The signs that fall is just around the corner. Leaves are beginning to change colors, fall is in the air, and the Hesper-Mabel Steam Engine Days are days away. Hesper-Mabel Steam Engine Days is celebrating 70 years, September 8-11. Steam Engine Days is an opportunity to step back and experience farming as it was done in the early 1900s with the giant steam engines. Visitors … [Read more...]
SEMAC awards arts grants
On August 16, 2021, the Board of Directors of the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council (SEMAC) awarded fifteen individual artist grants for a total of $59,000 in funding to applicants throughout southeastern Minnesota. This included eight grants to emerging artists for $24,000, and seven grants to advancing artists for $35,000. SEMAC is the State Arts Board-designated … [Read more...]
A tasty tradition
Fall in Bluff County provides the perfect weather to enjoy a leisurely bike ride or walk on the scenic Root River State Trail and the Harmony-Preston Valley State Trail. The paved trails wind their way from one town to the next. The Taste of the Trail offers visitors the opportunity to sample all the scenic river valley has to offer – vistas, limestone bluff formations outdoor … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past Few “flamboozles,” but there were velvet capes
They thought the valley the “grandest spot on Earth, their home without an equal in the land and which they would not exchange for any other in all Christendom.” That grand valley was Yucatan Valley in Houston County, Minn., as described by Capt. Samuel B. McIntire. McIntire (1838-1917) was the first Minnesotan appointed to West Point. Graduating in 1862, he was thrust into … [Read more...]
One Moment, Please… The end of Elmer’s Auto & Toy Museum
For a number of years, I’ve been walking into Preston Service Plus and noticing a small stack of brochures resting on the front counter. The first time I saw one of the brochures for Elmer’s Auto & Toy Museum, I asked Preston Service Plus owners Craig Bond and Justin Jones about this place. They raved about it, and I have to say I truly didn’t comprehend their … [Read more...]
Reconciling father’s heartbreaking past through the presence of others A voice told me to “ease his pain”
By Lori Sims A string of coincidences and chance meetings provided a pathway to the past and helped understand the present. This is a family story that began last summer and blossomed into a siblings’ reunion here in July. Last year my husband Vern and I visited Lanesboro mainly for the Root River Bike Trail, and discovered it came with magnificent bluffs, great beer, … [Read more...]
Back to country school
With all the hype about back to school — the sales, the “necessities,” the preparation — you might wonder what school was like in the simpler times of the old country school. The following people were willing to share their memories of their country schools: Kathy Eide, Wilton Center near Harmony; Audrey Cremer, Florenceville in Iowa and Granger in Minnesota; Georgia … [Read more...]
The man who saved a billion lives
Celebrate the rich life of Norman Borlaug, the man who saved a billion lives, at the Norman Borlaug Harvest Fest in Cresco, Iowa, Friday, August 26 through Sunday, August 28. Join fellow ag enthusiasts on Saturday for tours of the Borlaug family farm. Wander the farm sites searching for over 10 geocaches as you explore the 1915 restored barn, country schoolhouse, and the … [Read more...]
Field of Flags acknowledges emergency responders’ PTSD battle
Researchers studying Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are constantly evaluating the powerful way a tragic memory is defined in time and how physical triggers can instantly draw a person into that memory. The event - usually a terrifying one – which is experienced or witnessed can bring symptoms including nightmares, flashbacks and severe anxiety. Jenny Czapiewski and … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past Enjoyment, surely some romance, on Sunday afternoons
Part one of a series It was before television, movies and even radio. There were not yet competitive sports. It was the late 1880s and 1890s near Hokah, Minn., which had been settled by those with European heritage in 1849. Many young folks comprised their family’s first generation to be born in North America. There were very few traveling entertainers that came to Hokah - a … [Read more...]