This is a production of SDPB We live in a beautiful place.

South Dakota is just a gorgeous place.

Towns be what they are is the good volunteers that, are there in town to be on the fire department, to be on the ambulance, to be delivering meals on wheels.

If you haven't ever heard of Garretson, you need to find out about us.

If you've never been here, you need to come and visit us.

We're a town full of people who love everybody who comes to town.

You'll have a great time.

I guarantee it.

[Pig - "I agree!

Garretson is a wonderful place."]

[Shotgun - "BANG!

Garretson is great!"

Host Narration - Join our crew as we meet the people who are painting, preserving and guiding in Garretson.

Greetings from Glean for Good in Garretson, South Dakota Greetings from Garretson.

Greetings from Garretson.

Greetings from Garretson.

Greetings from Garretson.

Greetings from Palisades Oil Company in Garretson, South Dakota.

Greetings from Garretson.

The City of Parks.

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Welcome to Dakota Life.

We're here today in beautiful Garretson, South Dakota.

Or at least its original location on the banks of Split Rock Creek.

Back when this town was known as Palisades.

Today, that name is carried over to arguably one of the most beautiful parks in our state.

Palisades State Park.

This slice of heaven attracts visitors from all over the country.

Many meet Myrle.

Volunteer and campground host since the summer of 2012 and in 2021 he earned the South Dakota Parks and Recreation Volunteer of the Year Award.

I say hi to everybody.

Everybody I run across.

You know, I run across that, you know, if I know 'em or not.

Well, most I don't know.

First thing I pretty much say it's, where you're from, you know?

And you ever been here before?

That's the main thing.

Have you been here before?

And if they haven't been here before, Oh, yeah.

I keep a whole stock the maps back here, It's so much different than most state parks I know.

With the cliffs and Split Rock Creek coming through the middle of it, you know, and king and queen rock and, balancing rock.

The two, two highlights here.

That's what, brings people in.

A lot of people just come out here just to walk, you know, they love walking.

It's a beautiful place to walk.

You know, we got some beautiful trails here that people just love.

Taking these trail.

We gonna be adding more to the new park.

[Host] The recently opened expansion project added over 250 acres and many more amenities to the park.

But despite everything new, we're interested in what's old.

There was the town of Palisades up above King and Queen Rock, back late eightteen hundreds then, the whole town got moved into Garretson.

But it was a pretty, pretty good sized little town down there, I guess they had a lot of shops and everything you think of.

It all started with an idea and a miller named C.W.

Patten.

[Voice of Historian] Enterprise.

Truly, that's what Palisades was.

And Garretson turned out to be.

You had a, gentleman who decided to start a milling facility for the farmers to bring in their wheat.

And he would mill it into flour So, the palisades started around this mill.

If you've ever been to the Palisades, you know you're up in the air quite a ways.

And that's where the mill was.

The Split Rock Creek is way down there, so they had to get an attachment from the waterwheel to bring power up to run the mill.

Can you imagine carving a whole in through quartzite all the way up to the top and running some kind of cable device, two of them, up and down so it could power that from the water wheel to power that mill to turn these stones.

So there was jobs.

You had homesteaders I've got my little piece of heaven, 160 acres, but I don't have any money, so if I can make a few bucks here and there by, you know, working at the, the mill, that's what I'm going to do.

everything was very manual.

So I'm, I'm scooping grain into the mill, I'm grinding, and I'm sacking it up for, people.

The farmers are bringing their, their wheat in by horses on a cart.

So you can imagine it's a very, labor intensive process.

[Host] People at the time made a living with their horses.

one local resident today makes a living with horses in a bit of a different way.

Well, at first they're a little afraid of it.

Which is understandable, but, I, I try to host some parties and get people to come in, and, More and more people come in every day.

The high school kids even come in after school and sit and wait for their friends and stuff.

[...laughs...] come to see the cat and, you know, so it's it's, it's not quite a gathering spot, but.

Yeah, it's, it's been a pleasant, pleasant interaction between everybody.

