This is a production of SDPB That is something so very special about this community.

It's kind of like somebody has a dream and you share it with somebody and it's like, yeah.

Okay, well, what we need to do?

If somebody has a need, we're there.

No matter who you are, no matter what your need the community is there to rally around you.

It's the people.

The people are willing to step up ..

Probably the answer right there.

It's the people.

It's a pretty good little town.

That's what this community is.

Here's can do community.

And it served the community so well.

There are so many people like that.

We're a cool community.

We are cool.

Dang it, now that I think about it, we're cool!

[...la.. [Host] To get to know how cool this town really is, Join our crew as we meet the people who are making it grow.

Making it beautiful.

Making it healthy.

And making Burke, Burke.

Greetings from Burke, South Dakota.

Greetings from Burke.

Greetings from Burke.

Welcome to Burke, everyone come and see us.

Welcome to the Burke Stampede Rodeo.

Yeehaw!

Three.

Two.

One!

Greetings from Burke!

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Hello South Dakota.

My name is Tim Davison with South Dakota Public Broadcasting and welcome to Dakota Life.

We are here in the town of Burke, a place that has made it a priority to cultivate a sense of community.

But in addition to that, they cultivate a few other things, from sweet corn to zucchini, squash, you name it.

There's no better place to see it firsthand than here at the Burke Area Farmers Market.

For over a decade now, they've been trading in food, fun and family activities.

Yeah.

This is my first farmer's market.

I know they wanted me here last year.

It just didn't work out any Thursday.

And so it's been great to come here.

I know nothing about flowers.

What do we have here?

We have some market bunches.

We have snapdragons with the nigella.

We also have ranunculus and then anemonies.

They're beautiful.

Yes.

So the only anemonies that I know are on the coral reef.

Yes!

Snapdragons.

When I get them, the fresher they a..

If you smell them right now, they smell like jellybeans.

Okay, I gotta get in there.

Yes.

You guys smell them.

Yeah, jelly beans!

Okay!

Yes.

A little further down the line, we find another vendor with a green thumb.

I think my spinach sells fast, but my favorite is kale.

I grow the most kale.

Like.

That's what I'm producing the most.

So you're the kale queen?

I'm reluctant to call myself the kale Queen, but I love it myself.

Well, now you're going to be on TV as ‘The Kale Queen.’ Okay!

[Host] So we'll put it up there on screen.

[Meredith] Okay, I'll accept it.

Yeah.

I won’t fight it.

[Host] Awesome!

Well, this farmer's market is a huge deal, and it's really cool to see that even in such a small town, that there's still the best farmer's market in the state of South Dakota.

The connections between friends and neighbors are the secret sauce, explains longtime vendor, Peg Glover.

We've been coming for, I don't know, 4 or 5 years now, and it just keeps getting bigger.

And you get to stand here and visit with friends and meet people from other towns.

And it's amazing.

Someone who helps facilitate those connections is Fran Hill.

I am a co-manager here at the Burke Area Farmer's Market.

Social media, that's one of my things.

People like the puns, the vegetable puns.

They're kind of corny, but there our thing.

[laughter behind the camera - “...I love it..”] Oh yes, every dollar spent here goes right back into local people's pockets.

And this is a local people that are supporting all of your local events.

And the food.

The food is fresh.

It has a longer shelf life.

Everything is just better.

In 2018 we were still on Main Street.

It was a vacant lot on Main Street, and there were like an average of 5 or 6 vendors every week, and it was dusty.

There was no shade there.

We didn't offer a food truck or anything like that.

We moved here to the park.

We started getting food trucks.

The splashpad is an amazing thing because now families come have supper with the food truck.

Kids play in the playground in the splashpad.

We always have the kids activity and they do their shopping and it's really grown since we came here.

Burke has done a tremendous amount of work to the park and invested in in this for the community.

Meanwhile, on the other side of this community, our team investigates an unusual natural phenomenon.

Franklin Street may seem like a normal small town street, but it's got its own story to tell.

