In 1988 the book, “Garnavillo Iowa, Gem of the Prairie,“ was published under the Garnavillo Historical Society, Arnold and Laverne Roggman of Garnavillo (both now deceased) organized information compiled from many sources and authored the well-written history of Garnavillo dating from 10,000 B.C. to 1876 A.D. Information from historic documents, diaries, letters, newspapers, personal reminiscences and stories available in museum archives, and gathered from the community was reviewed, indexed, and used in the story of Garnavillo. Arnold’s knowledge and experience in archaeology contributed to the chapter on the area’s early prehistoric inhabitants. The 500 page book took the Roggmans two years to write.
In 2025, the last of the original 750 printed copies was sold. The book, which also includes histories of National, Clayton and Ceres, has been a coveted source of history and personal stories of the area. After the sale of the last book, the Garnavillo Historical Society, who holds the copyright on the book, decided to digitize the book to keep it available to the public now and into the future. So, the “Garnavillo Gem of the Prairie“ book is now available, in its entirety, on the Garnavillo Historical Society’s website, www.
Additionally Garnavillo school newsletters from the 1930s were added to the Garnavillo Advantage Preservation web link. And, the Clayton Ridge School District has digitized the Garnavillo School annuals (Garnavillo Hawk) from 1949 – 2001. They can be viewed on the Clayton Ridge Community School’s website: www.claytonridgeschools.com, under the “Memory Vault.” Scroll down to “Eagle Pride” and select “Yearbooks.”