On Wednesday, June 23rd, the annual Western Fest celebration begins in Granite Falls. All of Wednesday’s events take place in the downtown area, and include the annual Cowboy Crazy Days celebration, as well as Queen Candidates and Royalty appearances. A number of activities are taking place for children including the Kiddie Carnival in Rice Park, Barrel Train Rides by Bisbee Plumbing and Heating, a Pedal Pull, Kiddie Parade, and the Legion is hosting a kid’s night complete with bingo, fish pond and cake walk. There’s also a Hula Hoop Contest by MVTV Wireless planned on Main Street, as well as free Root Beer Floats sponsored by Rock Haven Church. “There’s so many people involved. It’s the queen, it’s the chamber, it’s just a whole bunch of community fun,” says Western Fest committee member Holly Johnson. On Thursday, activities resume in the afternoon with a youth fishing contest, and face painting on the East side of the walking bridge, followed by a free watermelon feed. The PRCA Rodeo begins at Lee-Mar Ranch on Thursday evening with kids night featuring free pony rides, mutton bustin’ for the first 35 kids who register, and royalty/candidate introductions. “It’s only a dollar for a child to get in with a paid adult and this is the only night we have the free pony rides,” Johnson says. The Legion is hosting a food stand and DJ in the evening as well. Friday, the PRCA Rodeo picks up again with First Responder Night. The annual street dance will be held at Sorlien Park with the band “Uncle Chunk” starting at 9 p.m. Saturday’s activities include a Community Run/Walk hosted by Big Stone Therapies at the KCC, the Granite Falls Lions Club Waffle Feed, the Grand Parade, and Miss Western Fest Pageant. The PRCA Rode’s Veteran’s Night will be held Saturday starting at 7:30 p.m. A Raffle drawing will be held at Sorlein Park at 10:30 p.m. during the Street Dance with the band “Hype”.

Jennifer Hurst played Taps during the ceremony, and Doug Border, Jim Heisner, Jim Waller and Sheldon Olson do the salute. Photo by Cherry Heisner The Yellow Medicine East school band played two patriotic songs at the beginning of the Clarkfield Memorial Day service.

In the early hours of Monday morning, the first of multiple storms to move through the area left a trail of broken branches and muddy yards, putting a hindrance on all area Memorial Day programs. The Granite Falls American Legion posted that the Memorial Day program for Granite Falls was postponed due to the storm.

Last August, Bob Barnes of Syracuse, New York, packed up his belongings to store at his brother’s home, gave up his apartment and his job as an Uber driver, and took off on his second big adventure. The first was a bicycle ride around the country done four years ago in which he managed a trek totaling roughly 5,800 miles. For this trip, Barnes planned an even more challenging journey - one that would bring him back and forth across the country multiple times in an effort to visit the state capital of all fifty states, for a total of approximately 16,300 miles, all on bicycle. He’s titled the trip “Great American Triple Switchback”. Barnes says that a trip like this has never been done in the past.