Times-Register

The Canadian Pacific Holiday Train will bring its festive display of lights and live music to the area when it stops in Marquette, at the marina parking lot, on Thursday, Dec. 7, at 4:15 p.m. The visit is the train’s lone stop in Clayton County this year.

Now in its 19th year, the Holiday Train is decorated with hundreds of thousands of lights depicting holiday scenes on 14 rail cars, one of which turns into a stage for musical performances.

Entertainment will include country music star Terri Clark, rock and country singer Dallas Smith and country artist Kelly Prescott, who will all perform classic holiday tunes. Santa Claus will also make an appearance.

For years, the McGregor-Marquette Center for the Arts (MMCA) Board of Directors has entertained the idea of enriching downtown McGregor with artistic murals. A plan finally emerged in spring 2017, and a grant request was submitted to the Upper Mississippi Gaming Corporation (UMGC) for partial funding. In October, at UMGC’s annual awards banquet, the dream moved a step closer to reality, as MMCA representatives accepted a grant award of $6,450.

The mural project will tell a story from McGregor’s historic past, with 8-foot-by-16-foot aluminum frames holding four sepia-toned historic photo enlargements. The photos will be displayed on the west side of Steve’s Silver Dollar Saloon, a visible location for people both walking and driving down Main Street.

By Audrey Posten, North Iowa Times Editor

The MFL MarMac wrestling team had a successful 2016-2017 season, earning conference and sectional championships. A record seven wrestlers competed at districts, with four of them advancing to state. This year, they hope to keep that momentum going.

Head coach Chet Bachman said the team goes into the season looking to do well, “but you never know where you’re going to end up.”

“We expect to compete hard every time,” he shared. “Never quit, never give up, don’t care about who you’re wrestling, put your best technique out there. If you put that together, that should take care of the rest.”

By Audrey Posten, North Iowa Times Editor

In the aftermath of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, students in Shauna Lange’s fifth grade class at MFL MarMac were troubled by the destruction they saw in Texas and Florida. They wondered what they could do to help.

“We had a book order going in,” Lange said. “That’s when they came up with the idea of books.”

The class builds up credits from their book orders, which go toward purchasing books for the classroom. This time, however, the students wanted to use those credits to purchase books for hurricane-affected schools in Texas and Florida.