America’s Land Auctioneer
Captivate and celebrate the dynamics of rural America, American Agriculture and inspire and teach others how to live a bold and abundant life in rural America. Background: The intrigue, endless opportunities, and romance of rural life in America have never been more on the minds of Americans. The recent pandemic and civil unrest have Americans of all ages earning for a more peaceful, less hectic life. Even billionaire Bill Gates is now the largest crop landowner in America. As many Americans look for peaceful refuge in the rolling hills and wheat fields they are faced with a richness of opportunities. But where do you begin to look? This show will highlight and feature endless opportunities in every state. What is it that is so unique about rural America, the land and what it produces? How can I live that life? The American Land Auctioneer will tell stories and weave into those stories a place for you to dream, live and enjoy the abundance of all that rural America has to offer.
America’s Land Auctioneer
North Dakota's Cowboy Legacy: Preserving Our Stories for Future Generations
What makes a community's stories worth preserving? Rick Thompson believes the answer lies in the rich tapestry of western heritage that defines North Dakota—a legacy he's dedicated his career to protecting as Executive Director of the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame.
Thompson's journey from Bowman, North Dakota to his current role spans decades of deep connection to rodeo and western culture. With an animal science degree and 25 years producing a nationally syndicated rodeo program, he brings authentic passion to the Hall of Fame's mission. When asked why this work matters, Thompson's answer cuts to the heart: "If we don't tell our story, what's that story going to sound like?"
The conversation reveals how the Hall of Fame functions as far more than a museum. Beyond its impressive exhibits honoring legendary cowboys, ranchers, and rodeo champions, the facility hosts land auctions, receptions, and community gatherings. Perhaps most remarkably, Thompson and his staff of seven don't wait for visitors to come to them—they travel extensively throughout North Dakota and beyond, sacrificing countless weekends to connect with communities and members who've relocated to warmer climates.
This dedication speaks to a deeper truth about preserving heritage: it requires going to where people are, meeting them in their own communities, and creating opportunities for stories to be shared. The Hall's ambitious expansion plans—adding 10,000 square feet with technology-focused areas for younger visitors—demonstrates their commitment to evolving while honoring tradition.
As Thompson explains, the urgency of their mission grows daily: "We lose those people every day. We lose a piece of that history when somebody leaves us." From the sod houses of early settlers to today's multi-generational ranches, these stories create an unbroken chain connecting past and future. Through creative fundraising (including auctioning a donated motorhome that attracted bidders nationwide) and a network of over 300 trustees who nominate Hall of Fame inductees, the organization continues finding innovative ways to capture these narratives before they're lost forever.
Want to be part of preserving North Dakota's western heritage? Visit the Hall of Fame in Medora, attend an event, or consider supporting their expansion project through membership or donation. Every contribution helps ensure these powerful stories will inspire generations to come.
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Contact the team at Pifer's
Welcome to America's Land Auctioneer. I'm Jim Sabby, your host for this Saturday afternoon or Saturday morning, excuse me. Beautiful week we're having here in North Dakota. But you know pipers have got a lot of things going on here in the next couple of months and just kind of want to mention that. You know we've got a lot of machinery sales popping up and so go to pyferscom to check out all of our sales, whether it's machinery or land. But give one of us a call. You can give us a call there at the Bowman office at 701-523-7366.
Speaker 2:But a lot of things happening. We've got Big Iron going on next week down in Fargo. We always appreciate everybody stopping by our booth there. It's a great event and even have Josh Turner singing down there this next week down there at the fairground. So stop on in to Big Iron next week. Be glad to have you stop at our booth. But you know what? We're going to listen to some good country music down there and we've got a lot of sales coming up this next couple weeks over on the eastern side of the state. We've got this next couple of weeks over on the eastern side of the state.
Speaker 2:We got one in Sharon, north Dakota. Make sure you check out that it's not a lot of equipment but it's really good stuff. And then all of a sudden check out the one at Castleton folks, unbelievable, a lot of antiques and older tractors and nice tractors. It's a lot of vehicles, but we've got some stuff inside the buildings that you're going to want a lot of antiques. And then the house is unbelievable. What we're going to be selling out of the house. So a lot of old furniture and it's all wooden floors in that building. It's just a beautiful facility. But we're going to be there in a couple weeks. So check out Piferscom, go to those two sales and check them out. And then we got the bowman auction coming up september 25th and um leading into our bowman auction.
