Charles Kuralt once said, thanks to the interstate highway system, it's now possible to travel from coast to coast without seeing anything.

Hi, and welcome to Tacoma Life.

I'm Larry Rohr.

South Dakota is a state that stretches across nearly 77,000mi².

And no matter how many times you've traveled the state, there always seems to be places that you've missed.

For example, you may have known that there was an opera house in the town of lead and that it had sustained a devastating fire years ago.

But did you also know there's a group of citizens working to restore the town's landmark?

We visited the opera house a few years ago on Dakota Life, and now Stephanie Ressler takes us back to check in on the progress of the opera house.

This is the center of the community.

This was built between 1912 and 1914 by Homestake.

It was a thousand seat theater, had a swimming pool beneath the theater, a bowling alley, fencing rooms, card rooms had a small shooting range.

It also had the Hearst Library, which had over 10,000 volumes.

So this was the community.

This was everything.

It was all free to except for the theater, which was a nickel.

So it was it was bleed.

It was called the Jewel of the Black Hills, and it attracted patrons from miles around.

That was until April 2nd, 1984, when a fire destroyed the building and everything inside, leaving it exposed to the elements for further destruction.

A year later, a roof was placed on the building, yet it sat untouched and empty until 1998.

I visited the lead opera house back then.

At that time, there was talk and hope that the opera house would someday be brought back to life.

The last time I visited the lead opera house back in 1998, this hallway was nothing but a blank space.

The walls were charred, the floor was burnt up, and down the hallway were remains from what was left of the fire.

Through this doorway was the swimming pool.

Inside the swimming pool where the old theater seats remains from the floor, ceiling and stage today.

It houses the Lead Smart Center, which includes several offices and worldwide video conferencing technology.

When this is finished, we want this to once again be the center of a community.

The community is not just lead its lead Deadwood, the northern Black Hills, the entire Black Hills, and the state.

We want this to be a treasure for this state.

There's nothing like it anywhere else in the state.

This will seat 850 people.

So we will do plays.

We will do musicals.

We'll do live theater.

We'll do movies.

We will have the capability, when this is finished, to video conference worldwide for 850 people.

Stephanie, this is probably what you remember from your first visit, except there was not a cap over the pool.

The pool is under here.

This is the shallow end.

The deep end is in the conference room.

This is also where we do all of the plaster work.

This is really where everything happens down here.

Old pieces are molded with polyurethane and then plaster poured in.

So we're using the old pieces that we take from upstairs to make replicas for the plaster.

Replicas are being handmade by some of the men who once used the opera house.

Miners from the Homestake Mine.

Well, when we started, the pool was full of just garbage.

The city had used it for, you know, putting their stuff in here, in here.

And pigeons had used the building for years.

You could stand in the bottom of the pool and look at the roof.

So since then, we've covered the pool with a slab, built the smart center, put the floor in the theater, jack the projection booths back up, and kind of framed the balcony.

And now we're rebuilding the foyer.

And the two lobbies upstairs and downstairs lobbies are just about complete.

We've had up to 20 people working in here, the majority of which were former Homestake employees.

So it's been a great experience to see men that were working underground for 15 or 20 years come to this incredibly delicate project and learn new skills and be happy in their job.

Sue Stone and Douglas grew up in lead and has fond memories of the opera house.

Our visit with Sue in 1998 was somber yet promising.

Today, she has a different outlook for the future of the opera House.

To have it being used is just instead of just sitting here, a shell.

It's the center of the community again, even though it's not finished yet.

This has been just truly a gem in not only the Black Hills region, but in the whole region.

And this this project symbolizes rebirth of a community.

It symbolizes jobs.

It's an economic development project as well as a historic preservation project.

While many will remember the building as it looked from the 1950s and on, the renovation team has decided to take it back to how it originally looked in 1914.

One of the most interesting is that in the front foyer, I think it's two years ago now.

We've discovered two windows that had been covered over probably in the 40s.

We have the original windows in there now, the original glass.

We had a paint conservator here, Ron Koenig, who's from Michigan.

We kept looking at these murals and he said, you know, they really don't fit in with the air.

And I don't think they're original.

So he started to scrape on the murals and discovered underneath there's very delicate poppies on a gold leaf background.

So we're going back to those.

Well, right now, Stephanie, we're in the balcony and obviously it's not finished, but we'll be soon.

