This is a production of SDPB.

I've been here all my life.

It's.

You know, it's boom and bust.

We're pioneers.

And though we've been up and down, we're.

We're coming back a little bit now.

Another time of prosperity.

If you're looking for a quiet little town to either retire in or bring your family to, I think Edgemont is the greatest little town in South Dakota.

Join our crew as we meet the people of Edgemont.

I always talk about Edgemont being the volunteer town.

If you want to have flowers downtown, you get to volunteer to plant them.

If you want a track meet track, you gotta volunteer to put it up there.

If you want entertainment, you get a volunteer to be in it.

And that's kind of how it is.

Greetings from Edgemont, South Dakota.

Greetings from Edgemont.

Greetings from the Edgemont Theatre Company.

[haha.. "Train Time"] Greetings from Edgemont.

Greetings from Edgemont.

Greetings from Edgemont.

Greetings from Edgemont.

Greetings from management.

Greetings from Edgewood.

Greetings from Edgemont.

Greetings from Edgemont South Dakota .

GREETINGS FROM EDGEMONT!

Dakota life ¦ Greetings from Edgemont - is supported with your membership in the friends of SDPB.

Thank you.

And by, South Dakota Game Fish and Parks, inviting you to explore the George S Mickelson Trail, winding through the Black Hills, where rail beds become pathways.

History meets adventure, and every mile tells a South Dakota story.

And by, Bicycles & Boats and Hill City.

With bicycle rentals and shuttle service for the Mickelson Trail.

Kayaks and paddleboard rentals for nearby lakes.

And Acme bicycles in Rapid City.

Since 1998, Acme Bicycles has supported cycling, education, community events, and year round rides for all skill levels.

Sales and service.

In Rapid City, Acme Bicycles.

Donors to the Explore South Dakota Fund.

Support the production of local documentaries and other programs of local interest.

Presented by SDPB.

Friends of SDPB appreciates their support of this program.

Welcome to Dakota Life and greetings from Edgemont.

Come with us as we explore its unique traditions and dive into its rich history.

This unique landscape has been shaped by wind and water for millennia, but if you look closely, you'll also see that it's been shaped by the people who call this place home.

Generation after generation of Lakota depicted scenes of people, animals, hunting and battle etched on the walls of this church.

There are also prayers of fertility and abundance.

Many are pecked, carved or ground into the stone with other rocks, but some are believed to be a byproduct of sharpening tools like bones and quills.

In 1877, the Lakota people were pushed onto the Pine Ridge Reservation to the east, and soon Cowboy businessmen like Elias Whitcomb would push cattle onto this fertile grassland.

Other cowboys would soon follow suit and bring herds of their own to graze on these open prairies.

Ranching sheep and cattle has been a way of life here ever since.

While it's had ups and downs over the years, some descendants of the original homesteaders are still stewards of this land today.

While many cowboys call this place home, it was with the Iron Horse that Edgemont was truly built.

In late 1889, just three days before South Dakota became a state, the train arrived at the Cheyenne River and they named the new town site on the edge of the mountains - Edgemont.

The next spring, in 1890, Construction began on a depot and a roundhouse, making Edgemont a hub of railroad activity.

Then a spur to Deadwood would connect the Black Hills to the rest of the world, and Edgemont was slated to be the, "Denver of South Dakota."

By 1898, A large school was built out of stone to accommodate the growing population.

While shortly known as, The Cactuses.

They'd eventually go by The Moguls to reflect Edgemont railroad roots.

Alumni would grow to see their town boom and bust as the years went by.

The community would see the nearby dam on the Cheyenne River wash out.

Then outbreaks of typhoid and smallpox plague the population, and finally fires would decimate the business district downtown.

Times were tough in 1903, when the railroad would bring two very different veterans of the Spanish-American War to Edgemont.

The first will speak about was President Theodore Roosevelt while on a whistle stop tour.

He was campaigning throughout the West when he spoke to a crowd from atop the bandstand in the park.

Afterwards, as the story goes, that instead of dining with the rest of his presidential party across the way at the fancy new Edgemont block building, he opted to eat at a chuckwagon in the park with the cowboys and veterans.

A lot has changed in Edgemont since 1903, but residents today say some of the best things about living here have not changed.

