Donors bringing De Smet to life

DE SMET — Even though it happened more than a decade ago, Rita Anderson can still recall the worry she felt as all her hard work, planning and fundraising to build a community and event center in De Smet appeared to be fizzling out at the very last minute.

Anderson was the director of the De Smet Economic Development Corp. (EDC) in 2013 and had raised most of the money in private local donations to pay for the building that would include a senior center, theater, kitchen, workout room, meeting spaces and a new lighted high school football field outside.

But while local donors had given their full-throated support — and opened their wallets to back it up — Anderson’s efforts had come up just a bit short the day the De Smet City Council was meeting to consider approving the project.

Questions had arisen on social media about the need for the project and its cost, even though no taxpayer dollars were allocated, and some council members were reluctant to approve the $3.8 million project.

“After the initial bids came in $1 million higher than expected, the council gave us a month and said, ‘If you don’t have every cent raised, we’re not going to approve it.’ And they were serious,” Anderson recalled. “And on the final day, we were about $17,000 short.”

That day, the owner of Warne’s Appliance store called Anderson and promised to chip in $10,000 more. And just as the council was about to vote, local cattle rancher and attorney Todd Wilkinson stood up and said his family would cover the final $7,000.

“They had to approve it then,” Anderson said in early June as she sat within the event center that was finished in 2015. “We were so excited, we were screaming and jumping up and down.”

If Anderson had any questions about the devotion of residents and business owners to the continued growth and improvement of De Smet, they were answered that day.

And they’ve been answered many times since, to the tune of more than $15 million in private donations raised over the past 15 years for medical, cultural and beautification projects in the town of 1,100 people.

“The passion people feel here is really remarkable,” Anderson said of the central South Dakota place best known as the one-time home of famed children’s author Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Using the recommendations from community surveys within a long-range master plan developed in 2019, the Beautiful De Smet Committee was formed to undertake fundraising needed to support a wide range of projects aimed at remaking downtown De Smet, said Grace Aughebaugh, now the director of the De Smet EDC.

Downtown is now home to an arch over Main Street, way-finding kiosks that promote walking tourism and a sculpture trail.

Another effort already underway is to build a system of trails from downtown that lead to Big Slough and Silver Lake, both water bodies featured prominently in books written by Ingalls Wilder.

A number of local businesses and individuals have played key roles in supporting the continued growth and development in De Smet, including Lyle Signs, American Bank & Trust, De Smet Farm Mutual, DesCo Manufacturing, Midstate Agronomy, Legend Seeds and Maynard’s grocery.

But perhaps no one has stepped up to help remake and strengthen De Smet as much as Greg Carmon.

Carmon, 72, grew up on his family’s ranch outside De Smet but left town then grew a highly successful business — Midwest Railcar Repair in Brandon, a national leader in painting and repair of rail cars that has 175 employees.

Carmon has always retained a love for the town where he grew up, and his contributions — both financial and in terms of idea-generation — have helped expand the local hospital, build the event center and beautify the city and its downtown.

“People are always thinking outside the box, everybody has pride and they care and they want De Smet to do better, and be better, and that kind of gets infectious,” Carmon said.

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