Beware the twin curse hit.

We kind of started it off, I think.

And then that just, I don't know, that's the thing to do to have twins on Franklin.

That's right.

In this town of 600 pe..

The Seberns, then Indahls, the Suttons and the Horns.

It's pretty cool.

I mean, obviously we're a lot older .. two of the sets anyways, but we still have, connections to all of their families, so it's a pretty neat deal.

Yeah, and especially just being such a small town, like the fact that everyone is on the same street is really kind of funny.

For some twins ran in their family.

My grandpa was a twin, and my dad always joked that one of his daughters would would carry on that twin trait, so I was the lucky one.

I have a set of uncles.

They're twins.

She has twins on her side .. My mom's dad.

So my grandpa was a twin.

Yeah, big time in my family.

I have a grandma that's a twin.

And then she in their family that three, two of their kids had three sets of twins.

And the other side of the family, I've got three cousins that have twins.

Yeah, there's a lot of twins on my side.

I didn't know that before I married her.

So.

No, it's it's been awesome.

Others, while they have a different way .. we had a very special journey with the twins.

A friend from high school.

Her name's Christy.

She wanted to be a surrogate, a gestational carrier.

And we went.

We went down that road in ‘21.

We started that.

So because because of my injury, you can get we do, in-vitro fertilization is how we had Liam and Lenny.

And so we and through that process you transfer embryos.

And that's what we did with Christy.

So we already had embryos of ours, and we transferred one embryo and it split.

And that's how we ended up with twins.

Identical twin boys.

Yep, yep.

You probably heard twins have their own language.

And the boy twins of Franklin Street are proving that point.

Lou started calling Lake Lakey, and, Lake calls.

He does better now, how you say it.

What does he call Lou?

So, Lake calls.

Lou, he used to call Lou, Moo.

When they were little, They kind of have their own little language and lingo.

I don't know, I Suttons are probably going through that right now.

Their little guys, but they had like, nicknames for each other because I couldn't quite say their names.

And we always, we always tease them.

When you're old enough to play basketball and you have the warm up shirts, you know how you have your name on the back.

We're gonna put those names on the back.

Yeah, yeah, I remember that.

Sabai and Sisson.

They calling each other that all the time.

Yeah, I remember that vividly.

So, if you're thinking of moving to Franklin Street here's some helpful advice.

I may warn them.

Yeah.

Get two of everything.

I guess.

Filter your water, take your water.

Yeah.

Don't drink it here.

Yeah, I think there needs to be, prerequisite question.

If you have twins in your family already or not, because, yeah, might show up.

Just keep up the good, I guess tradition, if you want to call it that of Franklin Street.

And everybody that lives on Franklin Street takes really good care of their place and makes Burke a nice place to live.

That's good.

That’s all I got.

What makes the spirit of a small town?

Well, here in Burke, it's the people like those twins in their families.

It's unique people with unique stories doing unique things.

And two of those people in Burke's history were inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame.

And they have a special connection.

They are the only mother son duo in the hall.

Adeline Gnirk was inducted in 1987.

Known around her community as the book Lady, she took her love of writing and combined it with a passion for the past.

Her history of Gregory and Charles Mix Counties amassed seven volumes, and her son, Paul Gnirk, was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2022, he was inducted as a co-founder of Respec, Inc., a consulting firm into geoscience engineering, data and technology solutions.

The parent exemplified legacy and sto.. Science and technology both had roots right here in Burke.

Another famous resident is a former pro rodeo cowboy.

Senate minority leader and gubernatorial candidate Billie Sutton is a man with many hats, but mainly a cowboy hat.

He speaks about his home community like most everyone does in Burke, he says.

It's a town with a giving spirit.

It's filled with neighbors who will always extend a helping hand.

Speaking of, the youth center here in town has offered a safe haven for Burke kids for over four decades.

What's the reaction like from kids when they first come in here?

If you've never been in here before, it's like, oh, this is amazing.

We need one of these in our town.

