Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
June 30, 2012

SWALEDALE — Oh, it’s a small town all right.

But it thinks big.

Swaledale’s Big Day on Saturday had a big parade, big beef lunch and a big heart when it came to honoring its veterans.

Float after float sported flags and red, white and blue. One military man, PV2 Brian Caspers, rode in a red car with his new bride, Carli — with signs saying, “Just married.”

Even the horses were bigger than most.

Percheron draft horses — black, silky-haired behemoths — came courtesy of Dick Ames, a Burnsville contractor who has carried on a family history of award -winning draft horses.

The Percheron tradition began near Swaledale, with the brothers of George and Charles Ames. The pair showed scores of prizewinning Percherons in the early part of the 20th century.

George’s son, Chester — Dick’s dad — moved to Farmington, Minn., near where Ames Percherons are now located. He is a well-known building contractor.

Melicent Ames, 96, of Swaledale, said she can recall when Dick Ames found a cache of show ribbons and awards earned by the early Percherons.

“He was so excited to have found them.”

Indeed, the Swaledale Ames brothers’ names figures prominently in Percheron sire books, in the early 1900s.

Melicent Ames is no small celebrity herself. She was the grand marshal in the Big Day Big Parade.

She is known in the town for her love of church and the community. She still tends a garden at her home. She worries that Swaledale is shrinking.

“But we still have a Big Day, thanks to (Swaledale town booster) Dale Caspers,” she said.

Her time as grand marshal is also bigger than most.

“Well, I was grand marshal four years ago, too,” she confided. “But today? I made sure today I didn’t wear the same thing I did back then.”

And she smiled.

Big.

Small towns in North Iowa are holding onto their annual summer celebrations, but sometimes it isn’t easy.

“It’s a struggle,” said Swaledale Mayor John Drury.

Swaledale Big Day was held on Saturday. The celebration included a parade that featured a team of award-winning Percherons from Minnesota. This draft horse tradition for the Ames family got its start many years ago on a farm near Swaledale.

The celebration used to be Swaledale Big Days, but “we had to scale it back,” Drury said.

For the past several years the event has been one-day-only.

“Volunteers aren’t that easy to get anymore,” Drury said.

But it’s important to continue to put on an annual town festival, even if it’s smaller than it used to be, according to Drury.

“If you don’t do it, people miss it,” he said.

Nora Springs celebrated Buffalo Day on June 23. The planning was a joint effort by the Nora Springs Lions Club, which was organized in 2010, and the Nora Springs Fire Department.

Megan Blickenderser, vice president of the Lions Club, said the annual celebration fell by the wayside for a year or two, but was brought back on a smaller scale last year, with the Lions Club in charge of daytime activities and the firefighters putting on a fireman’s ball in the evening.

“Last year it seemed to work out pretty good,” so the celebration was expanded this year, Blickenderser said.

People in the community wanted more activities, so a 5K run/walk, bingo and a carnival were added, she said.

Fortunately, some of the people who helped with the celebration in the past came back to help, according to Blickenderser.

“They are teaching us younger people how things were done in the past,” she said.

The celebration used to be Buffalo Days instead of Buffalo Day. Blickenderser said it would be nice if the festival grows enough so it can be more than one day again.

Klemme Ag Day, which was held on June 16, included a parade, a cemetery walk, entertainment, a street dance and other activities.

Organizers said this year’s celebration, which included several new events, went well.

Jean Baack, one of the members of the Klemme Ag Day Committee, said individuals and businesses were generous in providing donations to help put on the festival.

But finding enough volunteers can be difficult in a small town, she said.

Sandy Block, another committee member, said one challenge for Klemme is the town no longer has a school, so it is hard to find places for large, indoor events that are centrally located.

The weather also makes a difference as to whether a festival is successful, according to committee member Kenny Weiland.

Fortunately, the weather was good for this year’s Klemme Ag Day.

If it rains, “you’re in trouble,” Weiland said.

Transcriptions by Sharon R. Becker, October of 2013