Amber Lodge history traces back to vanished Pottawattamie County community of Quick

A Masonic lodge that once stood along Highway 6 east of Council Bluffs can trace its history to the vanished community of Quick, Iowa, and a group of rural Masons who wanted a meeting place closer to home more than 120 years ago.

Fred Gach, a member of Cobia Lodge No. 631 in Council Bluffs since 1980 and a former dual member of Cobia and Amber lodges, began researching Amber Lodge after being asked about its history. Much of what he found came from materials preserved in a time capsule and later stored in the Masonic archives in Council Bluffs. “I found the time capsule, and it was a treasure trove of information on Amber Lodge,” Gach said. “I discovered that the lodge was basically joined at the hip with the Township of Quick, Iowa.”

Quick developed after Elias J. Quick and his family became established in the area east of Council Bluffs during the late 1800s. By 1898, Quick had opened a store near what is now the intersection of Highway 6 and County Road L52. Several Masons were already living in the surrounding countryside, but without a nearby lodge they traveled about 17 miles by horse and buggy to Coral Lodge No. 430 in Carson.

The rural Masons eventually arranged to use the upstairs of Quick’s store as a meeting place and began working toward establishing their own lodge. An initial petition to the Grand Lodge of Iowa in 1899 did not result in the lodge being formed, but a renewed request the following year was successful. Dispensation was granted July 1, 1900, allowing the group to organize what became Amber Lodge.

Amber Lodge began with 15 members, including 13 who had previously belonged to the Carson lodge. Its first official meeting was held in July 1901. Members continued meeting above the store during the lodge’s early years, carrying wood upstairs for heat and using gas lamps for light. Initiation was set at $20 and annual dues at $3, amounts that represented a significant expense at the beginning of the 20th century.

The future of Quick changed when the railroad bypassed the settlement. The store and post office eventually moved away, and the community gradually disappeared, but Amber Lodge remained. The Masons purchased the building and continued using it as their home even after much of the community that had surrounded it was gone.

The lodge continued to grow and reached 100 members by 1919. Another 17 joined during 1920, and membership eventually reached a high of 162 in 1931. Gach said that number is especially striking considering Amber Lodge served a largely rural population and Council Bluffs already had Masonic lodges of its own. “It is phenomenal,” he noted. “Even by today’s standards, very few lodges have 160 people in the state of Iowa.”

Membership declined during the Depression, and the original building continued to age. By the early 1980s, lodge members began considering construction of a replacement and formed a committee to determine whether the project could be completed. Approximately $40,000 was raised, while much of the labor and some of the building materials were donated by members and supporters.

The new Amber Lodge building was completed in May 1983. The following month, Iowa Grand Master Norval P. Marks came to the area for a cornerstone ceremony, and the time capsule that later provided much of the historical information was placed in the building. Amber Lodge later merged with Agate Lodge No. 423 of Neola in 1989, the same year Agate reached its 100th anniversary. Amber continued operating until September 2020, when it merged with Cobia Lodge No. 631 in Council Bluffs.

The merger did not end Amber Lodge’s connection to rural Pottawattamie County. Its remaining assets were placed into an Amber Fund at Cobia and designated for projects benefiting rural communities. Gach said preserving that connection was important because Amber Lodge had been built and supported largely by farmers and residents of the smaller communities east of Council Bluffs. “It’s not done in vain, it’s remembered,” he explained. “It’s money spent in the rural communities.”

That legacy continues through projects supported by Cobia Lodge, including work connected with Project Lifesaver in Underwood. Gach sees those efforts as a continuation of the community service that began with the men who established Amber Lodge more than a century ago. “I think in my mind it’s a tribute and an honor to the guys that built the new building and, of course, the ones that first established Amber Lodge,” he said.