So after schools, we generally have anywhere from 20 to 25 kids that would probably be coming down.

That's normal.

on a school day in the summer, it varies if we have sporting events and different activities, but we can have in an afternoon 15 to 20 kids for sure.

The youth that are here doesn't charge a fee for kids to attend, nor does it ask the community for donations.

The money has always seemed to come in.

Burke has also always rallie..

It's a community owned hospital with several people with stories that are similar.

They left Burke to get educated and they return to.. Let's see more of the people in places of Burke, starting with a mural and a story.

Well, I guess I just it was just always my thing, always coloring and drawing.

since I was a young child.

Kate Witt has designed various murals in the town of Burke.

Today, she volunteered to paint the school's four square court, painted a mural in the back of the garage door when I was maybe in middle school, and painted a mural in my room.

My first mural I did was when I was in high school.

they gave me a little freedom to paint, like, drama masks, you know, by the drama room.

And I did band notes.

It was very amateur, but it also was my first time really doing something on my own, like, publicly.

And I wasn't afraid of that, you know, it was very exciting.

And I think I've always sort of felt like I needed to feel a little bit unique, to feel good in my skin and, making public art did that a little bit, but maybe more professionally, I don't know, 12, maybe ten, 10 or 12 murals.

One of those murals, a tribute to Rich Bailey, a previous city superintendent, all thanks to his wife, Margaret Ann.

She had some specific ideas on what she wanted.

She, of course, wanted her husband, who she loved so much, Rich, who was a lineman.

And, he drove around that rusty old truck all over Burke, everybody knew it.

And so that was really important that his truck got in there.

And then as we talked, she threw more stuff in.

She said, I want the Burke fire truck in there.

I want Burke ambulance and I want an American flag.

and then after that she said, do what you want.

So again, that was one of these times where I got a list of things, and then I had to figure it out.

Although Kate has a deep passion for the arts, she found her way into another career.

Well, I came from a long line of teachers, so everybody just assumed I'd be a teacher.

My mom, my brothers, my aunts.. my grandparents were all teachers and administrators, but I really wanted to go to college to be an artist.

So that was the plan.

And, I stuck with that.

So I teach K-12 art.

So all the classes teach all the elementary kids, all the middle school kids, and then the high school kids who want to take art.

And I teach art, one, two and three and then graphic design one and two.

And along the way, Kate found her right hand man.

Pretty good with tape measure, I guess.

I help her out with getting snapping lines.

it's a crazy amount of, chalk lining and and and things like that.

I help with, getting into the high spots and with the sprayers and things like that.

I didn't know I really had a creative.. And then we we, like I say, we just kind of.

We work well together.

Kate enlisted more help for a mural at the local park, figuring out a design that 70 sets of hands can get in, and still look good.

You know, that's tricky, because I can't expect, first grader to paint a face, you know, or paint, with a lot of detail.

They're going to need a big brush and a big area.

So that was the challenge, thinking of big areas that kids can paint.

And then, of course, I go in and touch up, make sure those lines are really crisp.

but this was fun.

I had kids, I just printed a picture of the building without the mural on it, and I had them all design, you know, whatever they want, just so they could think about.

What would I put on that if I.

If I was doing it?

But this is what we came up with in the end.

I wanted it to be really playful.

It's elementary kids, really bright and colorful.

so that's what we came up with.

Four hours south of Burke, Kate has designed multiple murals in her hometown of Ogallala, Nebraska.

In her newest mural, she swapped paint brushes for squeegees.

With this mural, I was sort of consulting because there was a whole nother group that was going to come in and paint this, and then it was talked about that maybe I would design it and then they would paint it.

And then I thought, well, I think I could paint it.

And so they jumped on that and said, all right, do you want to do it?

Let's do it.

So I did that.

And while I was involved with sort of the consulting part, there was a lot of talk about, Oscar Howe, which is one of our most famous South Dakota artists.

And, I'm sort of new to his work, and I love his work.

And so it is.

