A Community With a Can-do Spirit

As you drive into eastern South Dakota, the prairie extends forever. There is vegetation the color of Black Hills gold. The sky is a brilliant blue. Pheasants, the peacock of the prairie, cross in front of you. Cattle graze. If you are traveling at night, the sky is hung with brilliant jewels. Maybe the northern lights dance a greeting reminiscent of the cultural dances of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe whose reservation you are on. Amidst this great expanse is one oasis of trees — and a turquoise water tower. This is the town of Timber Lake, South Dakota, population about 500.

Prosperity in Timber Lake has fluctuated since the town was established in 1910. In recent years, the town has suffered from a struggling agricultural economy combined with a multiyear drought. But Timber Lake is a town where residents have a can-do attitude and a strong commitment to community. When given an opportunity to participate in Horizons, a community leadership development program sponsored by the Northwest Area Foundation, Timber Lake not only accepted the challenge, it also was the only community to have a high school student participate for the entire two years. That kind of can-do spirit and commitment helps keep Timber Lake a growing community.

One young person attributes the Horizons program with giving him a bigger vision, a larger understanding of what it takes to build on the assets and opportunities currently present in Timber Lake. He says, “There are too many plans, too fast. Some ideas need to die in order for others to grow. What we need as a community is a plan. What are we going to do in one year? Five years? Ten years? And everyone needs to be thinking about this — the school, the businesses, the churches and the citizens.”

There is tremendous pride in the Timber Lake School. Community members boast about students who come from a hundred miles away to attend their school. Two Timber Lake teachers have passed the required tests to receive National Certification — the teaching profession’s highest credential. Timber Lake School already has computer technology on par with the best public schools in the nation.

But in a county that still has some folks on rural party phone lines, not everyone in Timber Lake can use the Internet or e-mail, and in this day and age, businesses need Web sites. To address this problem, the town recently applied for, and received, a good-sized USDA grant for a wireless broadband project. In April of 2006, the Blue Moon company out of Texas came to town, drove into Timber Lake in a truck about as long as Main Street, and called the community together to design a broadband system. Blue Moon says that Timber Lake’s project will hit the news, because it’s one of the few small towns to have such a state-of-the-art system. Broadband access will move Timber Lake businesses, plus homes in a surrounding seven-mile radius, into the cyber-age.

While one foot is planted solidly in the future, Timber Lake also recognizes the riches of an age long-past. The land surrounding the town is geologically rich with bones and fossils of the dinosaur era. One resident, Helen Ross, has the distinct honor of having discovered a new fossil and having it named after her. Town leaders want to capitalize on these unique qualities of their town and surrounding area.

The Horizons project has made a difference as it has helped the community recognize the value of bones as well as other unique features of the Timber Lake area. Two Presentation Sisters came to Timber Lake from a church in Aberdeen, South Dakota, three years ago. Nearly the day they arrived, the Horizons project was announced, and it was a great way for them to get involved and get to know the community. Horizons included two series of leadership trainings, each nine months long. Now the Sisters list some of the tangible products of that leadership development program: autumn and spring cleanup days, a new “Welcome to Timber Lake” sign (locally produced), and water tests in what was once Timber Lake. This was never a registered lake in the state of South Dakota, and it is essentially now a wetland. A committee is doing soil and water testing to see if they can one day dredge it into a lake — you might say they’re resurrecting Timber Lake.

Horizons leaders got a call in December 2005 from the Bush Foundation in St. Paul, Minnesota. As a result, town leaders (with surrounding towns) are in the process of identifying the need for a Regional Economic Development Director who could help organize and coordinate projects in the area. For all three towns in the cluster, this is post-Horizons momentum, to be sure.

One of the founding members of the Timber Lake and Area Development Corporation (TL&ADC) says they have invited townspeople who participated in the Horizons leadership development process to merge forces with them. They recognized that many of the same people were stepping forward to address community issues. By joining forces they expect to be more productive.

The TL&ADC also has a revolving loan fund that is available to businesses and entrepreneurs in the area. One company they gave a small startup loan to is Octiflex Environmental Systems. Octiflex designs and builds wash-down decontamination centers for the military. Their decontamination centers were also used to help clean up after the World Trade Center disaster.

Businesses in Timber Lake are well aware of the larger world beyond the prairie. The Apple Tree Cottage sells arts and crafts, lunch and Honduran coffee. It may be the only place between Mobridge and Rapid City where you can get a cappuccino. This is a community that listens to the wants and needs of travelers driving through.

Timber Lake is on the road to Sturgis, South Dakota, where half a million people gather annually to attend the town’s famous motorcycle rally. When asked about catering to bikers on their way to Sturgis — given the fact that some people are leery of biker business — one town leader sits up, gets that can-do look on his face, plants his hands on his knees and says, “Bikers R Us.” It gets a small chuckle around the table, but it is that attitude of making do and making more with what there is that defines the community of Timber Lake.