What do they tell you about their reservations?

It was just a hesitation that I could see, they would, like, look in the door and just look around, and I'd have to say, come on in.

At first they said, "Is it okay if I watch?"

Oh, yeah.

Sure.

You know, after a while and after I'd have community art shows too, and that that helped bring people in and understand that this is a welcome place to be.

And you don't need to be afraid of the art.

You don't need to be afraid of what you like and what you dislike.

Susan Haygood knows a thing or two about hesitation.

The artist whose work is influenced by everything from prehistoric cave paintings to Cubist modernism, struggled to find her voice in art school.

I mean, I I've been drawing horses since I was ten.

I just... horses are just part of my life, part of my fascination.

And, something I think about, but everybody always says "Can't you do anything else?"

So, I'm in my freshman year at college, and I'm sitting at the desk drawing flamingos from the National Geographic, which is embarrassing.

And my teacher came up and he says, my professor, he says, "Why are you drawing flamingos?"

And I said, well, you know, I saw this in the book.

I thought it was kind of cool.

He said, "Well, do you know anything about flamingos?"

Well, I read the article.

They turn pink from shrimp.

You know, and he says, "Well, you know, you spent the entire semester in drawing class talking about your horse.

Why aren't you drawing horses?"

And I was like, you're kidding.

And he said, "Well, why not?

I mean, it's something that you know, you know how they move, you know, you know their graces, you know, and you know their soul and it's part of you.

It's part of what you are.

And that can be put into your artwork and that, that, that inner, that inner connection that you have with them can become part of your artwork."

And it's like, really?

I have I okay, you know, so off I went, you know, and I was like my entire senior show in, undergraduate school were horses.

Haygood's father was artist and sign painter Gary Hartenhoff, her grandmother's painted, stitched and sewed.

She's learned ceramics and leather braiding In winter, Haygood travels southwest, following the art market.

But her gallery and the landscape around Garretson remain enduring inspiration, always calling her and her brushes home.

And you just walk around and you see the slight undulations of the curves and the distant trees and things, and I've only seen artists be able to create that because.

you have to constantly roam your eye and photograph, it's just a still picture that doesn't let you, capture those nuances.

So, I mean, good photography.

Yeah.

Yeah, you can do it.

But, I mean, I mean, who can't love to be here?

Horses are also at the heart of a classic Garretson area legend.

You may have heard of the Wild West, but Garretson is South Dakota's Wild East.

The story everyone in town knows, is quite a leap.

Jesse James is one of the most famous outlaws of American history He and his brother Frank were known for their high-stakes robberies, Including the world's first train robbery, near Adair, Iowa.

But our story begins with a robbery that went awry.

In 1876, the James-Younger gang held up a bank in Northfield, Minnesota.

When cashier, Joseph Heywood refused to open the vault...

He was murdered.

Locals were tipped off and started shooting at the gang outside.

Several gang members were killed and the rest were seriously wounded, including Jesse.

The remaining outlaws fled, before splitting up to evade the mob of angry Minnesotans who almost lost their life-savings.

Jesse stayed with his brother, Frank and rode west.

Those are the facts.

But here's the legend.

With the posse hot on his heels.

Jesse spotted a possible escape.

He came across Devil's Gulch and a 20ft chasm.

Or maybe it was 18ft or 17ft.

Either way, with the posse in sight and Jesse at a gallop, he spurred the horse and kicked it into another gear.

And as legend has it, they launched across the canyon, landing safely on the other side with the posse left behind.

Dumbfounded.

So it makes you wonder, is there truth behind this legend?

[Behind Camera} Did he make the jump?

Of course he did!

Understand that if you go out to, Devil's Gulch right now and look around, you know, there's been erosion that's happened.

There's been rocks that have fell off there.

So the jump that maybe would have happened at that time.

Isn't the jump that would happen today.

The sign outside Devil's Gulch Canyon sums up Garretson and the Palisades perfectly.

It's the home of beauty, mystery and legend.

