Opening ceremony tonight in Hanley Falls for Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall

HANLEY FALLS -- Local American Legion posts will lay wreaths during an opening ceremony at 7 p.m. today at the Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall near the Minnesota Machinery Museum in Hanley Falls.

The wall arrived by truck on Wednesday evening, and volunteers and Legion members on Thursday erected the wall, which is a three-fifths scale model of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C.

The wall will be available for the public to see through Sunday, said Gary Velde, one of the organizers who helped bring the wall to Hanley Falls. The traveling memorial was in Minneota during its last visit to southwestern Minnesota.

Yellow Medicine Lutheran Church is planning to remember area veterans at its 9 a.m. Sunday service, said Velde.