Speaker 2:You know my guest today is um rick thompson. He's the executive director of north dakota, uh, cowboy hall of fame. And I tell you, rick, uh want to welcome you here this morning. We appreciate you being on live with us, but we've had, we've done a lot of work together this this summer on some projects. And, uh, you here this morning, we appreciate you being on live with us, but we've had, we've done a lot of work together this summer on some projects, and you know. But I just want to welcome you to this and we'll get into that probably a little bit later, but once you introduce yourself to where you grew up and where you're from and how you got into this position, Well, I grew up in Bowman, north Dakota, speaking of Bowman, north Dakota.
Speaker 3:Grew up in Bowman, north Dakota, speaking of Bowman, north Dakota. Most of my life there, graduated high school, went to school at NDSU and I was in the radio business. I've got an animal science degree and figured that out, but I ended up in the radio business for many, many years In Bowman and Dickinson primarily. But I've done a lot of things. I I had a rodeo program nationally, uh, syndicated program for for almost 25 years and uh, so I, you know, I I was uh into rodeo big time and uh, and in the last 10 years I've been with the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame. It's been that long already.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know you think about that. But you know your family has always been in the rodeo radio business and doing a lot of interviews. And then you've got Mark who can just talk. He should have been, he should have been, he should have been into that. But you know it's been a great career for all of you and I'm sure you've met a lot of great people throughout your entirety, whether it's people on Main Street or people in the rodeo business. But you know to come back and to be the executive director is a big feather in your hat and we appreciate you taking that on.
Speaker 2:Us people out west, we appreciate our values and we appreciate our Western heritage Probably a lot more than a lot of other people do, you know, and we've lived it, our grandparents lived it, our great grandparents lived it. So it's just a different thing for us to think about and when you see what you guys have done here at this Hall of Fame and what is going to be going on. But you know there's a lot of events here and I've told this story a lot, but you know we held a land auction here. There's more to do in Cowboy Hall of Fame. You can have a land auction here. You can have receptions here. It's just a beautiful place but it worked out very well. I think we had close to 50 people here for this land auction and some of those people have never been in here and there's others that you know they walk by the building every day, you know.
Speaker 2:But it's just been a great thing to have a facility where we can go to. We feel at home walking around here, because we know most of these names and when you think about, like all of us down in Bowman, I mean we love this place. I mean we got friends and neighbors that are inducted to the Cowboy Hall of Fame that it's just enjoyable to come up here and go through and look at the names on the walls that everybody has been in here that are, you know, they got in memory of and they got pictures of. They got people that's been in the Hall of Fame and inducted into the Hall of Fame. You got big gatherings outside. I love this outside here. But you know you got other projects that are going to go on here in the next couple of years. But you know, when you guys tell us about your travels during the year, I know you're down in Wickenburg, you're over here. I mean it's just, you guys are all over the United.
Speaker 3:States. Basically, you know we want to serve our membership the best way we can, and so we get around. You know, we try to cover the state of North Dakota. We also go outside of the state of North Dakota because many people that that are linked to with the North Dakota cowboy hall of fame have grew up here in North Dakota but but have moved to Arizona or Florida or or wherever, and and so we try to, we try to stay connected that way, and that's what gets us outside the borders of North Dakota. But we do, yeah, we do many, many things and we move our annual meeting around the state of North Dakota. We don't have it, you know, at one site. We try to get around the state, and that's a good thing.
Speaker 2:I think it is. You're incorporating that area, that community, that region into this, and I know I hear a lot of things about that man. It's going to be fun because we're going into this region this year, but you're going to the people. They're not coming to you and that's a plus.
Speaker 3:And it's a plus for us because, you know, we, we go to Valley City, for instance, this coming year, in 2026, our annual meetings in Valley City and and that's a you know, that's a great deal because it gets us a chance to get out there and see what, what that part of the world is in North Dakota. You know, and we, you know, we get connected with people that aren't members and, you know, hopefully become members.
Speaker 2:Yes, you know, and it's kind of fun going around the states that I have when you see somebody wearing a Cabo Hall of Fame vest or, you know, or shirt or something you know, a lot of times I'll walk up and visit with them, you know, because you want to see what kind of connection they have, and a lot of it is. You know, they've been here, some are members or you know. I bought it at the gift shop and you've got a great gift shop downstairs. But also there's a lot of things to look at in this building. But we're still building everything on heritage of what has happened here over the course, since, you know, cowboys were getting rolling out here and it's really a a great story that you guys have to tell yeah, well, you know that that is our mission is to to tell our story.