Shops and restaurants downtown, the incredible sunsets, the Bountiful wildlife, and especially the peace and quiet.

Here in the city park, that bandstand is still standing.

There's also a caboose to celebrate Edgemont railroad ties to the railroad industry.

But that spur to Deadwood has become something very different today.

It's the 109 mile long Mickelson Trail, and mile zero is right here in the park.

But the crown jewel is a three acre pond.

And what crosses it?

This is just a loop horseshoe on the Cottonwood Creek Railroad.

Dammed it off and made the island and lake itself.

Good water.

There's a lot of fish, people stocked with catfish and perch and stuff.

So good fishing pond.

And they used to be ducks there.

And kids that come down, feed the ducks, spread an island oasis in downtown Edgemont, connected to the rest of the world by a bridge.

It wasn't a covered bridge, but it had a, you know, but it had an arch in it , ya know?

And, you could rent a canoe.

and get around the park.

In this canoe.

There's been three different bridges here over the years, and they'll all in the water.

And they deteriorated and took them out for when the last bridge had rotted out.

The alumni association talked about it for years.

And one summer a guy came to town.

Jim Knudson from Sioux Falls had been in Montana rebuilding timber barns, and he met an Amish gentleman that wanted to be build to cover the bridge before he died.

We just wanted to build a bridge, and this guy wanted to build a covered bridge.

We don't seemingly covered bridges in this country.

Hardly any.

You know, today, covered bridges are esthetically pleasing.

But before modern tech, they were practical too.

In medieval Europe, they were designed to protect wooden trusses from weather, extending their life span from 10 or 20 years to around 80.

In early 19th century America, despite having other options like iron and stone, covered bridges, became popular because they were cheaper to build.

But by the time the Great Plains were being developed, other, more affordable and long lasting materials were available.

Today, if you account for decorative and ornamental "kissing bridges", this isn't just the only one in South Dakota, but the only one in the region.

We had to raise a lot of money.

A couple hundred thousand dollars for fun.

It rained all kinds of fundraisers for it.

People donated money.

We sold the plaques and we sold bricks.

People's name on the bricks leading up to it.

Plus those brand boards.

They could get a brand Or they could have the business or just their name on there.

And meantime we got a blueprint from an engineering firm in Las Vegas, which was alumni of Edgemont, which was, you know, $25,000 donation gentlemen in Montana had a sawmill if you cut the timbers for the bridge.

But we couldn't use the the timbers from Montana because they were pine.

And for a foot bridge you need a stronger lumber.

So we had to get Douglas fir from Oregon, and I had to get the timbers cut there and set down the Montana for the Amish people to put together.

The gentleman that was getting us the lumber.

I've been tearing down lumber sawmills, and he had 50 barrels of 24 to 36 inch bolts.

So we got 2500 of those bolts to put the bridge together.

In the meantime, we built two abutments.

Concrete was really instrumental in getting them the crane down here and giving us bargaining time on their equipment for the dirt work we had to do.

They put the sections together, three sections together, hauled everything down from Montana, The Amish come down and it was all donated labor.

I wouldn't say it's work.

[laughs] Actual construction or anything like that, I didn't do anything you know.

I helped with the fundraiser, raising money and making the boards and the bricks and all that.

It has been here.

Dedicated in 2011.

It's kind of, not exactly a tourist attraction, but adds something to the park.

Something that will be there.

Like I said, for 100 years, Probably.

As long as we keep it up.

Now let's go out to the bridge to meet the next generation of folks who will keep it up.

First, let's meet Edgemont's Mayor, Reta Reagan.

Being mayor for the last two years, I have shown that I give back to this community and really, care about this community.

I just I want to continue that for the next two years and, just make Edgemont a great place to be and that people want to come here.

I'm also a substitute teacher at the school.

The Chamber does a fishing derby for the kids on the last day.

And this year, I was actually at school with the kids.

So I was just like them, anxious to leave school and get out here to the park.

We did a little bit of school.

We did a half day till like 11:00 and then came here and fished.

Whatever's on the line.

When kids are introduced to fishing with good mentorship, there's something about it that gets kids hooked.

Kids just love to come to the park and and fish, and they love being on the bridge fishing.