And what we're looking at is the proscenium arch that's also all plaster.

This building is amazing with all the plaster work that we're working on now.

In the center are the cherubs that everyone remembers.

And that's really the logo for the opera house.

We also have the box seats that have been framed in in the front of the balcony.

And right there you can see we're working on one of the box seats to replace the plaster work.

So that's where we're at right now.

Would you like to go downstairs, look at the theater and the stage?

Let's go.

Now, Stephanie, we're on the main theater floor.

We're looking at the stage, the orchestra pit, and then that fabulous proscenium arch that we talked about before.

Well, Stephanie, this is one of my favorite pieces.

This was the electrical board, the light board for the theater that was built in 1912.

It was built by a home state miner.

And this was all hot.

So it was called a dead man's board.

And today it still can work.

People cry.

They literally come in and they'll pri.

But this was this is where you had your first date.

This is where you had your first kiss.

This is where you learn to swim.

This is where you learn to bow.

If I see ghosts of myself all over this whole building, like, you know, trying to learn to swim and never learning to swim and using the library.

I mean, I just see myself as a kid with still more work ahead of them.

Some may wonder if the biggest hurdle isn't finishing the opera house, but rather once the work is done keeping it alive.

Without the Homestake Mine, the whole area is going to have to change to a different base.

Tourism.

Basically, just because the mines are not here, people aren't going to leave.

They're coming in droves from other parts of the country now, so I'm sure it'll survive.

Lead is a community at this time that is so lucky in a sense.

We have an opportunity to recreate whatever we want.

This is our town.

It was home stakes.

Today, we can create whatever we want.

If we want this to be an artistic community, it can be.

Tourism can be our new home state.

So I think we have a great opportunity.

For years, the lead opera house was a majestic landmark with the dedication and hard work of many folks like Phyllis are sure it will once again become the jewel of the Black Hills.

For more on the renovation of the Lead opera House, visit us at.

During your travels across the state, you may have come across the small southeastern town of Nora.

If you've happened upon this town during the holiday season, you would definitely remember.

For years, people have lamented the commercialism of the holiday season.

Seems that everywhere you look, someone's trying to sell you something and bigger is supposed to mean better.

In our next story, Bob Bussey takes us to Nora for a look at a holiday celebration that dispels that myth.

While the Nora Country Christmas isn't a large scale production, everyone who attends can attest to its big holiday spirit.

If anyone ever tells you there's no holiday magic left in the world, don't believe them.

Sometimes you just have to know where to look.

South of Beresford is a good place to start.

Not many people visit the tiny village of Nora anymore.

Not many people even know of it.

But like most places in our state, there's a rich history here.

Nora was established, first of all by a Dane.

His name was Steen Holt.

This particular store came over from the Big Springs area and which is east of here, and started the store at Nora.

And then at one time there were two stores.

The running brothers had a store, and there was this store, and there were two houses south of my house.

Back on the hill here, south of the store, and there was a small blacksmith shop over on the west side of the properties here.

Nor itself only encompasses ten acres.

I remember this as the Nora store.

We had a lot of good times, both when I'd go to Bible school at the Nora School, and also just we'd stop here for different groceries and hand dipped ice cream.

So that was fun.

Well, when I was growing up as a kid, we used to come down here.

There was a family that that owned it as a store, and we used to come down here when I was in grade school.

We'd come down here for a snack every so often, and we did our shopping here too.

And then in later years, like I was telling you earlier, my folks ran it as a store.

They were the last ones to run it as a store, and it closed up as a store in the early to middle 60s, I guess.

Here it is.

This is something pretty special.

And this Mike Pederson moved into the store in the early 70s and later bought the property.

He knew he had something special.

My obsession after I moved into the store was to do my best to to preserve it for historical purposes.

I think it's a real part of Americana, if that's the right word.

And it exemplifies of what role America used to be all about.

I got Ahold of a pipe organ from a buddy and took it out of his house, brought it down here and set it up in the store and just started tinkering with it.

The fall I got the pipe organ together.

It was late one evening.

I sit down at the pipe organ and I began to play it and I just thought, wow, this is this is really special.

I'm thankful to have this.

And I'm thinking, wow, you know, what can I do to share this?

I just, you know, had this crazy notion and I give a little thought and prayer to it.

