Chad Gortmaker of Canistota and Tristan Nelson of Volin work with a 65 horse power steam engine Sunday morning, Sept. 25. It’s the second day of the Menno Pioneer Power Show and follows a busy Saturday that organizers say may have been the biggest day in the 36-year history of Menno’s biggest annual event.

Freeman Mayor Michael Walter is just moments away from cutting the ribbon spanning the new downtown roadway late Friday morning, Sept. 23 as part of the ceremonial reopening of Main Street. The ribbon-cutting was done in conjunction with the Freeman High School homecoming parade and co-hosted by Freeman Public Schools and the Freeman Community Development Corporation with support from the city of Freeman.

Ethan Balvin and Cami Fransen work together to staple a banner to the side of a trailer Friday morning in preparation for the 2022 Homecoming Parade. The traditional processional will start at 11:30 a.m. and make its way from the Freeman Community Center to Main Street and then proceed south through the business district. There will be a slight intermission early on for a ribbon cutting marking the completion of the new Main Street business district roadway and sidewalks. A tailgate will follow at the football field in advance of the 2:30 p.m. football game against Colome.

Heritage Hall Museum & Archives (HHM&A) has announced a special weekend celebration on Oct. 15 and 16 to mark the public reopening of the historic Ludwig and Susanna Deckert house that’s been part of the museum complex for more than 40 years. The house, built in the early 1880s between Freeman and Marion by the Deckert family, was moved to the museum grounds in 1979. The house was closed to the public in 2018 in anticipation of moving it to a new location immediately east of the museum. However, exceptionally wet weather in both 2018 and 2019 delayed that project.

With attention turning to Phase 2 of the Main Street project (side streets and the northern stretch), trees were being removed on the south side of Vintage Vault and Floral Wednesday morning, Sept. 21. Meanwhile, the old roadway is being removed on the one block west and east of Main Street on Third Street and concrete work is expected to begin soon on Main Street north of Railway.

Students from Freeman Public gather around the burning of "F" east of the junior-senior high school parking lot Monday night, Sept. 19. The traditional act was part of coronation earlier in the evening that included music from the school's band, the recognition of students involved in activities and the crowning of Zac Sayler and Kate Miller as king and queen.

All was quiet on the Freeman High School gymnasium stage on Monday morning, but this is where the action will be around 7:30 p.m. tonight as homecoming royalty is crowned as part of coronation — the formal start to homecoming week in Freeman. Candidates for king are Jayden Jacobsen, Jon Slevin and Zac Sayler and, for queen, Brooklyn Mendel, Kate Miller and Erin Uecker. Royalty candidates were selected by the senior class and king and queen will be named by a vote of the student body. The traditional burning of the "F" will follow coronation. 

The Sunday morning sun lights up the horizon on a cool late-summer morning.

Freeman Regional Health Services announced recently that this entrance is now being used for all regular clinic patients as opposed to the entrance on Waltnut Street that had been previously used. That is how reserved for only clinic patients utilizing specialty services.

This photo was taken looking to the north/northwest from the iron bridge that connects the island to the rest of the Freeman Prairie Arboretum, and shows several of the outbuildings that are part of the Heritage Hall Museum & Archives campus. It's a cloudy, cool but pleasant Friday following a nice rain shower Thursday night. Freeman received about 2 1/2 inches of moisture while some rural areas are reporting more. There is a slight chance of additional rainfall this weekend.