And these legends come to life once a year during Jesse James days.

[sound of loud speaker in the distance] [sounds of kids and people speaking] [sounds of diesel engines] [sounds of fire truck sirens] [sounds of drum line] While the parade continues on, we learn more about the legend of Jesse James from producer Jordyn Henderson, who hops aboard this famous pontoon.

Bruce Reckstad runs a boat tour highlighting the history of Jesse James' adventure.

We do the Jesse James pontoon ride in Garretson.

It's by reservation only.

It's a ride that entails obviously going up the river.

We talk about the Native American population that was here prior to us Europeans coming over.

we talk about the river itself and where it originates and where dumps back into.

We talk about, obviously, Jesse James and the Jesse James adventure and the bank robbery attempt We talk about the rocks, the Quartzsite rock formations that we have here, and a little bit about geology Reckstad has been doing this tour for 33 years.

Business boomed when he first started.

We gave tours up the river and just regular boats, We just did it.

A bunch of us guys got our boats up there and, the city had me rent a pontoon, and we had line ups all the way back up to the parking lot waiting for trips.

It was a dollar per person.

So all day long we would just go back and forth and back and forth.

That was in 89.

The Jesse James Boat Tours are active every day starting after Memorial Day and stop when school starts.

Reckstad says he doesn't advertise his service in any way.

Our business has always been word of mouth.

We have I it's just me personally.

If you have something that's worth its chips and people are going to pay for it.

This way of thinking has brought people from all over to boat tours ranging from Iraq to Honolulu.

The enjoyable part is you meet people from all over the world.

showing them our God given beauty that we have here.

this part of South Dakota is not known to many people at all.

The tours last anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour, depending on what customers want to learn more about the main topic.

Jesse James, They walked into the bank thinking, this is going to be easy beans.

The bank teller refused to open the vault, Mr. Heywood.

So they shot and killed him.

And then they realized that he was the only guy that could open the vault.

Whoops.

Ran out of the bank.

Fitz Miller and Chadwell were killed.

Bob Cole and Jim Younger captured.

Frank and Jesse got away, and only Jesse Frank was wounded.

He was in Sioux Falls getting medical attention.

So he.

And they think about Valley Springs, South Dakota.

Jesse the farmer gave Frank directions to go into Sioux Falls because he was about dead.

He said, you got to get in there.

And then Jesse, they think, waited for the posse and then drew him this way so his brother could get away.

Left side.

See the over on the big wide gap over there where the tree limbs are sticking out.

That's the beginning of Jesse James cave.

So when I was a boy, we would put our inner tubes at the base of that gap, walk halfway up that gap, and jump on a rock ledge to the right side of it.

Then you walk through this column, lower up and down boulder, and it's got a ten foot high hole, tunnel you walk through, and then you come out on this side, see the two holes up there where the rocks converge?

Yeah, doesn't look like much.

But once you go into those two holes, you're now on a ten foot high, 25ft deep Jesse James cave.

That's where they think.

Jesse James holed out.

1876 after their unsuccessful bank robbery attempt During the school year, Reckstad works as a teacher for the Sioux Falls School District.

He says he has built a wealth of knowledge, from schooling to customers that go on his boat tours.

It's my opportunity to show off what we have in Garretson Reckstad promises to continue the boat tours until he no longer can.

Thanks for coming on, you guys.

Meanwhile, back at the parade, there's a rumor that a stick up is about to take place.

[...twangy western music gets louder over an unsuspecting crowd...] [...gunshots ring out...] Drop your gun!

It's the sheriff!

Jesse James - "Where's Bob?"

Gang member - "He's dead?"

"Are you sure?"

"They're both dead!"

We heard you good information that there's an easy bank to be robbed, in Garretson So this seemed like the perfect opportunity to take a chance and come in town and see what's going on and investigate.

However, banks like the one in Garretson were one step ahead in protecting their money from thieves like the James Gang.

They had the safe set up to where if you didn't know the combination and you opened the doors, the safe would blow up in your face.

