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Empty Nest: Gladbrook is Glad to Have the Matchstick Marvels Museum

Columnists

How do you run at 26.2 mile marathon? One step atta time. How do achieve long-term sobriety if you're addicted to drugs and/or alcohol? One day atta time. How do you build the U.S. Capitol from matchsticks? One stick atta time. If you haven't been to Gladbrook, Iowa north of Marshalltown, to see the Matchstick Marvels Museum, go! Patrick Acton, a retired guidance counselor and Gladbrook resident, has quite a talent. As a matter of fact, I've never seen anything like it. He builds exact to-scale replicas of anything from the Notre Dame Cathedral, to a small Gladbrook church, with ...

RAGBRAI

Your View

Boy why city closed 13th street beats me. They tell management at the Embers that they will have the street blocked and residents can't get cars out of garage.  I got my lawn chair out and a cooler to set and watch the bikers go by.  All we saw was bikers going down main st. Just to let whoever was in in charge my opinion is  was you missed it. We got a nice Veterans home the bikers could see along with a closeup of helicopter from National Guard. It seems to me the bike route should have shown off 13th street, the Veterans home than up Summit to one of the south streets going south ...

Two chapters, one college: Why I fell in love with MCC twice

Columnists

Falling in love with a college once is a milestone; falling in love with it twice is proof to its life-long impact. As a proud, twice-graduate of Marshalltown Community College (MCC), my journey there spans two distinct chapters of my life. I first arrived as a young high school graduate, ...

Remembering RAGBRAI's rhythm

Your View

Morning rises over the main campground like a hymn whispered through canvas and corn. Tents glow in the dark, wheels murmur awake, and somewhere — always somewhere — a rider is already eating pie for breakfast. Because on RAGBRAI, fruit is not dessert unless it's tucked into a crust and handed to you by someone's grandma who calls you "hon." The road opens at six, and you drift toward the Breakfast Town where pancakes steam, bacon snaps, and the pie table is already thinning — a quiet truth of the ride: joy comes early and often. Pass-thru towns appear like small blessings, ...

Mysterious and massive drone invasion over Marshalltown

Your View

The date was a year ago, July 26, 2025. I was in my back lawn when I glanced up to the sky and see what appeared to be a huge flock of snow geese over Riverside Cemetery. I looked back up because something didn’t seem right. I’ve never seen a flock of snow geese attempting to land at the ...