And I think they catch more turtles than fish, but they do catch some fish.

I didn't think I was going to catch much fish because I go quarter of the way through.

I was not catching.

anything.

I only caught one fish.

I caught a trout.

and that was it.

and it was a 15 inch.

Well, there's trout and there's big mouth bass and carp bass, bluegill, a lot of snapping turtles.

Somebody caught a ginormous catfish I have heard there's a big koi fish that everybody's trying to catch but has not caught it yet.

He's usually like this wide around and his mouth is like this.

He's huge.

He's probably a giant.

There's some big fish in here for this little pond in this little town.

There's a lot.

There's a lot.

There's thousands of thousands of bluegill in here.

They come down and they just really enjoy the camaraderie of it.

The, fast pace of it.

They are timed.

There's prizes for the biggest fish and the most fish.

So I was like, fishing over there on that steep spot and like, I was just fish and trying to get this little bluegill.

And my shoes did not have enough traction.

I slid right in.

I just threw the pole behind me and just, like, went into the water, just like it's a pole for me.

And I picked the pole.

It's good, clean fun.

Excuse me?

I mean muddy, mossy and slimy fun.

When you see your pole, like, start to tug, you know that you have one and your adrenaline starts to kick in.

"I NEED THE NET!"

Oh, my gosh, that is the whole highlight of their last day of school.

They look forward to it from like after they get back from Christmas vacation, thinking about the fishing derby because they enjoy it so much.

This is one tradition that makes Edgemont, Edgemont.

Another is the Fall River County Fair, where once upon a time you could have seen local cowboy legend Franklin Manke, who in 1952 was not only the national bareback champion, but he won the all around as well.

He and his wife, Audrey recently celebrated their 72nd wedding anniversary.

Today.

The Fall River County Fair is fun for the whole family.

Three.

Two.

One.

Go!

But as they say, freedom like this isn't free and Edgemont's Commitment to the military is long and storied.

In addition to sending soldiers to the battlefront, the people of Edgemont help the war effort at home, too.

Just south of Edgemont was deemed the most interior spot in America, and in 1942, the Black Hills Ordnance Depot was born.

Over 21,000 acres of prairie was turned into a factory and storage facility for American bullets and bombs for World War Two.

Hundreds of bunkers dot the landscape, which vaugely resemble igloos, and so Igloo, South Dakota was built to accommodate a workforce of over 7000 people during construction, Edgemont homeowners rented beds by the shift, referring to them as, "hot sheets" because they were never empty long enough to get cold.

First came housing and then a school, which is where a young Tom Brokaw once attended.

In the 1960s, the Ordnance depot closed.

But as the Cold War ramped up, uranium mined from throughout the Black Hills was processed right here in Edgemont, because of which locals would attest that no, in fact, they do not glow.

Edgemont is also the hometown of modern day war heroes like Assistant Secretary of the Air Force John Henderson and his brother, U.S.

Army Sergeant Jeremy Henderson, who was painted by former President George W Bush for his project Portraits of Courage.

Now let's shine a light on another family of veterans, the patriarch of which arrived in Edgemont in 1903.

Bob and Ella Mae, were the parents.

Bob came here in 1903.

Got a patent on a homestead in oh seven, so probably applied for it.

Oh four brought the family out from Georgia in 1909, while there were about four families of, African-Americans, blacks, we call them then, that homesteaded in this area.

Bailey's are probably the best known.

First, I should mention that Bob the father, served in the Spanish-American War, 1898.

In Cuba, there were two, Buffalo Soldiers, black cavalry regiments in, Cuba with Roosevelt.

And it's one of those.

Bill, I don't know.

He tells a story a little different than you read it some places, but, had left home maybe at 13 from here went to school a little bit in between.

He was fourteen and a half, we think, and working in Chicago.

Signed up for the, Army Reserves.

In 1917, when he was fourteen and a half, of course, he was six foot six as an adult.

So he looked older.. But he said they didn't really ask questions.

When you told them you were eighteen, they just wrote down 18.

He was in the reserves a couple of years, and then he was sent over to France in World War One.

and made it home.

Yeah.

Back to, Chicago for a little while.

And in 34 he went to Reno, Nevada, and he was in the reserves there.