Speaker 3:And if we don't tell that story, what's that story going to sound like, right, you know? And um, so that's that's exactly what we're doing and what we, you know, we get up in the morning thinking about that. You know, and especially when you're in a tourist kind of environment that we're in, we get people in here from all over the country and from every walk of life. We need to tell the story of North Dakota, we need to tell that history of North Dakota, and that's our objective.
Speaker 2:You know that's what I like about it. You guys are writing the history books and in the way it should be told. You know you go to a lot of these schools. Now the history books that you and I saw in school are so much different than what they have today, you know. Know they're not telling the complete stories. You know they're just kind of going in, putting a little blurb and here you want to tell the whole story of of how this ranch got going on, how this brand, you know, has been here for this many years, um, the quarter horses that are sold out here, the cattle, um, and just the tough living conditions that these people came to and endured out here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean there's all of those stories and if you go back 40 Years, in the Saddle is a history book that's four volumes long that talks about goes back into the early 1900s and 1800s and late 1800s, early 1900s, and those stories are phenomenal. I mean every time I can pick one up. But that's an example of what we do to tell that story. If you come up into the hall, the first thing you see when you step off the elevator on the second floor is a picture of North Dakota badlands in the wintertime. Right, nobody gets to see that. If you're from Georgia or Pennsylvania, you don't get to see North Dakota in the wintertime because you're coming here on a vacation. You step off that. You know what North Dakota is like in the wintertime.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, and, like you said, it's all walks of life that come through here and I don't know how many visitors you get a year, but you know the summertime and I know what the streets are like here in Medora. It's got to be real busy and you know, and you got volunteers running things downstairs and there was a new set of volunteers coming in this morning and I got to say hi to and they're here to help show people around your building and give them that experience that you're not going to get anywhere else.
Speaker 3:You know, we love our volunteers, and that's another part of our program that I'm very proud of, because we have volunteers that come back the same weekend every year to make sure that we get things done, and they love to be able to do that, and so we're happy about that.
Speaker 2:You know and a lot of familiar faces up here. Every time I see pictures from Medora who the volunteers are. There's a lot out of the Bowman area that come up here, which is really kind of nice to see.
Speaker 2:But you know, I'm sure they get to see people that they've seen come through here in the last, you know, 10, 15 years or however long they've been doing it. But you know it's been a great thing for Western North Dakota, our heritage, but it's been really good for the Medora area. But I love coming up here just because I live in southwest North Dakota and we enjoy stuff like this. So in the next segment here we're going to be talking more about the Cowboy Hall of Fame and the different events that you put on throughout the state. And again, I'm Jim Sabby, your host for America's Land Auctioneer. Folks, if you're looking to buy or sell land or machinery, get a hold of us. We'd be glad to help you out.
Speaker 2:We would like to thank all of our sponsors for this show, and our sponsors are our agents, our real estate agents, our land auctioneers, the land management team, so we want to thank all of them. So, folks, go to Piperscom and check us out and we'd be glad to help you out and look us up. You've got familiar faces, you, and check us out and we'd be glad to help you out and look us up. You've got familiar faces. You know I'm wearing a cowboy hat in most of my pictures, so again, this is Jim with America's Land Auctioneer and we'll be right back.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to America's Land Auctioneer. I'm Jim Sabby, your host for today. My guest is Rick Thompson, executive Director of North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame, and folks we're sitting here live at the Hall of Fame, and I had a chance to walk around here this morning and there's something new. It it seems like all the time, and when I pop my head in and take a look and I thought, well, I didn't see that here last time and you know, you've got some things going on. But first let's talk about the events that you go to across the state. You know and I'm going to use the North Dakota State Fair you guys are there, but you had a lot of rodeos and a lot of events. How does that I mean? How do you schedule that out throughout the year? There's so many things and places to be.
Speaker 3:You know we try to go. You know we've got the standards that we go to. Like the North Dakota State Fair, that's obviously a great place to be because of so many people. But if there's a function in Bowman, north Dakota, which you have many there, you know we want to be there if we can, and you know, and that causes a lot of havoc, you know, because you can't be everywhere.
