Hanlontown's Sundown Days stands out in crowd of festivals
By MIKE KILEN
mkilen@dmreg.com
June 22, 2009 00:31 AM
Hanlontown, Ia. - Some towns have fireworks and big carnival rides. In Hanlontown, the annual summer festival centers on a gathering at the railroad tracks that run through town to watch the sunset. "It gets pretty bright," said farmer Eldean Garnas. "It's something." Sundown Days, in its 29th year, happens the weekend of the summer solstice - that's today - when the sunset is aligned just right, in the middle of the tracks that glow as if on fire.
"Some clap," said resident Jody Moretz. Talk about simplicity in complex times. The visionaries in this town of 229 along Iowa Highway 9 west of Mason City didn't settle for a pork or sweet corn festival, common among the roster of dozens of small-town Iowa celebrations. "Everybody's got those," said Clayton Rye, who noted Sundown Days actually replaced the old Pork Days. "We needed something that makes us stand out." The two-day festival, which began Saturday, includes the typical tractor pulls, parade, free watermelon and supper in the park. But it also celebrates Iowans' ancient assimilation with their vast horizon and keen sense of seasonal cycles.
Right? The working men and retirees in the farmer's co-op in town - the only place to have coffee - grew silent. Retired mail carrier Dean Haugen changed the question: "How long does it take two parallel railroad tracks to meet?" "Don't know," said another. They don't take themselves too seriously and practice a dry, succinct Scandinavian-American humor. Hanlontown nearly wraps around the small water tower. Although the town's population has stayed steady, businesses closed because fewer farmers remained, leaving only a car repair shop and co-op. Just outside town, the big Poet ethanol plant brings more trains through since it opened in 2004.
It was feared it might ruin the sunset on the tracks. It didn't. Rye, 61, a farmer outside town, has photographed the solstice sunset every year. In two of every five years, he figures, you see sun. Its appearance is always a big suspense, the natural finale that doesn't involve large booms. "Can be clouds all day, then just before, at 8:58 or 8:59, it clears up," Rye said. "Or sun all day and the clouds drift in. We've had our hopes up and down. You don't know until the last moment. A bad day can still go good."