Wing
Britt and Today
Tourist Union No. 63, the National Hobo Convention, the museum in Britt—and a careful look at rail safety today.
Britt, Iowa, did not invent the hobo gathering. Tourist Union No. 63 and earlier conventions already mixed reunion, publicity, and mutual recognition; Britt became the lasting Midwestern stage. Each August the National Hobo Convention draws kings and queens, jungles rebuilt for visitors, and a town that has woven the road into local heritage. Nearby, a museum and cemetery keep names that freights never catalogued.
This wing separates celebration from instruction. Tourist Union No. 63 explains why Britt stuck as the gathering place. Britt today walks museum, jungle, and living tradition as heritage. Then and now compares historic riding with present rail safety—trespassing remains illegal and deadly—and refuses to turn history into a boarding guide. The museum’s last word is memory with guardrails: honor the culture, cite the sources, and leave the live rail alone.
Arrive here after the other wings if you can. The Road, People, Culture, and Movements rooms supply the labor and lore Britt commemorates; this wing asks how a town and a tourist union kept that memory public without pretending the yards of 1915 are still open ground. Heritage is welcome. Illegal boarding is not the lesson.
Tourist Union No. 63
Why Britt, Iowa, became the National Hobo Convention’s home—and how Tourist Union No. 63 framed the gathering.
02Britt today
Museum, cemetery, jungle, and living heritage in a town that still hosts the August convention.
03Then and now
Historic riding beside modern rail safety—memory without encouraging illegal boarding.