You have probably noticed a special feature in last week’s issue of the Faribault County Register and one in this issue of the Register.

Both appeared on our page 3 and were titled America’s 250. It is a new series of stories about the history of these United States of America, and is being done as part of a celebration of America’s 250th birthday.

It is being created by Ogden Newspapers and is running in many of the newspapers owned by Ogden, which includes both the Faribault County Register and the Fairmont Sentinel.

Last week’s article was an introduction to this idea of running a series of stories. This week’s article is the first one in the actual series of 12 stories. It features our first president, George Washington.

Many of us know quite a bit about Washington from our history classes in high school. But as I read this story by an Ogden reporter in West Virginia, I learned a lot about Washington I did not know before…and I got a real sense of him as a person, not just as a general and the first U.S. president.

I hope you will enjoy this series of stories. They are set to culminate in a special section on July 4th.

The whole idea was created by a group of Ogden editors. And there are quite a few of them.

Ogden Newspapers owns over 50 daily newspapers and quite a few weekly newspapers across the whole United States. They stretch from Florida in the east to California in the west. There are even two Ogden owned papers in Hawaii.

There are a lot of recently formed newspaper chains that have come onto the scene in recent years, usually formed as investment groups, not always newspaper publishers.

But Ogden Newspapers is not that. It is a family-owned newspaper group, that was formed way back in 1890 in Wheeling, West Virginia. And they have an strong interest in keeping good newspapers operating.

Many of Ogden’s newspapers are in states that were part of the original area of America. There are 13 in West Virginia, six in Virginia, 12 in Pennsylvania, four in New York, one in Maryland, one in New Hampshire and 14 in Ohio.

There is a lot of history about the beginnings of the United States that can be found in those areas. But Ogden newspapers in Minnesota (4), Iowa (12), North Dakota (2), Utah (3), Colorado (9), Kansas (4), California (2), Hawaii (2), as well as Florida (11), Indiana (1) are also participating.

Not all these numbers listed are newspapers, as some are shoppers and some are printing plants.

So I hope you enjoy these stories that will be running in the next 11 weeks or so.

If you are of a certain age, you probably remember back to 1976 and the celebration of America’s 200th birthday. It was a pretty big deal as I recall, with lots of hoopla about the U.S. Bicentennial. There was even a Bicentennial Commission formed and lots of celebrating the freedoms that Americans enjoy.

I have not seen as much of that celebrating for the 250th. Maybe it will all happen when we get closer to July 4th. I hope so. In these rather devisive times, and with threats to America’s freedoms, it would be an excellent time to reflect on what really makes America great. Its people and its freedoms.

In next week’s installment of America’s 250, you will read about the big role a small Maryland town played in the Revolutionary War. And there is also a feature coming about the Declaration of Independence. Everyone knows who was the first person to sign the Declaration of Independence, John Hancock, but do you know anything about the last person to sign it? You will soon.

Stay tuned and keep reading.

We hope you enjoy this weekly feature.