Keillor celebrates 35 years of ‘Prairie Home’

updated 1:12 p.m. ET June 22, 2009

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Humorist Garrison Keillor is returning to Lake Wobegon to celebrate the 35th anniversary of his popular "A Prairie Home Companion" radio show.

Keillor has added a Fourth of July broadcast of his show from Avon, the central Minnesota town that helped inspire Lake Wobegon, his fictional hometown.

Avon is on the Lake Wobegon Trail, a 46-mile hike-and-bike pathway in Stearns County, which Keillor says "is about as close to Lake Wobegon as you can get."

"A Prairie Home Companion" debuted on July 6, 1974, at Macalester College in St. Paul. The show is now heard on nearly 600 public radio stations nationwide and every week more than 4.3 million people listen to his tales about life in Lake Wobegon.

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