And I thought, what about putting an ad in the paper and inviting people to come and sing Christmas song?

Because when people would hear the organ, they'd go, wow, that's really neat.

And the rest is history.

The rest was history, indeed.

Now each year the crowds gather and sing to see them above God, while invite people to come to my nor a Christmas thing.

And I'll say, well, if you're interested, I have this old country store south of and I have a pipe organ in there and a grand piano, and we sing Christmas songs during the holidays, and they look at me kind of like, what?

And, you know, that sounds kind of corny.

And I say, well, no.

You ought to just try it once.

I said, you know, it's hard for me to explain to you what it's all about.

Well, what do you do there?

I said, we just sing.

You know, somebody will bring the violin or their banjo or their guitar, whatever their flute, and they'll just get up and offer to play along or do a solo or duet on the piano, in the organ.

It's just come as you are and share what you have to share.

I put cookies on the trays and I help people out by telling them where the beverages are and stuff so they don't get mixed up with coffee and cider.

And I also hand out the hymnals when people come.

Sweet hymns of grateful for this phrase.

We will be.

Grace is calling me.

I have loved to sing since I was a child, and I remember singing at a little girl died of cancer and I was probably about four, and my sister and I sang a duet in parts.

She was six and I was four.

We sang at her funeral.

We've sung at Christmas programs at church and all of our family gatherings.

And even though a number of years ago I was extremely ill, and at that time I didn't have a voice to sing.

Somehow God just restored my health and restored my voice.

And so every opportunity I have, I like to make a joyful noise.

Last verse for.

My.

Well, as I tell people, this is my Living Christmas card.

I think in the hustle and bustle of life.

Oftentimes we we, we lose that closeness with community.

So it's my effort to to bring a sense of community.

It's nice that it's everybody assembles with, with with no agenda.

We're not it's not political.

It's not quote religious.

It's just a good time.

And usually the place is packed wall to wall.

You can get a. It's the people that make it successful that make the event meaningful.

I really think that to me, the Christmas season means a lot, and it reflects on what I feel as far as my values in life and my my Christianity.

I mean, that's, you know, we're celebrating the birth of Christ.

And I think oftentimes we lose sight of that.

And what what makes me feel good about the store is, is it gives people a lot of what I call warm fuzzies.

You know, they're packed.

Just Titus can be and and get to have their needs, man.

And and leave home.

Sing along.

Luwian Christ the Savior is Lord.

Well, I know nowadays a man's got to be careful where he brings his religion out.

But Jesus is the reason for the season, and I think the greatest reflection of the unconditional love of Christ that we can share, or that I can share personally, is right out there in that store.

Christmas, because everybody walks in there with or wondering kind of questioning.

But I guarantee you, just about everyone walks out, blessed and refreshed.

It's priceless.

Holy grail, they have the gold.

Embrace it.

So.

He as far as I. If you'd like more information on the North Country Christmas, visit us at.

Today in the town of Springfield, little remains of what was once Saint Mary's School for Indian girls.

Kevin Patton takes us back to look at the school and some of its students.

We had a rigorous curriculum.

We were never criticized.

We were really encouraged.

Expectations were high of us, and we all rose to that level.

Just prepared us for living in the modern world.

Founded in 1873, Saint Mary's Episcopal School for Indian Girls was first built near the banks of the Missouri River on the Santee Indian Reservation in Nebraska.

When fire destroyed the Episcopal mission in 1884, the school was rebuilt on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota after two more fires destroyed the Rosebud buildings.

The school was relocated to Springfield, South Dakota in 1923, where it occupied the abandoned Hope school building.

Originally started as an industrial school, the students of Saint Mary's were taught to wash, iron, cook, and soul with lessons in religion, English, and elementary school curricula.

Unlike many Indian boarding schools of the time, which saw harsh discipline as a means to educate native people, Saint Mary's quickly gained a reputation for being lenient and for gently educating Indians into citizenship.

As generations of students passed through the school, it became a family tradition for many.

My grandmother had gone to Saint Mary's, and then I also had two aunts who had gone to Saint Mary's, and one of them was still there when I went.

So I had people who knew had good experiences there and thought that was the place for me to go.

So that's why I went.

I really didn't have much choice in the matter, but they thought they chose what they thought was best for me.