Oscar Howe inspired by one of his pieces called, Warrio.. he did this really neat geometric borders around a lot of his work.

And so there is this geometric border that really mirrors his work in that.

For Kate, a moment in time, but for the countless eyes of the future, a sight to see.

I was thinking about this before I sat down with you, that just because we're a small town doesn't mean we can't have nice things and things that you want in your lives that you don't always think a small town would have.

So that's nice.

You know, not being from here and, and having some of those things that are arts and culture, a little bit of that here is is great.

The beauty of Kate's murals can be.. but for over 30 years now, there's been three days in late July where you can see the fine arts of riding, roping and steer wrestling on full display here at the Burke Stampede Rodeo.

Okay, partners, let's get your Stampede ready and Stampede rowdy.

You know what to do!

On the count of three.

One, two, three.

Yeeehaaaww!

[Announcer] These steers out weigh ‘em by 400 pounds.

Twelve and six, Silar Dalley, on the night.

12.6.

[Host] Before I get Stampede rowdy, I need to get Stampede ready.

All right.

I think this is the winner.

[Salesman] Is that the..

I think this is the one.

What do you think?

Here?

Right there?

[Behind Camera] Beautiful.

[Salesman] You look like a co.. [Laughter all around] With my brand new hat, it's time to make some friends.

I just met Coconuts and my new friend who's going to be running the flags around the arena.

Renee Sutton came to me and wanted to know if I wanted to run the Burke Stampede Rodeo flag that we have.

It's always a big deal.

It's a big deal if you run THE Stampede flag.

So, I said, sure why not?

I'll give it a shot.

[Host] And they hooked you up with the coolest chaps in the world?

[Morgan] Yes, they did!

It's actually our 35th year.

Except that we didn't have a rodeo the year of covid.

The arena was built by Jerry Hutchinson.

He had a drug store on Main Street.

He saw this piece of land, kind of untouched land owned by the city.

And he approached him.

He had a dream.

And his dream was that he wanted to build an arena where kids could come and ride and play and learn the cowboy way.

I started this project back in the 80s to get the arena built for little kids to ride and learn how to rope a little bit.

It's actually started right here.

We proceeded to the south east and we didn't know how far to go.

We just kept going until we thought it was about the right dista.. We took off across to the other side and come back.

Some people gave money, some people gave time and they welded this beautiful all steel facility.

It was just amazing.

The people come out and help and this was all done .. That's after they worked all day.

So I never dreamt there'd be a rodeo and nobody else ev..

But now a lot of my friends that are still alive, they kind of, when they see me coming, they go the other way.

They think I might have another project in my mind.

Oh, I'm just kidding.

[Laughs] Like a young colt becoming a handsome stallion, this rodeo had some growing to do.

We had play days and we had ranch rodeos here, and then we got to scratching our head.

And what if we put on an amateur rodeo here?

And so we did.

1990 was our first year and we we were many times the South Dakota Rodeo Association Rodeo of the Year.

We were doing everything that a professional rodeo would do.

We were bringing in the big screen.

We were bringing in a professional funnyman.

We had a professional announcer.

We were bringing in professional acts.

And the only thing we weren't doing is asking the professional cowboy and cowgirl to ride in our arena dirt.

When they did ask, professionals heeded the call and arena dirt went flying strai..

So our first professional rodeo was in 2021 and it was e.. No going back.

We got we've got big plans, big plans.

[Host] we're going to head back into town and get all the new hot goss from Mrs. Brunz.

The first thing Myrna Brunz does in the morning is.. And then the second thing that I do is we go to the track.

We try to go early to avoid the heat.

And then I come back and do dandelion detail.

She does four laps with her daughter, Cass walking in opposite directions.

They high five and give words of encouragement as they pass each other.

They also count laps by eating a mulberry off a nearby bush.

The rest of the day is hers to be a champion of her hometown.

Like Monday, we have a dinner on Main.

Cahoy's Kitchen is closed on Mondays, so if they're going to have a fundraiser, they have to do it on Mondays.

