The Decorah Hatchery offers a nostalgic journey into time with its main street facilities.
IOWATravel
EssentialIowa
TRAVELLinks
OURTOWNS
Hatchery holds year round appeal
By JAY P. WAGNER / POSTED NOV. 15, 2006
Visiting the Decorah Hatchery from March to mid-July is like stepping back in time.
For four months each year, the Decorah Hatchery incubates 200,000 eggs and sells the chicks across northeast Iowa, northwest Wisconsin and southeast Minnesota. Then the Steve and Peg Matter clear out most of the hatchery equipment, clean up the place and convert the space into a fun and funky clothing store, specializing in winter gear for the outdoor enthusiast.
The Matter family has owned and
 | ||||
hatchery logo which reads: “Another Quality Chick from the Decorah Hatchery.”
The Matters also carry an assortment of more than 700 stocking caps during the winter months – one of each kind from several manufacturers – so that local customers will never show up for a sledding party only to discover that, horror of horrors, another person is wearing the same cap.
“I like to send them out the door with their own hat,” Peg says.
If you’re a trout fishing enthusiast and forgot a piece of gear, you might be able to find what you’re looking for here. And be sure to ask Steve Matter for tips on hot spots for catching trout.
But more than a retail outlet, the hatchery also offers a bit of nostalgia for people who remember the day when there was a place on main street that sold baby chicks. There was a time, Peg says, when five hatcheries competed in Decorah alone. Until the 1950s and 1960s, most every farm raised chickens – as well as pigs and cows – as a way to feed the family. With the invention of the automobile, the creation of a system of good roads, and the advent of big, shiny grocery stores, many farmers could buy most of their food in town and concentrate on growing crops and livestock for sale.
A big customer base for the hatchery is the growing Amish community north of Decorah just over the Minnesota line. In an age when business transactions take place over the Internet, Steve still receives hundreds of carefully handwritten orders in the mail from the Amish, takes the time to handwrite a confirmation, and then arranges delivery to their farms.
Peg says a renewed interest in backyard flocks and in truck farming have also helped maintain the business.
But a big reason for the hatchery’s survival is the family’s pluck. Except for the Decorah Hatchery sign on the front of the building and the big egg incubator in the middle of the display area, the uninitiated would have no reason to believe this is nothing but the type of funky clothing store you might find in any bohemian neighborhood in the country.
Peg says it takes about a week in March to transform the hatchery into a full-blown clothing store. The sale of clothing, particularly the “Quality Chick” t-shirts, provides a second revenue stream which helps to preserve the hatchery as a symbol of small town life.
“This is a piece of history and we like to pass it on,” Peg says. “We get a lot of older folks who come in here and say, ‘Oh, I can remember when we raised chickens on the farm and visited the hatchery.”
The Decorah Hatchery is located at 406 W. Water Street in downtown Decorah. The hatchery is open Monday through Saturday. Call (563) 382-4103 or e-mail the Matters at decorahhatchery@gmail.com for more information. Quality Chick t-shirts can be ordered online at http://www.decorahhatchery.com.
• Plan Your Trip With Our List of Attractions
Content Copyright 2006-2007 essentialiowa.com Privacy Policy
operated this hatchery since 1922 when Steve’s grandfather, John, opened the business.
Today, the Decorah Hatchery is one of about a dozen places in Iowa that still produces live chicks. A generation ago, there was a place like the Decorah Hatchery in practically every town in Iowa, during an era when every farm raised a few chickens for the eggs and meat.
Matter founded the Decorah Hatchery 84 years ago and his family has been operating it ever since. His son Roger took it over and then passed it on to Steve and Peg Matter.
Regardless of the time of year, the Matters welcome visitors into the hatchery to poke around (be sure to note how the incubator shelves are converted to display space for sweaters and other clothing during the winter months). This is where you buy one of the most popular souvenirs available in Decorah, the t-shirts with the