historical Complex is located on 23 picturesque acres in Winterset. The museum houses over 10,000 artifacts of local history, while around the complex 14 buildings (mostly authentic) have been gathered and are open for visitors. These include the Bevington-Kaser House, the Winterset Train Depot, a Zion church, a one-room schoolhouse, a barn full of antique farming equipment, and much, much more.
- Admission is $4 per person for groups of 20 or more
- Estimated time to tour: 1.5-2 hours
The Iowa Theater
The Iowa Theater, Winterset's fully-renovated 1914 single-screen cinema, offers a special short program for groups. The program includes a brief discussion on the theater’s history and renovation, plus a highlight reel of clips from movies made in and about Iowa. Your guests can enjoy freshly popped popcorn and soda during the presentation.
- $10 per person ($6 per person without refreshments)
- Estimated time: 45 minutes
