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Prairie Village Hall of Fame

The new Prairie Village Hall of Fame was inaugurated in 2022. This is a high honor reserved for only the caliber of individuals who have most selflessly served, supported, and […]

Prairie Village News  9/3/19

Faron Wahl, Manager. Countless thank you’s are in order as we now wind down our regular season, and one can’t possibly cover them all. Pointing out that thanking one person […]

Prairie Village News  8/27/19

Faron Wahl, Manager. It was a jammin’ Jamboree! We entertained guests who have been to virtually every Jamboree along our historic timeline, and others who were taking in their very […]

Prairie Village News  8/20/19

Faron Wahl, Manager. Here we go…. we’re about ready to roll with the 57th rendition of our annual Steam Threshing Jamboree. Anticipation builds all year for this, our founding event. […]

Prairie Village News  8/13/19

Faron Wahl, Manager. It would come as no surprise to most that I was never the hippie type. You know, as in the counterculture hippies of the 1960’s and early […]

Prairie Village News  8/6/19

Faron Wahl, Manager. This past Saturday, amidst a steady stream of visitors, we had the privilege of hosting three generations of a family from Lennox. Linda, Lindsay, Allison, and Ashley […]

Prairie Village News  7/30/19

Faron Wahl, Manager. When you’ve planned and promoted something special for a long time, sometimes the anticipated peak moment of it all is even better than you imagined. Throughout our […]

Prairie Village News  7/23/19

Faron Wahl, Manager. We’re a resilient bunch here in South Dakota. And for a lot of folks, 2019 has required every ounce of resiliency they can muster. Like virtually everyone, […]

Prairie Village News  7/16/19

Faron Wahl, Manager Here’s yet another historic anniversary, causing us to again reflect on how we got to today. Precisely 50 years ago this Tuesday, much of the world watched […]

Prairie Village News  7/9/19

Faron Wahl, Manager. Unlike the way things were not many years ago at the village, we can only operate today with a dedicated, paid team who are on the grounds […]

Prairie Village News  7/2/19

Faron Wahl, Manager. We might be cruising along at the halfway mark of the summer season on our calendar, but once again this week we instead celebrate much in the […]

Prairie Village News  6/25/19

Faron Wahl, Manager. We’re gearing up for round two of our three-part summer concert series, and I’m personally thrilled we could land this one. I aim to creatively invest in […]

Prairie Village News  6/18/19

Faron Wahl, Manager. I absolutely love our mission of preserving the past, most of all when visitors’ eyes widen with excitement over one of our offerings they’ve never-before encountered, or […]

Prairie Village News  6/11/19

Faron Wahl, Manager. We’re at that steady point in the season when we’ve got lots going on here, including events every weekend. This coming one is no exception, and frankly, […]

Prairie Village News  6/4/19

Faron Wahl, Manager. As I noted in an earlier column this spring, our country is recognizing several anniversaries of major events during the summer of 2019. These pivotal waypoints in […]

Prairie Village News  5/28/19

Faron Wahl, Manager. If there’s one common thought shared by every single person in this region recently, it’s definitely “surely this weather will straighten out next week”. I’ve certainly thought […]

Prairie Village News  5/21/19

Faron Wahl, Manager. You might think an organization whose stated purpose is to preserve the past wouldn’t do much in the way of active preparations day to day. After all, […]

Prairie Village News  5/14/19

Faron Wahl, Manager. One of the most enjoyable experiences for me as manager is to visit with and hear feedback from our concertgoers at the close of each of those […]

Prairie Village News  5/7/19

Faron Wahl, Manager. This summer our nation will recognize a few major anniversaries of high-impact events…. groundbreaking ones which affected everything that followed. I intend to point them out in […]

Prairie Village News  4/30/19

Faron Wahl, Manager. With this unusually challenging spring weather pattern now hopefully behind us, we find ourselves now doubly ready to unveil the sunny outlook on our 2019 season at […]

Prairie Village News  9/4/18

Faron Wahl, Manager. What a great time we’ve had. This season began with the challenges of the snowiest April on record, the throes of winter holding us back from a […]