My grandfather heard about Saint Mary's school, and so he told me that after I graduated eighth grade, I'd have to go to Saint Mary School.

He told me I had to go, and he said if he heard of it earlier, I could have been there already.

I was supposed to go when I was in the seventh grade, and I didn't want to go.

And I put up this big fuss and my grandmother said, okay, you can stay home your seventh grade year, your eighth grade year, you're going.

So my eighth grade year, I went to Saint Mary's.

I must have been about 8 or 9 years old.

And I overheard my dad telling some company that he wanted to send me to Saint Mary's school, and he spoke real highly of it.

And that was my first time ever away from home.

Even I grew up out here at Mommy Lake and I never went anywhere.

Just maybe we'd go to Pine Ridge or Gordon or whatever, but I've never stayed away.

And until I went out to Saint Mary's as a freshman, it was like a little sister, big sister atmosphere.

You know, we took the younger ones under our wing and and, you know, we braid their hair or read them stories.

We got up awfully early in the morning.

It was real structured.

You know, we went to bed at a certain time.

We got up at a certain time.

We'd get up about 6:00 if you were on kitchen duty monthly, if I remember right, either working in the kitchen or dining room or cleaning or some aspect of housekeeping at the school, a bell would ring and would be here, Bell would ring, would be there.

It was one of those big bells.

And so then wherever we were on campus, we knew we had five minutes to get to class.

The headmistress when I was there was Bernice Holland and later Jones, Bernice Holland Jones.

There was in 1932 when I graduated from college, and I was there as a teacher for six years, and I became headmistress.

We wanted to to prepare the girls to go into any kind of situation in another culture where they would be so equipped that they would feel at home and comfortable and able to reach their potential.

The school did was teaching Latin.

We talked Spanish.

We of course, made sure that the science program had a very good course in physics and chemistry.

Tremendous emphasis, of course, was placed on English, the English language and English literature so that they were prepared to, when they graduated, be accepted in college and taken the normal courses.

You see, since they had a good education and were ready for college, then they needed something else besides that.

And we we stressed etiquette and social graces and that kind of thing.

Dressing for dinner, for example.

We had to do that every evening.

We were taught table manners, how to pass food, and every once in a while we'd have the formal dinner where there was all kinds of silverware in front of us in different glasses, not only learning how to set the table, but how to get along with people you know and resolve conflicts in a peaceful way and and making sure that you got along real well in that family setting, exposing the girls to as many things as we could that would enhance their education.

Mr.

Carl insisted that we attend symphonies and musicals that happened to be in in Yankton at that time.

Well, Saint Mary's made us feel as if we were pretty important and that we could accomplish whatever we wanted to do if we tried hard enough.

And we were told, you know, you need to walk in both worlds.

You know, we were told that to be successful, you need to be, you know, be aware of what's there.

And but at the same time, be proud of who you are.

Well same areas I think it it makes you aware, you know, that there's two cultures, there's your Lakota culture and there's the dominant society.

It helped me to to interact and feel comfortable with different people.

I mean, it's nice to be on the reservation, you know, and you see majority Indian people and interact with them.

But I'm also comfortable off the reservation, and I believe Saint Mary's gave me that training and how to how to interact positively with other cultures.

We were always proud of who we are.

We were always proud of our family.

We were always proud of our culture.

That was one of the things that seemed to be, I don't know how they did it, but it it was portrayed through whatever they did.

So we really felt good about ourselves.

Even though the school was closed in 1986, the spirit of Saint Mary's continues on through the former students and their accomplishments.

Most graduates of Saint Mary's have gone on to further their educations, and many have returned to their communities to play active roles in helping to sustain and support their own people and cultures.

Others, also equipped with graduate and professional degrees, have contributed greatly to society as a whole in positions such as authors, educators, lawyers, and medical professionals.

Just be who you are, you know and be proud of who you are.

I think that's the greatest thing that I brought when I when I left, and I thank them for that, whatever it was, whatever they did.

Wish I could capture that.

If you're interested in finding more information about Saint Mary's Boarding school, you'll find it at our website at about.

Well, that's all for this edition of Dakota Life.

If you know someone or something you think would make a good topic for a future program, give us a call or you can send us an email to.

You can also visit our website, where you'll find archived audio and video of all of our past life stories.

Until next time for South Dakota Public Broadcasting, I'm Larry Rohr.

Thanks for watching.