Annual Memorial Day Picnic

The annual Memorial Day Picnic at the Litchfield Opera House will be on Monday from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The G.A.R. Hall and Meeker County Museum will also be open on Monday from 11-to-2.

Museum Executive Director Danelle Erickson says the meal will include BBQs, hot dogs, beans, potato salad, pie and ice cream, and the cost is $10 for adults and $5 for children. She says the picnic helps to raise some funds for the Museum and it also carries on the tradition of remembering our deceased veterans on Memorial Day.

Erickson says Memorial Day was actually started by members of the Grand Army of the Republic shortly after the Civil War to remember the fallen soldiers. She says there are volunteers who decorate the graves of local Civil War veterans.

Erickson says there are about 70-to-80 graves of Civil War veterans at Lake Ripley Cemetery in Litchfield and there are more Civil War veterans buried in cemeteries throughout Meeker County. She says the parade in Litchfield on Memorial Day is also a long-time tradition and she encourages people to attend that, along with the program at Lake Ripley Cemetery.