Less than 50 years after the Civil War, and just about 50 years before the Civil Rights Act, the small coal-mining town of Buxton, Iowa, became a model community where racial integration and equal pay for equal work were the accepted policy. Buxton Roots is the most complete set of Buxton records in existence, illustrated with dozens of photos the town.

Built in 1857, Mars Hill is the oldest log cabin church still in use in the nation. It is also one of the largest log buildings to have been constructed in Iowa. Though it is now an interdenominational chapel, it has been called the mother church of all Baptist faiths west of the Mississippi River. Severely damaged by an arson fire in 2006, Mars Hill has been rebuilt with original and period materials.