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Summer fun is here in the Fort Dodge area

The long days of summer are upon us, with seemingly endless hours of daylight to be enjoyed. In fact, at least on weekends, you might as well call them the long, lazy days of summer. Locally, there will be plenty of things to do on those on summer weekends. Consider this upcoming weekend. Lehigh River Days is back, led by an all new organizing committee determined to inject a fresh sense of excitement and vibrancy into the yearly festival. It will include some traditional staples of years past, such as the log rolling contest. That consists of people standing on a log in a four foot ...

Exciting developments coming in Gowrie

Members of the Gowrie Development Commission like to talk about “putting the go in Gowrie.” Now that commission, in partnership with other agencies and private businesses, is doing just that. There are some exciting things going on in this southern Webster County city that people throughout the area ought to take note of. After years, perhaps decades, of not having enough housing stock to welcome new families to town, things are now changing quickly on that front. Five new homes are under construction along Sunrise Drive on the city’s east side. In a city of about 1,000 ...

Frontier Days 2024 to kick off summer

This weekend there will be a sure sign that the summer season is truly at hand. What is that sign? Frontier Days 2024, of course. Frontier Days is the annual Fort Dodge event that draws thousands to the downtown parade and the Fort Museum and Frontier Village. The gates open at the Fort Museum and Frontier Village at 4 p.m. Friday and the excitement and entertainment will commence soon after. The three-day festival continues a Fort Dodge tradition that is returning with a theme this year of “How the West Was One.” Not content to rest on applause for past glories, organizers ...

Take the time to remember

Monday is Memorial Day. For many people, it is a time to welcome the summer season by taking advantage of a three-day holiday weekend to spend time relaxing with friends and family. It is important, however, not to forget what this day is truly about. Beginning soon after the Civil War, a day in May was set aside as a time to decorate with flowers the graves of the war dead. The original stimulus for this day came from the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union Army Civil War veterans. For many years it was called Decoration Day. Honoring those who gave their lives in ...

Brushy Creek Area Honor Flight is back

When a 737 roars into the sky above Fort Dodge Regional Airport just as the sun begins to brighten the horizon this morning, one of the most unique and heartfelt tributes to area veterans will be back in action. There will be 122 veterans aboard that plane. Five of them served in the Korean War, 107 served during the Vietnam War era and 10 served in peacetime. They will all be going to Washington, D.C., for free to see the nation’s war memorials. The trip will be the 25th one conducted by the Brushy Creek Area Honor Flight. The first took place in 2010. Since then, about 3,500 ...

It’s time to honor emergency medical service providers

In Webster County and all across America, teams of dedicated professionals stand ready to render medical assistance in emergencies. For some this is their career. For many others, it is a volunteer undertaking that is performed in addition to their normal employment. It’s impossible to overstate how important emergency medical service (EMS) personnel can be to just about any of us in a moment when knowledgeable help is needed fast. Honoring the men and women who handle this vital work is appropriate at all times, but especially so just now. That’s because National EMS Week began ...