By Jason Sethre Publisher Fillmore County Journal jason@fillmorecountyjournal.com Like many families in this area, our ancestors settled in this region in the early 1850s.  Our ancestors migrated from Eidsvoll, Norway, to make a home for themselves in Amherst Township in 1854. Today, David and Lori Bakke live on the family farm that was the Sethre family farm from 1854 … [Read more...]

To the Editor, Summertime is budgeting time for local governments.   With all of the requests, it can be tempting to cut library budgets in favor of budgets for emergency services like fire and ambulance. That’s a false choice. Yes, in case of the rare emergency, we need to have trained people show up with their equipment to help us.  We pay taxes to meet that community … [Read more...]

By Stan Gudmuncson Peterson, MN When the Air Force retired the SR-71s in late 1989, Congress required that there be a follow-on replacement.  Sure enough, the Air Force brass said and we’ve even identified the first Air Force pilot to fly that aircraft.  He was the pilot I was flying SR-71s with.  Because the follow-on wasn’t anything like the SR-71 and much more like the … [Read more...]

To the Editor, I read with interest Lee Epps; article “St. Paul Newspaper Features Brownsville “Coldness,” Twice.” I heard about this phenomenon years ago. The formation is called an algific tallus slope. It is very rare – found only in the Driftless Region of southeastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa, southwestern Wisconsin and northeastern Illinois. Plus, they’ve found a … [Read more...]

To the Editor, Well, Saturday the 6th of July was a beautiful day, and having finished mowing the lawn, I came in to spend some quiet time with The Fillmore County Journal.  Nancy Earnhardt’s commentary piece caught my eye, and like Ms. Earnhardt, I felt obliged to respond. As a shepherd of some 40-plus years, I very much appreciated Ms. Earnhardt’s comments about the … [Read more...]

To the Editor, Thank you for running the Warner Bros. Studios photo and the 2014 caption in your “Pages from the Past“ section. Congratulations, as well, on the much-appreciated variety of articles enjoyed in your Fillmore County Journal. Seeing the photo again, I’m reminded that both celebrated actresses pictured were major players in the waning years of Hollywood’s … [Read more...]

To the Editor, I feel the need to share an awareness regarding the United States Postal Service. If we are depending on a postmark as proof of a mailing date, we need to realize that our local post offices are not postmarking our outgoing mail. They get postmarked at a distribution center in a bigger city. Ours probably get marked in Minneapolis or St. Paul. The problem is … [Read more...]

By Dan Wilson Rushford, MN I love the cultural and civic institutions that make our rural communities such a great place to live. From the post office, to restaurants, the county fair, local stores, to public schools, public libraries, and our newspaper. These institutions make our social lives richer. So, it was with great interest that I watched an editorial back-and-forth … [Read more...]

By Aaron Bishop Harmony, MN In the previous week’s commentary, many opinions and several falsehoods were expressed. Since I hold the view that everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts, let’s delve into one particular falsehood that I’ll, perhaps naively, consider as the foundation for the overall sentiment: “Nature proves that sex was intended to … [Read more...]

By Nancy S. Earnhardt, Rushford MN June 10 was a lovely evening, and I would have loved to be anywhere else as well. I appreciate your well delivered letter and I agree wholeheartedly with you concerning censoring information. Trust me, I have experienced that firsthand, especially in the last four years. Heaven knows censoring is nothing new to this world. Even now, I … [Read more...]