Members of the Garretson Area Historical Society discovered such a booby trap in their museum, which is housed in a former bank.

Everything that's in here, in this room is in the place it was when the bank was still open.

So all the tellers windows, the bank vaults.

Well, it's kind of interesting.

We had a, locksmith come up because we had some door locks that were not functioning well.

And while he was here, he said, well, can I take a look at your, vaults?

I'm really interested in vaults.

I said sure.

And so we came over here and he looked at it, and he says, "You know what that is?"

I said, "No..." He says, "That's a booby trap."

Like what?

He says, "It's probably live."

And he looked on the other door, going into the other side.

And it also was there and life.

And I said, okay, so what do we do about it?

He says, well, I can I can take them off.

But we have to be very careful because they're filled with industrial use, tear gas.

The idea was if somebody tried to punch the lock or blow the safe door, this glass tube inside this aluminum housing would shatter and flood the whole bank with very, very potent tear gas.

Luckily, the Garretson Gazette was on hand to document the disarming.

The subsequent article won the paper a 2021 South Dakota News Media Award for the feature story by Garrick Moritz.

The last stop for Jesse James days is fitting for Garretson.

It involves trains, which played an essential role in Garrison's origin story.

Time went on.

They, railroad went through to Sioux Falls, Willmar, to Sioux Falls But all of a sudden the, a consortium out of, Sioux City decided, you know, we're going to put a short line in down to Sioux City.

And, the gentleman's name who was involved in that was, named Mr. Garretson.

He was a what did they call that?

A cashier at a bank in Sioux City.

he had access to money being the cashier.

he knew business.

his idea was to try to, connect up this railroad from Willmar, Minnesota, going past here and, run it down to, Sioux City.

His, stated goal at the time when you read the Sioux City newspapers is is he wanted Sioux City to be the Chicago out west.

Well, village of Sherman is just up the road.

at the time, there was a Mr. Sherman.

They thought, they had a deal all negotiator on that?

Mr. Sherman decided to take his wife on vacation to California for a month.

Mr. Garretson must have had insight to that, because he quickly came up and, negotiated with the railroad to make this switching station, be it Garretson instead of Sherman.

The reason it wasn't down at Palisades is because of the, you know, the rough terrain and the hills and and all that.

So Garretson and Sherman were both good places to do that.

the people that own the land, you know, are making, substantial, moneys, selling that property by the foot instead of by the acre.

While Mr. Garretson made a handsome profit, he also gave away commercial land to the folks in Palisade and offered to pay for moving business buildings to his new location two miles to the north.

Trains became an inseparable part of Garretson's history and continue to inspire residents today, one of whom, is Rich Holzapfel Grew up in Garretson here.

Went to Garretson High School, Graduated from Garretson High School, then I went to Alaska.

Went to work on the Alaska Railroad there.

It was a good job I enjoyed it a lot.

Raised a family up there.

And I worked there for 35 years and retired, in 2008 and moved back here.

my grandson was four, so it'd be like 2016.

He started watching Thomas the Train, he says, grandpa, we should have a train.

After pulling his model trains from storage, Rich and his grandson started building what eventually turned into a re-creation of Garretson that's in the museum today.

I've got all the landmarks around and, pretty much everything in my memory from, say, a ten year old kid in early to mid 1960s when Garretson was, it was a hoppin' place.

It had three grocery stores, two hardware stores.

We had two car dealerships two implement dealers.

Everybody came to town on Saturday to shop at the grocery stores, and if you didn't come early, you'd have a hard time finding a parking place on the street it was a great place to grow up.

I wish she would have gotten to see this, but she never did.

I wanted to do this for her because when we first met, I came back from Alaska on vacation for the first time in 1976.

I'd gone up there in 73.

And while I was back here, It was spring, my grandpa still had a farm, and my uncle did.

And I went to help them with some planting.

my grandpa was, in his late 70s, I guess.