He was in the reserves.

in between World War One, and World War two, called into World War Two, I think in 42, South Pacific in World War two, discharged in 45.

That was the end of the war.

Of course, his son also served in World War Two.

Bill Bailey, junior and sister Thelma served in World War two.

His brother Burtis, they called Buster, served in World War Two, died either in North Africa, Italy, but is buried in Italy.

He has a memorial tombstone out at the cemetery here.

Probably for African Americans at that time it was an opportunity to make a living.

His dad was born 75, so he wouldn't have known the Civil War.

But through his parents, he certainly would have known the old days of slavery.

So I think it was like a way to better yourself.

And they certainly couldn't go to college.

There wasn't money for that sort of thing.

And Thelma, his sister, I, I would guess that She probably went there for a good job.

Burtes and Bill and Thelma were all in World War two.

But Bill, of course, is World War one and World War two.

The war may have been over for the allies, but for Bill Bailey, the fight for freedom continued on the home front.

He had an interesting career in Reno, too.

you know, he was NAACP president while he was out there.

He was very active and, you know, the civil rights movement in the 50s and 60s in Reno.

The fight for equality eventually put him out of business in Reno.

But before the Civil Rights Act, Bill owned one of the few clubs that catered to customers regarding loss of their skin color.

And his cousin Pearl Bailey, star of stage and screen, introduced his clubs to acts like Louis Armstrong, Sammy Davis Jr and B.B.

King.

He had the Club Harlem.

It was a casino for blacks.

Of course, at that time blacks could not go into the white casinos.

He tells stories about, black entertainers being invited to perform at the white casinos.

But they couldn't stay there because they were black, so they'd stay in.

It was Club Harlem and Harlem boarding house or something.

So they stayed in his boarding house because they couldn't stay at the hotels where they were performing.

Yeah.

After performing at the big casinos downtown, they would go to the Harlem Club and play until dawn for the standing room only crowd would spill outside and into the alley.

But the nightlife wasn't all fun and games, as this article from 1946 states, Bailey was dealing craps when shots rang out.

Despite ducking behind the table, he was shot twice.

Eventually, the club closed after the Civil Rights Act passed, and Bailey returned to the family ranch to retire and raise cattle.

Now his sister Alice was much more refined, was not very proud of her brother Bill because of his Reno connections, and they lived next door to each other.

We heard that story?

They lived in houses next door to each other.

She wouldn't live in his house because he thought his house was bought with money from bad things from from Reno.

But Alice was loved by the upper class because she worked for them here in in Edgemont.

Worked for the local pharmacist.

I got a lot of my information from.

In 1992, he went to a Buffalo Soldiers reunion and did an interview, and somebody gave me these cassette tapes of those interviews.

So I transcribed those tapes, and that's where I learned a lot.

So that's their story.

Bill lived long time, lived til 99.

So it's about 98, 97, 96, 96 when he died.

He did everything he wanted to do.

His his interest was the ranching and go to the sale barn and shake hands and, you know it.

That was what he like to do in retirement.

That's what all ranchers do.

You know, as they get older, that's what you do.

Whenever there's a sale, you go to the sale and shake hands.

Gossip and tell big stories.

The Edgemont sale barn has changed a little bit since Bill Bailey's day.

Producer Jaxon Thorson takes us there now to see what it's become.

Every summer heroes, "I can't lose!"

Villains.

[crowd - "Boooo!"]

And ranchers, come together for a melodrama at the Edgemont Theatre Good triumphing over evil, exaggerated emotions.

"Gone!"

[Crowd - "Aww!"]

Often, having music.

To the side, we have signs that say when you're supposed to boo.

When you supposed to hiss.

When our peanuts were getting out of hand.

I actually had a sign that said throw peanuts now.

Pounds and pounds of peanuts.

Over the years, Diane and Suzanne and I all worked together at the local school, and we started in May of 2001 with the support of the chamber, who, we went to them and they gave us some starting money, and we gained a lot of volunteers through that.

And what if we rented the old sale barn?

This building was vacant.

And what we could do to provide a service for the community.

So we got $500 from this from the chamber and $1,000 from the school for my extracurricular.

And Suzanne is wonderful with, music and the plays and everything.

