[ Mid-tempo music plays ] Kohlsdorf: Thirty miles south of Mason City, Hampton is home to two plots of rural history -- the REA Power Plant Museum and the Franklin County Courthouse.

[ Music continues ] The Rural Electric Administration Power Plant Museum was the first plant west of the Mississippi River to generate electricity for rural areas, bringing power to the homes and barns of northern Iowa, beginning in 1938.

This was one of the first plants that was financed by the Rural Electric Administration.

In fact, it was the third one built.

Well, inside we've got the original motor and generator still installed.

We've got a bunch of appliances and stuff that was used before electricity, just to show people what life was like.

[ Music continues ] The Rural Electrification Administration totally revolutionized living out in the country.

Now they could get power.

Kohlsdorf: The Franklin County Courthouse, built in 1891, sits tall in the center of the city.

It's capped with a domed clock tower and statue of Lady Justice.

It's definitely iconic to Franklin County.

Kohlsdorf: If you stop in, county auditor Katie Flint will give you a tour.

The rotunda is the number-one thing that people like to see, with the Italian marble floor and the super-high ceilings.

I typically also take them up to the second floor, because in the '70s, when it was renovated, the third floor was added for the magistrate court.

[ Music continues ] You can still see the original woodwork of the super-tall windows and things like that.

This is actually the third courthouse that Franklin County has had.

The original one was on the southeast corner of the same property.

The second one was built in the exact same spot.

It was a two-story courthouse, but it was condemned after only 23 years.

And then this one was built, and it's been the courthouse ever since.

[ Music ends ]