Aug. 12, 2022

If you’re driving down the interstate and see the Squatch Wagon, it’s not carrying sasquatch hunters.

That’s what a driver thought as he passed the food truck one day, owner Marlys Jensen of rural Viborg said. As he passed the trailer, he called the number on the back.

“He was disappointed because he thought we were sasquatch hunters,” she said. “I tease my husband we should do that on the side.”

The name for the business came from husband Cory’s fascination with the large, hairy, humanlike creatures also known as Bigfoot that some people believe exist, Jensen said.

The Squatch Wagon’s specialty is Indian tacos, which Jensen had been making for school and church fundraisers for decades before starting the business.

Food truck fans can find the Squatch Wagon on Saturday in Sioux Falls for the Bugapalooza event from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Butterfly House & Aquarium where Jensen’s daughter is a biologist.

This is a summertime and weekend pursuit for Jensen, who teaches through the Viborg-Hurley School District at the Cameron Colony. She’ll be headed back to school soon, teaching fourth through eighth grade Hutterite students in the same classroom. Last year, she had nine students; this year, she’ll have five.

Jensen bought the camper that became the Squatch Wagon in 2019 for $500 from a hunter in Wisconsin who had “gutted it down to the walls and kept the water in.”

She filled it with second-hand equipment and repurposed items such as a sink and cabinets as they remodeled their house.

“Everything about me is recycle, reuse. I’m very much into that. My husband asked, ‘Are we ever going to have anything new?’ And I said no. … Both of us were married before. I told him, ‘I got you second-hand and that turned out pretty well.’”

Her nephew, whom she describes as more like a little brother because they are close in age, does decal work as a side job in Chicago and drove here with her grand-nephew and a friend to install the elaborate pine tree and sasquatch design on the old camper. If Jensen had paid retail price, she jokes that she would have spent $3,000 for decals on a $500 trailer.

She did a few events in 2019, and then the pandemic kept her to a limited schedule. The Squatch Wagon has been at six events so far this year. This fall, Jensen likely will do a few fundraisers for the school at football games and might be at a fall festival in Centerville on Oct. 22.

Making Indian tacos is labor-intensive, she said, so that’s why she keeps the menu simple. Adults love them, but they aren’t kid-friendly, she noted. Her answer to that is the Squatch Dog — a hot dog wrapped in fry bread.

Even more popular than the Indian tacos and more cleverly named – by her husband, of course – are Squatch Turds. They’re balls of fry bread that are rolled in cinnamon and sugar.

Jensen said she loves people as much as she loves cooking, and running a food truck gives her the opportunity to visit with customers wherever she goes.

And with all the character of the Squatch Wagon, that’s easy.

“People honk and wave. People stop at gas stations to take photos.”

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