Driftless Stories

Winter 2025-26 Inspire(d) At Inspire(d) Magazine, we write positive stories about neighbors doing good things. The idea is that folks will read these stories and…

As summer days slip away and goldenrod buds swell, birdsong is replaced by a six-legged symphony. The three tenors of the Driftless Area – cicadas,…

Decorah’s community theatre group, New Minowa Players, have been welcoming people into its unique and vibrant family for the last 50 years. Since the troupe’s…

Decorah artist Angie Herrmann has embedded painting into everyday life. Perhaps it’s this real-life aspect of her work that makes it strike such a chord…

It’s not uncommon to see Dr. Jodi Enos-Berlage, a biology professor and researcher at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, lugging a decent-sized clump of dirt…

Happy 18th birthday to Inspire(d) Magazine! I love personifying our mag (it’s as demanding as a child), so: If Inspire(d) was a person, it could…

When we switched printers in 2023, we decided to start featuring local photographers’ work in the Center Spread spot in each Inspire(d) Magazine. We wanted…

Ah, summer camp! Pack your hiking boots and your flashlight, because it’s time for canoeing, hiking, and playing chamber music. Wait, what? Yes, we are…

You can’t have your cake and eat it too.  Or so goes the old saying. Still, Wendy Stevens sure does try. The Decorah resident and…

While the discovery that Decorah sits atop an ancient impact crater and was once home to the world’s oldest-recorded sea scorpion, Pentecopterus decorahensis, may seem…

For artist Pete Sandker, painting in the Driftless and living in the Driftless are forever intertwined. “The patterns and cycles of nature, the flowers and…

Spring Grove has a vibrancy that’s easy to see but kind of hard to explain. With a population of about 1,200, the Southeast Minnesota town…