Year: 2024

Root River Current’s Local Events Calendar—Find a New Adventure!

It’s here — Root River Current’s Local Events Calendar!! Promote your event, find something new to do, see how our Root River valley communities are connected.

<span style="font-size: 14px; color: #6c6b6b; ">Karin Ferden of rural St. Charles plays the flute in a Chatfield Brass Band performance of “Stars and Stripes Forever”. (Photo by John Weiss)</span>

This is Our Little Happiness

John Weiss takes in the Chatfield Brass Band’s annual patriotic ‘concert in the park’.

A rainbow arches over the recently dedicated Minnesota Veterans Home in Preston. In addition to its official dedication, the home has passed its first Certification Survey allowing it to welcome additional residents in the months ahead. (Photo provided by Rachel Lemmer)

A Big Thing in a Small Town | Welcoming Veterans Home in Preston

Alison Leathers recaps the dedication ceremonies recently held at the new Minnesota Veterans Home in Preston.

<span style="font-size: 14px; color: #6c6b6b; ">Founding teacher and abbot Rev. Shoken Winecoff explains the significance of the bell at Ryumonji, a Soto Zen Buddhist temple located in the rolling hills just across the Minnesota-Iowa border southeast of Spring Grove (Houston County). (Photo courtesy of the Ryumonji Center)</span>

Essay | A Story of Balance: A Zen Buddhist Retreat in the Heart of the Midwest

Anna Loney explores a traditional Buddhist monastery nestled in the hills of Dorchester, Iowa, just south of the Houston County line.

Root River Diary | Good Neighbors

Rural Peterson’s Bonnie Gibson on finding kindness on a morning walk.

<span style="font-size: 14px; color: #6c6b6b; ">The sun rises through the trees over old gravestones at the Arendahl Cemetery (located in Arendahl Township, Fillmore County). (Photo by Renee Bergstrom)</span>

Summer Photos from the Driftless Region

Renee Bergstrom’s photos capture summer in southeastern Minnesota

<span style="font-size: 14px; color: #6c6b6b; ">A crocheted version of a Turkey tail mushroom which makes shelves or brackets to produce spores above the ground and are known for their medicinal properties. (Photo by Laurie Byrne)</span>

Art Grows on the Trail

Laurie Byrne goes in search of an innovative art installation on the Lost Creek Trail near Chatfield.

<span style="font-size: 14px; color: #6c6b6b; ">Retired geologist Jeff Broberg is framed in the doorway to his Winona County well house at his home near Elba. The water from his well exceeds the guidelines for nitrate contamination. (Photo by Mark Hoffman, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)</span>

Southeast Minnesota Runoff Pollutes Beyond Local Area

Southeast Minnesota’s nitrate pollution affects health and recreation beyond the local area; Madeline Heim traces its impacts to the Gulf of Mexico’s “dead zone”.