Outstanding weather, great events, huge crowds highlight weekend festival

Thousands of bullheads (12,000+) were served, the rain and clouds stayed away for most of the weekend, the temperatures were warm but not bad, queens were crowned, the food stands were outstanding, and fun was had by all.

The 2026 Waterville Bullhead Days Celebration held June 5 through June 7, which is in its 61st-year.

One of the highlight events of the weekend was the Friday night crowning of Miss Waterville and Junior Miss Waterville.

WEM Partners in Education (PIE) took on an exciting new project this year - a Fun Run for the elementary students and a Color Run for the middle school students! Due to weather, both events were held on the last day of school, Wednesday, May 27.

WEM PIE members, Lisa Cofield, Katy Montgomery, Patty Salmon and Rhiannon Swanson along with...

To see more on this story pick up the June 11, 2026 print edition of the LifeEnterprise. 

Le Sueur County Sheriff Brett Mason has released fraud statistics for the 2025 calendar year.

Sheriff Mason said there were 105 referrals for 2025 and 75 cases with discrepancies. They had eight types of fraud reported, with household composition leading the list with 35 in custody (closure of cases), 28 cases of household composition, 22 cases of unreported income, and 13 residence cases.

The 61st Annual Waterville Bullhead Days Celebration will begin with the coronation of Miss Waterville 2026 on Friday, June 5 at 7 p.m. in the Waterville Fire Hall. Admission is five dollars for this 69th Miss Waterville and Junior Miss Pageant.

Miss Waterville 2025 Kayla Bronk and her attendants Abby Crosby, Alenka Jans, and Jaelyn Wilmes will preside over their last pageant.

For more than six decades, the second full weekend in June is dedicated to the annual Waterville Bullhead Days celebration. This year is the earliest the event can be held, with dates set for Friday, June 5 through Sunday, June 7.

There are two new events being featured on Saturday. They include the Barney 5K Fun Walk/Run and Paradise City Wrestling.

For years there had been a fun run and bike race. This is being brought back this year as only a 5K run/walk.

For decades, the Waterville Lions Club has been a huge sponsor and supporter of not only Bullhead Days but many clubs, organizations, and individuals through hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations.

In appreciation for their work and dedication to the community and to the annual yearly celebration, the Waterville Lions were bestowed the honor of 2026 Bullhead Days Grand Marshals.

The Waterville Bullhead Days Committee listed a number of reasons why the Lions Club were selected as grand marshals.

The City of Morristown will be holding the 41st annual Morristown Dam Days celebration starting Wednesday, May 27 and running through Sunday, May 31.

The first event of the weekend was the Miss Morristown and Little Miss Pageant, which was held Wednesday, May 27.

When Dennis and Iny Schmidtke received the call they were selected as the 2026 Morristown Dam Days Grand Marshals they were shocked and honored.

“We are thrilled to death to be honored,” Dennis said. “We are overwhelmed and were not expecting this. Both of us find it easier to give things than to receive them.”

Elysian, Kilkenny, Morristown, and Waterville have scheduled Memorial Day Ceremonies for Monday, May 25, 2026.

Elysian Ceremony The Elysian American Legion Post 311 Honor Guard will start with stops at Greenland Cemetery (7 a.m.), German Lake Cemetery (7:20 a.m.), St. Peter (Bell) cemetery (7:55 a.m.), Cannonville Cemetery (8:20 a.m.), and the Waterville Veterans Memorial (8:45 a.m.). The Elysian Ceremony will take place at 9:30 a.m. at the Elysian Veterans Memorial at Sunset Park.

A total of 67 seniors will don caps, gowns, and tassels in anticipation of graduating from Waterville-Elysian-Morristown High School at 7 p.m. Friday, May 22 in the Waterville gymnasium.

Of these 67 seniors, 41 have been named honor students.

The 2026 Class Motto is “It’s hard to turn the page when you know someone won’t be in the next chapter, but the story must go on.” The class flower is the Peruvian Lily.

To see more on this story pick up the May 21, 2026 print edition of the LifeEnterprise paper. 

The 41st Annual Morristown Dam Days Celebration will begin with the coronation of Miss Morristown 2026 on Wednesday, May 27, at 7 p.m. in the Morristown Community Center, 402 Division Street South. Admission is two dollars and a Dam Days button. Dam Days buttons will be sold at the door.

Miss Morristown 2025, Addison Langer, will crown Miss Morristown 2026 and share her memories of the past year.

Candidates will be judged on poise, personality, appearance, educational accomplishments, activities, community involvement and talent.

Congratulations to our WEM 2nd grade Poppy Poster Contest winners and to the Poppy Coloring contest winners. All entries will be on display at the Legion. Thank you WEM students for your beautiful art work! Thank you Lisa Becker for coordinating the contests!

The winners of the Poppy Poster Contest:

1st Place and winner of $25 – Archer Splett in Mrs Skurkay’s

2nd grade class 2nd Place and winner of $15 – Beau Holicky-James

3rd Place and winner of $5 – Alia Culhane in Mrs Skurkay’s class

Honorable Mention in alphabetical order:

Dozens of WEM Future Farmers of America (FFA) members received awards during their annual end-of-the-year awards banquet held Wednesday, May 6 in Waterville.

State FFA Awards, officers retiring and newly elected, Greenhand Degrees, Chapter Degrees, and senior recognition were among the awards presented.

Senior Clare Landrum received her State Degree and was the recipient of the James Tracy Scholarship. She is also the outgoing WEM FFA President.

Two WEM groups advanced to State competition.

    Le Sueur County Veterans Service Officer (CVSO) Mark Roemhildt delivered his final department report to the Le Sueur County Board of Commissioners at their regular meeting on April 21.
    “I am just across six years in this position,” Roemhildt said. “My last day will be Friday, May 1. My last day in the office, however, will be this coming Friday (April 24), and then Joe will have the keys to the castle.”
    Succeeding Roemhildt is Joe Fisher, who was hired to the position on April 6. He had been training for the three weeks before the meeting.

    Minnesota legislators passed a new school bus safety law by a 133-0 vote in the house and 67-0 in the senate in March to close some safety loopholes. It was the first bill of this legislative session to pass. 
    Stopping for school busses allowed for some gray area in the wording that drivers shall stop when busses are “… displaying extended stop signal arm and flashing red lights.” This left the door open for people faced with a fine to argue that the arm was not extended or not fully yet when they passed.

The WEM Education Association surveyed its members last week on the issue of hoods and/or hats being worn in school.

This topic was brought up during the March WEM Board of Education meeting and the education association invited its members to participate in the short survey which had only two questions. A total of 48 members responded to the survey and a summary of their responses and reason for or against were tallied.

The first question was should students be able to wear hoods during the school day? 95 percent of those who answered said no.