Kristi Hofer and her grandson, 5-year-old Jaxon Hofer, take a break from their walk-through at Heritage Hall Museum & Archives for a game of checkers during their visit to Schmeckfest Saturday afternoon, April 5. The 64th annual festival was another success, with several thousand converging on the F...

This editorial is included with the April 10, 2025 issue of The Courier. The Courier: Vol. 125, No. 1  This is a milestone issue for the Freeman-based weekly newspaper and a reminder of why community journalism has been — and continues to be — so important. It is fitting that this week’s Courier inc...

Those from Freeman High School who took part in the State FFA Convention last week in Brookings are pictured here, and are also pictured in this week's Courier along with a salute to this year's happenings with the local FFA chapter. The salute is sponsored by Rural Manufacturing.

This photo was posted by Heritage Hall Museum & Archives as its weekly look back Monday, April 7, along with the following description: This view of Relanto and Sixth streets looking north is from the late 1960s. The round-topped building in the center is Pine Hill Printery – also home to the Freema...

Students in Nathan Bates' German Language class at the University of South Dakota make their way through the buffet at Schmeckfest late Friday afternoon, March 4. The meal experience — and all of Schmeckfest — is the highlight of the year for the students, said Bates, who started bringing his class ...

Donna Zeeb, a historian and collector from Menno, discusses eggbeaters during her "Heritage Picker" demonstration at Schmeckfest Friday afternoon. Zeeb is one of 10 presenters featured at Heritage Hall Museum & Archives during Freeman's 64th annual festival celebrating the Germans-from-Russia herita...

Sheila Epps rolls a cart of baked goods through The Link and into the Sterling Hall auditorium where they will be sold at the Schmeckfest Country Kitchen starting at 1 p.m. today. Friday, April 4 marks the start of the 64th "festival of tasting" and, in addition to County Kitchen sales, guests will ...

Elliott Graber, playing the part of Rochester, and Kelsey Pidde, portraying the title role of Jane Eyre, sing together the Act I finale, “Oh How You Look in the Light” during the Wednesday night dress rehearsal of the 2025 Schmeckfest musical, “Jane Eyre.” The two lead characters and their relations...

This classic Schmeckfest photo by Willard Waltner, whose negatives and prints are part of the Heritage Hall Museum & Archives' collection, shows two sisters enjoying soup during the Schmeckfest meal sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980s. The girls are identified only as the daughters of William ...

Surprise (or maybe not)! The Freeman community and larger region woke to the first day of April, not to the springlike weather that is anticipated around this time of year, but a smattering of wet snow the fell in the early-morning hours of Tuesday. The precipitation was expected, and more may come ...