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BENTONSPORT – Chuck Hanson set an ambitious goal for this year’s Villages of Van Buren Scenic Drive Festival: to make 1,000 pounds of fudge.

Hanson and his wife Joy owned the Mason House Inn Bed & Breakfast in Bentonsport from 2001 until they sold it last October to Fe and Chris Pope. Every autumn during the Scenic Drive Festival, Hanson made fudge and sold it at a low price, just enough to cover his costs. He said the point was to get people through the door so they could see the beauty of the inn and want to return to spend the night.

“People come for the fudge, and they fall in love with the place and come back as guests,” he said.

The first year that Hanson started making fudge was 2007.

“We did a few simple flavors, and we didn’t know if we would be successful because it hadn’t been done down here,” Hanson said. “I don’t do it as a money-maker. I do it for fun, and to see people’s reaction to the flavors.”

In the last few years, Hanson has upped his game. He started making bigger and bigger batches of fudge. He made an enormous batch of 500 pounds, then last year broke that record by making 640 pounds. But that wasn’t enough. Hanson wanted to do more. This year, he pulled out all the stops and made 1,000 pounds of fudge.

This endeavor took nine days and required 101 pans. Hanson said it went quicker than he expected, since he guessed it would take 11 days. He said it felt good to finish two days early.

“That gave me a chance to rest,” he joked.

Hanson made 62 flavors, about 20 of which were brand new this year and suggested by his grandkids. Sometimes a customer asks why he doesn’t have a flavor, and he tells them he’ll get to work on it and have it ready for next year.

“I spent the summer trying to figure out how to make new flavors,” he said. “For example, Neapolitan and Chocolate Sundae, how do you make those? We’ve never done multiple flavors.”

Hanson said his best-selling flavors are maple walnut and chocolate walnut. He also has one called “Just Chocolate,” which is exactly like it sounds after so many customers requested a purely chocolate fudge.

Though Chuck and Joy no longer owned the inn, the new owners invited them to host their fudge sales there. Hanson said it took three carloads to transport all the fudge to the inn.

Despite the unusually warm weather for October, the crowd in Bentonsport was not as large as Hanson expected. He thought he might sell out by the end of the day Saturday, Oct. 12, but even after Sunday, he still had 500 pounds left. He’s donating what remains.

“A lot of it is going to the VA, and I’ll take some to banks, and the drive-by ladies are taking a bunch home for Christmas,” said Hanson, referring to the committee he belongs to that organizes the Drive-By Suppers at First Lutheran Church in Fairfield.

Hanson said the new owners of the Mason House Inn have already told him they want him, and his fudge, back for next year’s Scenic Drive Festival. Hanson said he’s glad the tradition will continue, and he wants to do what he can to promote the inn. He and Joy sold it to the Popes last October because it was getting too hard to keep up with the maintenance. Hanson said he broke his neck, and was no longer allowed to climb ladders.

“We saw it was time to turn it over to younger people,” he said. “It was the toughest decision we ever made. We turned a lot of offers down until we found people who would do it for the right reasons.”

Hanson is not a native of Southeast Iowa. He grew up in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, and was in the U.S. Air Force for 25 years. In 2000, he and Joy went on a three-week road trip across the country in search of a bed and breakfast to buy. On the way home from California, they discovered the Mason House Inn in Bentonsport. The inn was built in 1846, before Iowa was even a state. It’s full of history, having been a stop on the Underground Railroad and serving as a field hospital during the Civil War.

Chuck and Joy stopped for a visit, but the owner was too busy to show them around.

“It haunted me, so three weeks later we came back as guests,” Hanson said.

He and Joy decided to buy the building, and acquired it in 2001. They at least wanted to try running a bed and breakfast. If it didn’t work out, they could always move on.

“We ended up doing it for 22 years,” Hanson said.