Prairie Village News  8/28/18

Faron Wahl, Manager. Two happenings during the past week were heartwarming as well as historically impressive. One was so big you couldn’t be anywhere near Madison and miss it; the […]

Prairie Village News  8/21/18

Faron Wahl, Manager. It seems stuff just doesn’t last like it used to. Whether it’s a tote bag, a tacklebox, or a toaster, you won’t likely get the years of […]

Prairie Village News  8/14/18

Faron Wahl, Manager. I always seek to utilize this column principally for things ahead, anticipating and expounding on exciting events and activities we’re bringing your way. Reporting on what’s already […]

Prairie Village News  8/7/18

Faron Wahl, Manager. We’re about to take you on a fabulous historical journey. We plan to tunnel back approximately 115 – 120 years, then snugly tie what we discover to […]

Prairie Village News  7/31/18

Faron Wahl, Manager. Now it’s real. Exactly one year, nine months, and 22 days after our beloved Herschell-Spillman carousel headed to Ohio for the restoration of a lifetime, it returned […]

Prairie Village News  7/24/18

Faron Wahl, Manager. When planning our Opera House concerts and entertainment for each season, we like to think big, stretching ourselves outside the boundaries many folks might think limit us. […]

Prairie Village News  7/17/18

Faron Wahl, Manager. The accelerator is nearly to the floor. I mentioned in last week’s column that the typical mid-July lull in our schedule normally allows us to catch our […]

Prairie Village News  7/10/18

Faron Wahl, Manager. We’re entering the mid-summer stretch here at the village. With no negative connotations intended, one might consider it the eye of the hurricane; a pause where the […]

Prairie Village News  7/3/18

Faron Wahl, Manager. One of the keys to keeping our recreated historic village unique and balanced is that it is surrounded by a working, full-size railroad. And it’s so fitting. […]

Prairie Village News  6/26/18

Faron Wahl, Manager. Remember last week when I wrote about waiting, especially that part about the tougher the wait, the sweeter the reward? Well, things just got a bit sweeter! […]

Prairie Village News  6/19/18

Faron Wahl, Manager. Waiting can be tough. It seems we usually must wait for those things in life worth waiting for. Typically, though, the more rugged the wait, the sweeter […]

Prairie Village News - 6/12/18

Faron Wahl, Manager. Now and then you see or hear something which, without warning, propels you back to an earlier time. Often, it’s music, which sets up camp in your […]

Prairie Village News  6/5/18

Faron Wahl, Manager. It’s one of the fastest growing sports in the United States today. And it involves just one seemingly straightforward concept: climb onto the back of a bull […]

Prairie Village News  5/29/18

Faron Wahl, Manager. With spring comes moisture (usually). With moisture comes grass growth. And with grass growth comes mowing. While many of us felt as though we lost some of […]

Prairie Village News  5/22/18

Faron Wahl, Manager. We typically kick off some light camping at the village during late April, with the overall momentum ramping up through May. And then comes Memorial Day. Once […]

Prairie Village News  5/15/18

Faron Wahl, Manager. Last week I wrote about a handful of happenings from 1918, and how such a re-visit of history is a worthy task. Staying in the vein of […]

Prairie Village News  5/8/18

Faron Wahl, Manager. A great deal of my column content tends to focus on our current and upcoming village events. But rooted in historical preservation as we are, it would […]

Prairie Village News  5/1/18

Faron Wahl, Manager. Extreme variance in weather is a phenomenon most of us native South Dakotans have come to expect, even embrace. But most would agree…. April 2018 has been […]

Faron Wahl, Manager Time flies when you’re having fun. It also flies when you’re crazy busy. Between the two, it’s no wonder the season zoomed by so swiftly for us […]

Faron Wahl, Manager It’s almost upon us. The details packing the final days of countdown are coming together, and suddenly it’ll be Thursday. The start of Steam Threshing Jamboree 2017. […]

Faron Wahl, Manager We’re all about preservation. Conceptually, our organization’s motto has it covered: “Where preservation of the past is building for the future”. In practice, acts of preservation are […]

Prairie Village News  8/8/17

Faron Wahl, Manager Several weeks ago, I promised an update on the restoration of our carousel. As the news and plans have been shifting a bit lately, I’ve held off […]

