
The bluegrass band, Monroe Crossing, has performed at North Morristown the past seven years, presenting two concerts at the celebration this year.
NORTH MORRISTOWN, MINNESOTA, is about as rural Americana as you’ll find anywhere in these United States of America on the Fourth of July.

The event is held at the North Morristown picnic grounds in southwestern Rice County.

Trinity Lutheran Church and School sit across the road from the picnic grounds.
Here, on the picnic grounds of Trinity Lutheran Church and School, generations of families have gathered for 121 years to celebrate our nation’s birthday with family and friends at our state’s oldest Independence Day celebration, begun in 1892.

The vintage car ride for kids.
The day brings old-fashioned games and rides for the kids, bingo, music, a scavenger hunt, a parade, a patriotic program and more. Fireworks shot over farm fields cap the day’s festivities.

Enjoying a pork sandwich and a beer.
And the food, oh, the food. Homemade pies. Savory hot pork and beef sandwiches, burgers, thick onion rings, and more.

A large crowd enjoys a free afternoon concert by Monroe Crossing.
What a day. What a celebration.

One section of a pole shed is dedicated to bingo and a silent auction.

The bingo callers.

Fun for the kids in the games and rides building.

A ticket for the fish pond.

Filling the squirt gun in the duck pond.

Riding the old-fashioned barrel train.

The day’s proceeds benefit Trinity Lutheran School.

Homemade pies and ice cream are served from the pie building.

Blueberry pie.

Hot pork and beef sandwiches and cold beverages are served from this stand.

Visitors stopping by the ice cream shoppe can drop donations for the entertainment into a drop box.

A peek inside the ice cream shoppe.

Enjoying an ice cream cone.

An overview of the novelties shoppe and games and rides and bingo building.

Guess the number of corn kernels in the duct taped jar and win a prize.

A 75-year-old biker arrives at the celebration late in the afternoon on his 1977 Harley.

One of several lists thanking supporters.

Garbage pick up by a 1964 grain truck.

North Morristown is set in the middle of farm fields.
© Copyright 2013 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
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