James J. Hill was a railroad tycoon responsible for greatly expanding railways in the country’s northwest. He was the chief executive officer of a family of lines headed by the Great Northern Railway, which served a substantial area of the Upper Midwest, the northern Great Plains, and the ...

Leon Mortland was born in April 1946 in Tyler, the second of two sons born to Hazel (Halsne) and John Mortland. Leon and his older brother, Dick, grew up on the family farm about four miles northeast of Tyler on the township road that was the boundary between Lincoln and Lyon counties. Leon ...

It’s the week of the Lyon County Fair, which means that we’re getting close to the end of the 2024 season of summer celebrations. The season will wrap up in September with Boxcar Days in Tracy and Boxelder Bug Days in Minneota. We’re having another great year of weekend get ...

When you live where your father lived and work where your father worked, you hear his voice sometimes. He passed away 25 years ago, but he still reminds me to put equipment away at night and clean up grain spills. It occurred to me that I hadn’t put gravel on the driveway in a long time. ...

August cold fronts are a strange and jarring occurrence. One week it’s near 90 degrees, humid, and every largemouth bass is living the good life in the warm shallows of the lake around the docks on the south shore. Suddenly overnight, it feels like pheasant opener as a chill north wind riles ...

I was born with two left feet. No, not physically! I mean I’m not very graceful on my feet. There are many things I can do, but dancing is not in my genes. I have tried a few times, and quickly retired from the effort. Back in the day, and while attending my high school proms, I was one ...