Beginning with a test run at Iola’s Ingval Olson Memorial Park on Sunday, August 27, 1972, an Old Cars newspaper promotion tied to an Iola Lions Club pork roast grew into IOLA, a widely known event for car enthusiasts of all ages and interests. Chet Krause offered two free tickets for plated servings to collectors who arrived in favorite vintage cars, and letters sent to roughly 50 area collectors brought about a 22-car turnout. In 1973, an Antique Auto Festival was added to the Iola Lions Club Chicken Roast, an event that had originated in 1956, and in 1975 it was first billed as an Old Car Festival. The collector car display grew to 92 vehicles in 1973, when 1,100 chicken dinners were served. In 1976, the Chicken Roast became subordinate to the Iola Old Car Show, and the fourth annual event, held on Sunday, July 11, 1976, had outgrown the original village park and moved to the present grounds, where it drew 550 show cars, 100 vendor stalls, and an estimated 10,000 attendees. After that, the event expanded rapidly and became a major annual undertaking that put Iola on the map. By Iola ’85, it had been spun off as a nonprofit community organization and, as a two-day event, featured upwards of 3,000 show cars, 1,700 vendor spaces, 5,500 chicken dinners, and 85,000 attendees, who consumed more than 40,000 brats and hot dogs and 3,500 cases of beer and soda. Along with Krause Publications and the Iola Lions Club, volunteer crews from the Iola, Scandinavia, and Ogdensburg fire departments, the American Legion post, the Iola-Scandinavia Jaycees chapter, and about 20 local and area organizations supported the event. Its financial growth was also dramatic: Iola ’85 revenue reached $347,000, with $125,000 divided among the core organizations providing 10,000 volunteer hours. Over its half-century existence, profit distributions to organizations exceeded $9 million, usually with annual payouts of $210,000 to $225,000, and a 2022 economic impact analysis estimated a regional impact of $25 to $30 million, including $22 to $27 million from visitor spending.