With the heat of the long weekend, the Freeman Swimming Pool is a good place to be as demonstrated by this group of children Saturday afternoon. Highs were in the 90s yesterday and temperatures are expected to approach 100 degrees both Sunday and Monday. Summer officially begins on Tuesday.

Jessica Gadeken and her two children, Jenna, 8, and Caleb, 6, get registered for the Freeman Fishing Derby at the Prairie Arboretum Saturday morning, June 18. Jenna and Caleb are the grandchildren of Kim and Brenda Krull of Freeman. It's a warm and windy morning, but a good number of families were assembling at the arboretum in advance of the 9:30 a.m. start. Fishing will continue until 11 a.m., when prizes are awarded. The is the 16th Freeman Fishing Derby and first since 2019.

High school wrestlers from across the state begin to gather inside the Freeman High School gym Friday morning for their second day of training in advance of the Scholastic Duals in Orlando, Fla., next week. Sixty student-athletes in grades 7-11 arrived in Freeman on Thursday and will leave for Florida on Saturday; both nights are being spent inside the school. South Dakota is taking three boys teams and two girls teams and will compete Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Marion/Freeman head wrestling coach said the kids come from everywhere. "You name it, that where they're from," he said.

Workers with Menning Excavating clean out the culvert that runs beneath the road that will lead into the Westward View housing development off Cedar Street in Freeman. Meaning is finishing up their portion of the project which will give way to the arrival of Black-Top Paving, which will begin the construction of the roads and curb and gutter by bringing in gravel. Phase 2 of the project is expected to begin soon.

Freeman Chief of Police Scott Brewer told The Courier Thursday afternoon, June 16 that three of the four pit bulls who attacked a 55-year-old Freeman woman on Monday morning have been picked up and are in possession of the Freeman Police Department.

This green space on the backside of the Freeman Community Center will soon be a dog park. Meeting last week, the Freeman City Council unanimously voted to spend approximately $14,000 for the development of 100 foot x 60 foot space that will be set aside for pet owners and their dogs. City officials hope the park can be open to the public by late summer or early fall. Read more about it in the June 16 edition of The Courier.

This photo was published in the Freeman Courier the first week of July 1972 and shows the aftermath of the Rapid City flood that devastated thousands across the city. It was published as part of a package that covered the response from some of the youth of the community; the caption reads: "What had been a lovely shorefront along Canyon Lake is now a mass of ruined houses. The lake is gone and wreckage litters the area." Watch this week's Courier for a look back at the devastation through the eyes of one lifelong Freeman resident who was part of the National Guard's response.

Bicyclists taking part in the 2022 Ride Across South Dakota peddle into Freeman Saturday morning, June 11 — the final stop on their weeklong journey that started at Hill City and extended east across the state. A number of activities were planned to make their arrival, including a brunch at the Freeman Prairie Arboretum visitor's center and a youth safety bicycle rodeo. 

Runners assemble near the Freeman Academy soccer field on a picture-perfect Saturday morning for the 5K being held as part of the Freeman Academy Day of Play — the kickoff to a morning that will see the arrival of bicyclists taking part in Ride Across South Dakota (RASDak). Riders are expected to begin rolling in around 10:30 a.m.; brunch is being served at the interpretive center and various field games will begin starting at 10 a.m., and a youth bicycle safety rodeo will take place from 12 to 2 p.m. Bingo will be available inside the interpretive center from 1 to 3 p.m.

Like buds on trees and the red breast of a robin, the sight and smell of lilacs are a tell-tale sign that the warm-weather season has arrived. And while Mother Nature has had a hard time really warming up this far, it appears that hot weather is on the way. Summer officially begins June 21.