Turkey River Mall celebrates 20 years on Elkader’s Main Street

By Willis Patenaude 

There is a little jingle as you turn the doorknob and enter the Turkey River Mall. The business is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2024, as a mainstay of downtown Elkader on a corner of Main Street. 

The Mall, like the building which dates back to 1897, has been a fixture in the community since it was purchased by Becky Dietzler in 2000. Becky herself is a fixture, sitting in her chair behind the counter, either typing away or fully engaged with customers. 

There are other fixtures as well, as you step into the building and onto the original floor, walk past a staircase that leads to the basement on the left and a coffee pot on the right—for customers to grab a cup of Joe if they’d like. In front of you sits the original staircase leading to three floors of treasures and trinkets. 

To the left, past Becky and her welcoming smile, is a room that, at one time, was a barber shop but is now filled with a passion of hers: rocks, minerals and fossils. Somewhere in the building is husband Tim, who is usually banned to the basement, they joked, tucked away doing woodwork. When he’s not, you can find him sitting behind Becky, there for occasional chit chat and some color commentary when the moment calls for it.  

Many rooms of the Turkey River Mall used to be something else over the years: a cafe, fountain shop, pizza place,  drug store and, of course, hotel rooms. Today, they have been converted into vendor stalls for myriad antiques, gifts, collectibles, home décor items, books, clocks and cards. Basically, anything you could imagine is probably for sale in one of the 60 vendor rooms containing hundreds of thousands of items. 

But before any of that became a reality, the building underwent some remodeling, like hooking up a DSL computer system, a phone system, over 1,500 pieces of sheetrock, 72 new windows, all new wiring, plumbing and light fixtures, and, as Becky described it, “countless hours of stripping paint off the painted wood.” Add in refinishing the floors, peeling wallpaper that was six layers deep in some places and one thumb injury that required stitches and you had a building ready for office spaces, which was the original intention. 

As it turns out, there was no real demand for office space, so a course reversal was in order, but at the time, an alternative idea wasn’t presenting itself. That is, until Becky visited the now closed Schoolhouse Mall in Marquette, which inspired her to ask, “Why can’t I do that?” 

That’s what she set out to do, by going to a craft show in Dubuque and collecting a stack of business cards. Becky went home and started making phone calls and reaching out to see if vendors would be interested in selling at the Turkey River Mall. From there, everything snowballed to the point that, still today, a waiting list exists for vendors trying to get into a room. 

“The timing was right,” Becky said.

Even though Becky had minimal expectations in July of 2004, while taking a “let’s see what happens” approach, one thing always remained constant: retaining the legacy of the building, something accomplished through putting the woodwork back to what it was, keeping the architecture and not destroying the building to turn it into a parking lot or bank. 

Instead, the focus was on “breathing new life into its rooms,” something the Dietzlers believe they have done with quality vendors and a diverse array of products that has attracted close to an estimated 326,000 visitors since 2005. 

That diversity of products has seen some changes in the last two decades, as the tastes of the visitors have changed. Antiques aren’t as popular as they once were, whereas collectibles have always been a big seller. Then there are the fads that come and go, like primitive style barn art, shabby chic furniture and Billy Jacobs prints. New trends are trivets, rugs and Pokémon cards and, of course, nostalgia is always popular. The Turkey River Mall attracts visitors from all over the United States, from New Jersey to Texas, and even across the oceans to Germany and Japan. 

One thing that hasn’t changed is Becky being behind the counter, or the blood, sweat and tears she’s devoted to the building over 24 years. When she was missing for four weeks due to a surgery, everyone asked “Where’s Becky?” It shows a relationship with customers that is based on genuineness, probably because Becky is one of the most genuine and authentic people you will ever meet. It’s also why there is a waiting list, several vendors who have been in the building since it began and one of the reasons the store withstood the 19-month Keystone Bridge saga. 

Then there is the store, with its staircase leading you across the threshold of time, back to distant places and through experiences. You can hear the soft creaks of the floorboards and the squeaking of shoes, adding a soundtrack to the quiet ambiance. It’s a hodgepodge of history, intermingled with modernity down a maze of hallways that lead to an endless selection of rooms where you can get lost just looking. If you listen closely, you will hear Becky, talking and laughing with a customer, or walk past another visitor meandering about, taking in every book, clock and puzzle. 

If you’re really lucky, you might even run into one of the ghosts that supposedly wanders about peacefully. You might even buy something at the end, like a small Bumblebee Jasper rock which happens to be your wife’s favorite, something you didn’t know when you walked it, but something Becky remembered from a conversation three years ago. You will also learn about the flashes of blue or sometimes purple in a piece of Labradorite, which was something else I didn’t know about rocks before I entered through the jingling door for what felt like ages ago. 

Though the Turkey River Mall is mostly a place with a plethora of unique, and often charming, things to buy, from rocks to pictures and from cards to clothes, there was one particular room in which I walked, with all four KISS action figures hanging on the wall. As I stood admiring the collection, I was transported back in time, into the seat of a 1988 Ford Ranger listening to Paul Stanley’s voice on a cassette tape echo through the cab, singing “Rock and Roll All Nite” on the way home from Windy Hill Farm with my late dad. 

So, while you can buy many things at the Turkey River Mall, walking through the building will also give you something money can’t buy: memories.