Swanson retires after 20 years at Wallace Farm

What began as a side job for Lisa Swanson of Orient at the Wallace Farm, formerly known as the Country Life Center, turned into a 20-year career there.

Her time at the farm ended recently with her retirement as Site Manager. She says she’s excited to take on several things with her new-found free time, such as taking better care of her own garden and traveling more.

“When I first started there in 2003, I was the sign language interpreter for a student at SWCC. I was to have another student come in that fall and I decided I needed a job during the summer. I went out and started at the farm,” Swanson said. “I started as seasonal help in the garden, planting, harvesting and pulling lots of weeds. The student I was to start with that fall did not end up going to SWCC, so then I started working at the school in Orient as a para and every summer I’d go back. Every year I’d work a little longer into the fall.”

Then one fall, Swanson stayed at the farm and her love for the place only grew stronger.

“It finally became a full-time job, I guess,” Swanson said. As she went, Swanson became more of a coordinator for visitors of all kinds, including many bus tours.

According to its website, The Wallace Farm is the birthplace farm of Henry A. Wallace, born in 1888. He served the nation as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture from 1933-1941, U.S. Vice President from 1941-1945, and U.S. Secretary of Commerce from 1945-1946.

Earlier in his career, Wallace founded seed corn company Pioneer Hi-Bred in 1926 and was an editor at Wallaces’ Farmer magazine. In 1999, The Des Moines Register named Wallace the “Most Influential Iowan of the 20th Century.”

By many accounts, Wallace is Adair County’s most famous native. Swanson viewed the Wallace Farm as a great place to work and a chance for her to connect with her love for the outdoors and history.

“I’m not a real big ‘sit behind a desk’ type person, so I like to have a variety of things going on. I would go to work thinking I knew what I was going to do that day, but at the end of the day, you hadn’t done any of it because something came up or visitors had stopped,” Swanson said. “It was always changing so you had to be very flexible”

Swanson wishes more people would discover all that the Wallace Farm has to offer, such as a walk on the paririe with a phone or audio tour, or the many events that are held there.

“We have something for everyone. It’s such a calming, unique place that everyone should visit,” Swanson said. “It is a very calming, quiet place for people to just come out, relax and get away from the stresses of everyday life.”