Hanlontown Community Club had its beginnings as a Lions club, but in more recent years decided to focus more on community projects and events. The club is an active supporter of Hanlontown's annual Sundown Days and sponsors an annual children's Easter egg hunt, an annual Halloween party and a variety of other community projects. For the Hanlontown Centennial celebrated in 1999, the club constructed a sign identify the town at the intersection of Main Street and State Highway #9.
The club meets the second Monday of each month at the community center in Hanlontown, Iowa. A home cooked meal is shared and a short business meeting is held, but mostly good conversations and lasting friendships result.
Hanlontown Community Club was the sponsor of Steam Threshing Days from 1992 - 1999. The club saw the annual threshing event grow from a few friends getting together to thresh oats one Sunday afternoon to one on the biggest community events in North Iowa.
Steam Threshing Days actually started back in 1949 when John Ruble displayed his 50 HP Case engine at the Freeborn County fair in Albert Lea, Minnesota. The engine, together with its 36" Case separator mate, was used to thresh grain as one of the featured grandstand attractions. Although the engine was stored for several years following the fair, T. M. ("Jim") Ruble together with his brother Richard and several neighbors in the Oakland, Minnesota, area formed a club and started a show that was named Steamerama. The first show was held on the Richard Bergstrom's farm in 1958. The show was moved to the then Bennett brothers woods in Moscow, Minnesota, in 1960. The show continued at this location until 1970, when the last Steamerama show was held.
During the time that Steamerama was active, Jim Ruble, together with his sons, expanded their collection of steam engines and big gas tractors, but after Steamerama, did not display their equipment again until the beginning of Steam Threshing Days.
Steam Threshing Days was started by Jerred Ruble in 1984, and was held on his farm 3 miles south of Hanlontown, Iowa. This year the show will be moving to the Heritage Park of North Iowa site on the south edge of Forest City, Iowa.