Anyway, I was shoveling seed into the broadcaster for oats, and my uncle says, I haven't seen Charlie come up over that hill for quite a while.

we stopped what we were doing, and we ran over the hill and the disc was all tangled up in a fence and to make a long story short, he had had a heart attack and, we called the ambulance my grandma had never driven, so they just didn't do that back then.

They didn't learn how to drive.

So I was the one on vacation so I could drive grandma to the hospital every day It was McKennan hospital at that time.

This beautiful girl was working as a ward clerk And we hit it off that was where I met my wife.

And, I was only here for a few days, and so we had to cram a whole bunch into just a couple, three days.

And so I brought her out to Garretson.

She lived in Sioux Falls.

She never really been out of town that much.

Anyway, I brought her out here and took her to the Palisades, took her to Split Rock Park.

And anyway, as soon as we came over the hills out there, coming into town, she says, this is Matt Dillon country.

And I've always remembered that.

And it gets me every time.

so we had three dates and I had to go back to Alaska and.

I don't know, fate, whatever.

Something happened not to the airplane here, but where my connection was going to be.

And they said that I could either stay an extra day here or I could fly to Seattle and spend the night there I go, well, I'll stay here because my parents had taken me, just taken me to the airport to drop me off so I come back, I said, I can't fly today.

And they said, what do you want to do?

I said, well, take me to Corey's house.

So they took me there and she was crying and I was crying.

And anyway, before that day was over and I went back to Alaska, I asked her to marry me, and after three days she said yes.

And then in that was in May.

In October I came back and we got married and we had 45 years together.

And, anyway... [Behind Camera] So are you saying that the town of Garretson and the beauty of this place helped seal the deal?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, she loved it out here.

The rural beauty around Garretson has brought people together since its founding.

Today, there's no better example than just south of town at Glean for Good.

We were just overwhelmed with how popular it was.

And I think, it seems to be the universal experience that you feel comfortable just sitting and petting the animals.

You feel great doing the yoga.

It seems like any age, any ability, it just ends up being a wonderful experience with no agenda, except maybe some stretching and mindless, you know, exercise.

But then just having some good therapy outside.

Nicky and Clark are the yogis, and they happen to be our neighbors looking for an opportunity to use their yoga skills.

and they also wanted to do something fun, but didn't have goats or necessarily a backyard to do it.

And I did.

So that's another example of just I had an abundance of space.

These goats really don't do a lot except eat and hang out.

And it was just a perfect combination for for us three.

[yoga instructor] And a big breath out.

The idea behind gleaning is that those with abundance would have no extra, that anything that we have extra is not thought of as waste, but it's thought of as something that can have a real purpose and, that those with little have enough.

And so to just make sure that, you know, those around us are being taken care of.

I'm a family physician, and I think a lot of people don't realize that a good third of my practice is actually, mental health related.

And that over and over again with my patients, I realize that there is, if not a cure, maybe, a remedy or an antidote.

and that's connection And it just seems like the universal thing that we all have abundance of is time and a desire to connect.

And so I just want this to be a space where people feel like they can do that.

in whatever it is a farm to table event, a class, a field trip, basically like a petting zoo.

Live nativity.

I mean, I could just go on and on.

the Girl Scout chapter that's in our area has been very active.

FFA has been very active and, what some of the students at the Garretson High School have been amazing at helping me round up some of the bulls and planting what we call our food forest, so I, I really am grateful for the young people.

Glean for Good Farm is a place that those who have zero experience on a farm that they can come out here and know that no experience necessary, and you're going to have a great time.

I think that this allows an appreciation for farm life when, those that aren't in agriculture aren't sure how to quite get there or meet somebody or have that experience.

Do you want to hold them?

And my hope is that after visiting here, there's a real appreciation for the hard work that goes into caring for animals garden, a field and so on.

If you'd like to check out any more of our stories here in Garretson, or just want to take another look.

You can visit us at sdpb.org/dakotalife and from Glean for Good here in Garretson.

On behalf of all the goats and everybody at SDPB, Thank you for watching Dakota Life.