Prairie Village News  8/1/17

Faron Wahl, Manager Here we are…. only a week away from the 24th annual Madison car show at Prairie Village. If you’d like to showcase your vehicle, you can enter […]

Prairie Village News  7/25/17

Faron Wahl, Manager As part of our staff’s fine work re-doing many of our buildings this summer, some of us were walking recently through our hotels, talking about what should […]

Prairie Village News  7/18/17

Faron Wahl, Manager A healthy portion of the traffic passing through our gates originates in our immediate region. We treasure and rely on folks from this area who have made […]

Prairie Village News  7/11/17

Faron Wahl, Manager Nothing is quite as disappointing as a stale cookie. If you enjoy cookies like I do, you anticipate and savor that first bite well before tasting it, […]

Prairie Village News  7/4/17

Faron Wahl, Manager The more I pause to contemplate the generations of stories surrounding us here, the longer it makes me pause. I often realize we’re not even scratching the […]

Prairie Village News  6/27/17

Faron Wahl, Manager Nothing ties an early 20th century village more directly to its own roots than the railroad. The beginning of nearly every settlement, as well as its hope […]

Prairie Village News  6/20/17

Faron Wahl, Manager Our Prairie Village gift shop sees a great deal of activity, particularly during school tours and on busy camping weekends. Bev, our shop manager, works thoughtfully to […]

Prairie Village News  6/13/17

Faron Wahl, Manager I’m a purist at heart. In past years as a scale railroading hobbyist, it disturbed me greatly to allow any details of questionable authenticity or mixed-era into […]

Faron Wahl, Manager The annual cycle of activity at Prairie Village, to the eyes and understanding of most, runs for a three-month summer and falls into dormancy during the other […]

Prairie Village News  5/30/17

Faron Wahl, Manager It takes dozens of behind-the-scenes details, organized methodically, to keep a place like Prairie Village humming. Nestled within those details are a few critical items such as […]

Prairie Village News  5/23/17

Faron Wahl, Manager For many years beginning in 1985, David Letterman’s show boasted the popular nightly “Top 10 List”. It became such a boon of late night TV that when […]

Prairie Village News 5/16/17

Faron Wahl, Manager We’re sure not getting any younger. Whether you’re a college student taking photos of our village buildings, a middle-aged dad spending the afternoon here with his family, […]

Prairie Village News 5/9/17

Faron Wahl, Manager Most of us find comfort in what’s familiar. Even the most restless and adventure-seeking folks tend to hold some inner longing for a certain amount of life […]

Prairie Village News 5/2/17

Faron Wahl, Manager For those who like to shop, there have never been more ways to get it done. You can visit your locally-owned business (excellent choice), major chain stores, […]

Prairie Village News 4/25/17

Faron Wahl, Manager You can certainly tell it’s spring at Prairie Village. The grass along historic main street is emerald green, camping families are staking their summer claims, and sunlight […]

Prairie Village News  9/06/16

Faron Wahl, Manager       What a magnificent season we have experienced at Prairie Village during 2016!       As it goes with the passage of time, we’ve […]

Prairie Village News  8/30/16

Faron Wahl, Manager       After months of preparation we suddenly find ourselves in post-Jamboree mode. What a great event to log in the books for 2016!     […]

Prairie Village News 8/23/16

      When a person anticipates all year the return of a favorite annual event, it seems like an eternity before the calendar finally rolls around to it. For […]

Prairie Village News  8/16/16

Faron Wahl, Manager The great Massey folks are going to be front and center with us this year, as we’re hosting the Massey Expo of North America during our Steam […]

Prairie Village News  8/9/16

Faron Wahl, Manager We’re about to witness a transformation. It’s an annual happening, but certainly one of spectacular proportions. It’s our transition into the Steam Threshing Jamboree at Prairie Village. […]

Prairie Village News  8/2/16

Faron Wahl, Manager A family from Omaha was touring the Village this past week, taking in each building with thought and conversation. While I like to ensure folks can meander […]

Prairie Village News  7/26/16

Faron Wahl, Manager Of the various traditions at Prairie Village, one of the least known to many is our school tour program. It’s been happening for so many years now […]