Rasmussen Blacksmith Shop & Museum
Overview
The Rasmussen Blacksmith Shop is an authentic preservation of a turn of the century working shop.Contact Information
300 North Main StreetLewistown, Illinois 61542
United States
Description
There are only a very few blacksmith shop museums in the entire country, and most have been devised and placed inside museum buildings or within reconstructed pioneer or Colonial villages. The Rasmussen Blacksmith Shop Museum in Lewistown is a notable exception to this trend. It is located right on Main Street. The blacksmith shop was built in 1836 and was owned by a John McFall. Nels Rasmussen worked for him and in 1888 bought the shop whole and it stayed in the family until 1969 when Don W Rasmussen,the last blacksmith died and has occupied that location since 1893 when it was founded by Nels. It was, at that time, the oldest operating proprietorship in Lewistown still in the same family. The shop was acquired shortly after by the Lewistown Society for Historical Preservation.