Oct. 29, 2020

This paid piece is sponsored by the Minnehaha County Economic Development Association.

There’s a lot of history in Garretson, and Norm deWit is doing his part to preserve part of it for future residents.

DeWit, who is a longtime resident just outside the Minnehaha County community along Split Rock Creek, helps Garretson with economic development.

His most recent endeavor is an early 1900s quartzite building in downtown Garretson, which most recently housed the senior citizens center and Jesse James Art Players.

The building had some roof issues, old windows and uneven floors. The two stories will contain seven loft-style apartments, and a building next to it will hold four additional apartments above a heated indoor parking area.

“If you lose these old buildings, the town has no historical character anymore,” deWit said. “So we took on the challenge, and it’s going pretty well so far.”

DeWit, a mechanical engineer by trade, has worked on several projects like this in downtown Sioux Falls. For this one, he teamed with a carpenter, Ryan Rozeboom, who he knew was looking for a project.

A couple of ways they’re keeping the character of the original building are to leave some exposed quartzite walls in the kitchen and living room areas, along with leaving ceiling trusses exposed. A couple of apartments have 18-foot ceilings and will have mezzanines with wood staircases, deWit said. Four apartments sit on the upper floor; the main floor has three apartments along with storage spaces.

They’re currently in the painting phase and hope to have the historic building finished by Jan. 1. Then this winter, they’ll start selective demolition of the building that’s next door, which will tell them whether it can be renovated or if it’s too deteriorated and will require a new structure. DeWit hopes to have that new building ready for tenants by late next summer. He also owns some four- and seven-plexes in Garretson.

“Garretson is a bedroom community, but whenever you have more bedrooms, you have a need for other things,” deWit said. “So you have a need for more classrooms, you have a need for more gas stations, you have a need for more restaurants. All these things go together.”

A lot of things are coming together in Garretson, which has seen solid business activity this year despite the pandemic.

Dakota Stained Glass, which relocated from Sioux Falls, opened in the community earlier this year, and “O” So Good restaurant received a visit this summer from TV food celebrity Guy Fieri during filming for his show “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.” Rae’s Greenhouse, which sells flowering annuals, hanging baskets, select garden vegetables and herb plants, also opened in the past year.

Growth doesn’t mean losing the small-town charm, though.

“I feel like there’s a balance that we can achieve there with growing and keeping it a small community,” said Chad Hanisch, who lives near Garretson and is involved with the town’s economic development through the efforts of the Grow Garretson group.

Garretson’s residents – more than 1,000 – have a lot to enjoy and to look forward to, from holiday events and popular parks to new housing and potential projects.

The Hike of Horrors has returned to haunt Garretson this year, bringing visitors from around the region to town for a scary stroll starting at the city’s football complex. It’s a longer, more spaced out hike this year recommended for those 10 and older with a fee of $15. It runs from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Put on by the Jesse James Art Players, the Hike of Horrors is “hugely successful,” Hanisch said. His kids were among those who had repeat visits last year.

And Split Rock Park will host the kid-friendly Spooky Trail Trunk or Treat, sponsored by Garretson’s Commercial Club, from 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday.

For the holiday season, the second annual Light the Park will invite people to Split Rock Park on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings from Nov. 26 to Jan. 3 to enjoy Christmas season lights.

“There just always seems to be something happening these days,” Hanisch said.

Grow Garretson aims to help fulfill residents’ desires for their community. The group formed several years ago in response to a school opt-out raising property taxes, Hanisch said, to help encourage growth as a return on community members’ opt-out “investment.”

Child care needs have since been addressed, for example, and the group has focused on marketing and advertising that spotlights Garretson’s benefits. A new housing development is being built on the south side of town – the first in some time, Hanisch said.

The town’s parks help make Garretson stand out, he added. They helped attract him and his wife, both originally from small towns, to live there 15 years ago. Palisades State Park, with its quartzite cliffs hugging Split Rock Creek, is just down the road from Garretson.

The town itself contains Devil’s Gulch, famous for the tale of outlaw Jesse James leaping a chasm on horseback to escape capture. Split Rock Park also has trails and offers camping.

“If you ever visit Split Rock Park and throw a kayak in and start kayaking upstream, it’s got the same types of views as Palisades with the quartzite rock outcroppings. Very scenic,” Hanisch said.

Since Grow Garretson formed, the city has added a parks department and cleaned up brush in its parks, Hanisch said. And Garretson is trying to work toward connecting with a trail to Palisades, which Hanisch considers a priority, especially since the state plans to move the main entrance of the state park to the west side.

“We kind of lose the roadway connection to Garretson, so we at least want to have a trail connection and get people who are at Palisades coming to town,” he said.

Garretson is starting a conversation about another new potential enhancement too. The town needs a city hall, Hanisch said, but residents and organizations are being surveyed to see if they’d find some kind of community center or even an events center beneficial to the community as well.

“We have these different events that people really participate in,” he said. “It’s that participation that makes it feel like a smaller community.”