And Diane is we were organized and I brought an artistic element to it.

So we were wondering about community theater, huge response from the community as far as, helping us paint and rebuild and convert into, dinner theater.

When we first started out, it was if you came here and put down silverware on the table, you got your name.

If you, donated some sort of, costume or clothing or whatever, you got your name on it, we could thank them with food.

And so we, we fed a lot of people, and we organized it.

And so then I said to the mayor at the time, do you want to be the villain?

And he says, well, I need a summer rec director.

I said, okay, so I manage the pool i'm the summer rec director.

And he became the villain Darius, how funky is your attitude?

Funky, funky funky.

How loose is your goose?

Pretty loose.

Okay, then, Darius.

Shake that caboose.

Although the stage is small, just like its town, the volunteer actors are sensational to this community.

It's something you're not going to see just anywhere.

These aren't the large productions that you'd see in New York and Chicago and the big cities, right?

These are really geared towards being able to be intimate with small stories from the 1800s, 1900s that allow us to interact with the crowd, bring forth this old time humor that sometimes is lost right in the spirit of, you know, things in the past and bringing the community together.

And so it's a great place you'll be.

You'll feel like you're part of a small theater.

You'll feel like you're part of the small community.

You'll feel like you're part of, the people and the characters will bring you into it, and you'll have a good time.

I think our last play that we did was still probably a record number.

We had about 159 people in here.

Guy who had volunteered to cook the steaks the first night.

He said, you got to come out here and look at this.

Went outside and there were just cars filled the park, filled the parking lot.

We were just in awe.

And how Edgemont again had not had a we did not have a grocery store.

We lost that.

We'd lost most retail.

If you want to have, flowers downtown, you got to volunteer to plant them.

If you want a track, you get a volunteer to put it up there.

If you want entertainment, you got to volunteer to be in it.

Especially if you're young because you think like, oh, you need to be established to be a part of that.

You need to have some kind of experience under your belt.

When I think a lot of places would just be really open to like new young voices and people, because a lot of stuff like this, you don't see a lot of it anymore.

It's kind of dying out.

And so I think like young people who really want to be a part of things, people will let you be a part of things if you ask and are enthusiastic about it and just try.

So yeah, it's amazing.

And the people that want to act, and they might have never done it before and they just want to give it a try.

And then I also love that people get to meet each other through the play that are in it that normally wouldn't hang out together or even meet each other.

The biggest age range, I think we had an 81 year old minister who lived in Custer, who used to speed to get here on time, and we had all the way down to a 17 year old high school girl, you know, a rancher that's 20 miles up that way, becomes friends with, you know, the mechanic that's 30 miles that way, because they both happen to be in the same place.

Seeing the young kids who used to be the train people, and then they become the heroine or the hero or the, you know, 25 years is a long time.

You don't think it's that long.

Also, you got, what, 25 years or three?

Before I even knew I was pregnant, I was involved in this.

So I have, you know, three adult children that have all participated in this.

All of our families have been involved.

My kids were part of this, you know, sweeping crew and the concession crew and all three of my girls are in the play.

My oldest is graduating from college next year, so this might be her last time.

And, feels good to have that part of, you know, of my life, and it's here.

And sometimes you're like, oh, this is a lot of work.

But come Saturday night, when we shut off the lights, I'll go home.

It's over.

Being around this, this was like the best part of every summer, like, was getting to, do stuff at the theater because it was just.

You don't ever experienced anything like it anywhere else.

And it's just so fun to be a part of it and not just to watch it, but like to experience it for yourself.

[singing] It's not about perfection.

It's about, having fun and the process.

We we have a great time on the stage.

We hope our audience has a great time here.

And, when you build it, they do come up.

If you've missed any of our stories here in Edgemont or any of our stories over the last 28 seasons of Dakota Life, you can see more on YouTube or at SDPB.org/DakotaLife for all of us at SDPB here in Fall River County.

Thank you so much for watching Dakota Life.

Where, oh where are you tonight?

Why did you leave me here all alone?

Oh, I searched the world over and thought I found true love.

You met another and... Pffff.... You were gone.

[singer] Pitiful, Mr.

Gerald.

Pitiful.

Maybe, it's the mustache?

[..hahaha..]