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Monuments provide lasting honor

As people attending the recent Memorial Day observance at Veterans Memorial Park stepped off the buses they could hardly miss seeing the two newest additions to the site. Standing right next to the parking lot are two new monuments. One honors all those who served in the Korean War. The other honors all those who received the Purple Heart, which is awarded to American service members killed or wounded in action. The Korean War monument features images of the American and South Korean flags and the Korean peninsula. The dates of the fighting – June 25, 1950 to July 27, 1953 – are ...

Frontier Days 2022 kicks off summer

Starting today, there is a sure sign that the summer season is truly at hand — Frontier Days 2022 begins. The gates open at the Fort Museum and Frontier Village at 4 p.m. today and an exciting and diverse agenda of entertainment will commence soon after. The three-day festival continues a Fort Dodge tradition that is returning with a theme this year of “The New Frontier.” Not content to rest on applause for past glories, organizers have labored hard to produce a truly exceptional event. Frontier Days 2022 will have familiar features, but there will be much that is ...

Legislature accomplished a great deal

When lawmakers wrapped up business for 2022, it was clear that the Republican majority could celebrate a record characterized mostly as a success. Not only had major legislative changes passed, but much of the ambitious agenda outlined by Gov. Kim Reynolds in her Condition of the State message in January was enacted. The governor issued a statement applauding the lawmakers’ record shortly after the session ended. “This legislative session, I charged the House and Senate to work together to further advance Iowa’s strong growth through policies that cut taxes, invest in biofuels ...

Take the time to remember

Today 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 ...

Iowa’s community colleges need a little more from lawmakers

For most Iowans, $6.5 million is an awful lot of money. Everyone would like to see their income go up by $6.5 million in a year. Iowa’s community college system is due to get that much more in aid as a result of action by the state Legislature. But it is important to note that the $6.5 million is going to the entire community college system. That money will be split between 15 schools that are educating tens of thousands of students while dealing with the worst inflation the country has seen in decades. When that aid amount is split up between the all schools, it suddenly isn’t ...

Historical adventure can be found close to home

Now is the time when families are considering how to spend their summer vacations, and after COVID-19 basically wrecked almost two years worth of vacation plans, the open road is beckoning. But what if there was something really cool close to home that the whole family could enjoy? Well, there is such a thing. It’s the Fort Museum and Frontier Village here in Fort Dodge. There, people can explore a row of historic buildings, including a general store, a carpenter’s shop and an old newspaper office. Kids can pretend to lock each other up in an old jail. There’s a stable full ...