On Wednesdays and once a month I go to the senior citizens birthday party.

It's a potluck.

Myrna writes down in her daily planner all her activities and uses those no.. as she types her weekly local news column for the Burke Gazette.

I always get up.

I put out the put down what time it is, what ..

Gentle breeze devotions done at 7:17.

Track.

We got the track done.

Dandelion duty.

To really understand 93 year old Myrna, you have to know her path hasn't always been easy.

Myrna grew up attending a country school, so I came into high school kind of a shy country girl.

But by the time I got to be a junior, I had settled in.

Myrna taught elementary school 44 years with 39 of those in Burke.

She prides herself in making sure her students knew there arit.. were responsible for themselves and did their daily reading.

I would write notes after school and stick it in their desk and never say anything, but it would encourage them that I noticed, and that was fun.

And then they would write me.

Some of it was wonderful notes that I would cherish.

Students still stop to greet her, and many subscribe to the local paper just to read about her daily activities.

Oh, I would describe the newspaper here as, kind of a highlight reel or a small town Facebook almost because, the stories we plug in there are so just, small town community.

The Burke Gazette publishes Myrna’s work under local news.

People love reading the local news.

And, Myrna does such a good job taking you through her day, taking you through her week.

Chloe Kocer says the town people know if they talk with Myrna one day, they're going to be in the paper the next week.

She says, they don't mind.

Myrna insists anyone can contribute to the local news section, but no one does.

And I use my my, diary there.

And then I cross off what I think.

And sometimes if something negative slips in there, suddenly the paragraph, well, it goes away and I say, okay, Lord, we got to do that differently.

So we always have to be positive, always.

I said, there's enough negative in this world.

Myrna says she does this because she's indebted to the community.

They were there for her when her husband died.

I tell you that this town has healed me.

There's been so good to me.

So I try to celebrate my town.

I try to get as many names in there as I can, you know, and people love that.

I think I give them a taste of home.

It's how life should be.

Easy.

Fun.

Age is just a number.

And somebody said to me, you're always happy.

Well, they'll say, they're always saying, well, how are you?

And then I say, I choose to be wonderful.

Life is a choice.

We choose negative or positive.

Negative is draining.

Positive is uplifting.

That's how I choose to be.

[Host] To choose the positive despite the negative, a Mrs. Brunz lesson that it seemed to stick with the people of Burke, helping them find the silver linings on even the darkest clouds.

When we had our tornado in 2019, it devastated one end of town.

Pretty much.

I was at home that night.

I though..

So I came up and I'm looking out the window an.. there was a lot of hail east of here.

I thought, well, great.

I came out pretty good at this one.

We get the hail.

Chief of the fire department told me that he's on his way back from a fishing trip in Michigan, and he says, you better go downtown because half the town isn’t there anymore.

So I tried to get down here.

I met at the fire hall.

That was the meeting point for everything.

Second, you had to dodge around trees that were hundreds of trees down, and the immediate aftermath was local people from other towns, all the local people, farmers were bringing in their tractors and loaders.

And no matter what what you had done to your place, there was somebody there to help you clean up.

And then when you cleaned up, you went to somebody else's place.

It was amazing how everybody came together and somebody has a problem.

It really is a good community where everybody else will try to help out.

If somebody has a need were there no matter who you are, no matter what your need, you know, it's just what we do in a small town, we had people donating food.

We set up at the fire hall for meals, and the people here are known for.

So if they needed something, they just would do it.

They just collect, raise the money and do it and that to me is it's part of the part of being a member of a community that we you have to be a giver rather than to taker in my opinion.

If you missed any of our stories here in Burke, or want to go back and take another look, you can visit us at sdpb.org/dakotalife.

From Gregory County, I'm Tim Davison and for all of us here at SDPB, thank you for watching Dakota Life.

[Live Music - Rehme Sutton] ...So you never know what god knows... ...Now he rides for South Dakota on Capitol Hill...

...Toughest cowboy I’d ever seen... ...He’ll always be a hero to me...