♪♪ In Northern Tama County, on display cases filled to capacity, sits a unique collection of kitchen utensils that has shaken up the town for nearly eight decades.

Young: Ruth Rasmussen, from here in Traer, started her collection in 1946, and she just kept collecting and kept collecting.

And by the time we showed some interest, she had 15,000 pairs of salt and pepper shakers in her very small house and two small outbuildings behind her house.

And she would show the shakers to anybody who stopped and knocked on her door.

She'd take them out through.

And she was very proud of her collection.

♪♪ Kohlsdorf: Rasmussen bought her first set of shakers in 1946, during a visit to the Brookfield Zoo outside Chicago.

She soon found herself part of a growing community of collectors.

In the 1940s and the 1950s, it was a very popular hobby.

Our grandmothers, our mothers, our aunts, and there were a lot of collectors out there.

They know each other from all over the country.

And they know us now, too, by the way.

[ Chuckles ] Kohlsdorf: By 1973, Rasmussen had acquired 10,000 sets.

In 1987, she was featured in the "Guinness Book of World Records" as owner of the world's largest salt and pepper shaker collection, with close to 13,000 pairs.

In 2007, with Rasmussen in her 80s, the city of Traer agreed to purchase and preserve the famed salt and pepper shakers.

There's just a lot -- lots of fun series.

I didn't know that they had made series of shakers.

And of course, she did.

And when she was collecting, then she would go like heck to, you know, complete a series, and we didn't even really appreciate that until we started working with the collection ourselves.

From 1946 until 2008, she wrote every purchase down.

A description, what she paid for them, when she bought them.

We just were bowed over by her.

♪♪ Kohlsdorf: Averaging close to a thousand annual visitors, Traer Salt and Pepper Shaker Gallery has received travelers from all over the world.

Young: Well, the admission is not huge.

It's a really fun way to spend an hour, and we'll show you a good time here at the Shaker Gallery.

And you can find out a lot more about salt and pepper shakers than you ever wanted to know.

♪♪