Speaker 3:No, you can't, and you know Irene Johnson is really the girl that is out there in front of people all the time, really the girl that is out there in front of people all the time. She's uh, she, she goes and sets up our, our booth and and welcomes people and and uh, whenever I can be at any of those, I try to be too. But, um, you know, it's we. We've got a full-time staff of of uh, seven people and uh, and seven people don't go very far when you're talking about, you know, the things that we need to do, but you know we try hard to. You know, make sure that we get around and say hi to people. Like you said, the state fair is a good example, but you know we'll get to the rodeos. You know the circuit finals, the high school rodeos. Any fair rodeo that's across North Dakota, we'll try to be there, and if we haven't been there, we'd love to be there, you know what I really notice is a lot of these things are on weekends.
Speaker 2:Okay, Now, the people that work here are using their weekends to go spend and that tells me that they like what they do, they love what they do and they want to spread what's going on here at the Cowboy Hall of Fame. But you know, every weekend you could be somewhere and these people are going out and I'm going to say, you know, a couple of years ago Irene was down at Amidon. You know, you spend the weekend in Amidon, North Dakota, a great place to be and gets to be a lot of the local neighbors, but most and gets to be a lot of the local neighbors. Most of them know about the Cowboy Hall of Fame, but you always got to be there. But again, it's on weekends and so these people are taking their weekends away to go out and spread the word about Cowboy Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3:You know if you didn't have the passion when you came here. You know it takes a passion to do exactly what you said and I think about it all the time. When you know, when we've got our people out there doing things on weekends, and I'm telling you, you know, I tell people, from induction day, which is in the middle of June, to October, well, the third weekend in October I don't have a weekend. Right, I mean, we're somewhere every single weekend, and not just me, my whole staff. But I know that because my calendar is is completely full of something and I've got a lot of other things going on too. So, but you know, that's all part of it and it's and again, you know I can I've got the best staff in the world there. You know, they they have that passion for this place, or they they wouldn't be here still, and a lot of them have lived it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know they've seen it. But their families have lived it. They've been out, they're great grandparents, you know. So you look at that, when you have that kind of people that are promoting this, it's pretty easy to promote and get out there when people have that passion. But every time I've seen the booth somewhere, there's a lot of people around it.
Speaker 3:You know, yeah, and further, that I have two girls, two girls that grew up in Minnesota and I have one from Arizona. That are they. There are three great people that that love North Dakota and the things North Dakota is. So you know to do that and you know, so that's. That's all part of the things that we do, right.
Speaker 2:You know, and I was in Pifers. We were proud to be a part of what we do here at North Dakota Cowboy phone, what you do at North Dakota Cowboy of Fame. You know, and I was here in June for that induction. I had the breakfast down here and then went up top for the meal up there and helped serve the food. But you know the amount of volunteers it takes to do a lot of these things and I was glad to help out and I mean I'd love to do it again but we helped sponsor that breakfast that morning. But there's a lot of people involved, you know, it's just not the ones here in the office.
Speaker 3:There's other people that are members that say what, what can we do to help? You know, sometimes, I think, when, when we call, uh, I wonder why they still pick up the phone. But we, we, you know, and and if, if you're good at it, then you're going to get called all the time. And well, I shouldn't say that We'll take anybody. But you know, without a volunteer it's like putting on a PGA golf tournament, for instance, or a rodeo you know Houston Astrodome or a Houston rodeo, that's. You know, without volunteers you don't get things like that done Right, and that's why you know, you don't, we, we couldn't do nearly the things that we do without that volunteer across the state. I mean, if we're going to a town, I know the person that I need to call. That'll be perfect for that.
Speaker 2:So you know, and that's that's a lot of it. We, this country is built on volunteers. You know, and that's a lot of it. This country is built on volunteers. You know, whether it's a church group or the other thing I'm thinking about is the Bible camp down here, which I'm sure you'll be at. But we've got the auction coming up and the meal and everything to benefit for the Bible camp coming up, and that's a big part of our area also, because we all went to Bible school there. You know Bible camp and so now we're back helping with that. So there's many things that you take volunteers.
Speaker 2:But when you look at the people that you have in place, and you're right, they're from Minnesota, they're from here, it doesn't really matter because they share that passion, but they also of know the history. Yeah, you know, and that's something that a lot of people you know, you can bluff your way into some things, but if you don't know the history, you're it's going to be tough. You know, we, we're just going through some history in our family. You know of some stuff they shipped out here from in 1898 to dickinson, north dakota. How did they even make it out here? I don't know how?
Speaker 2:Um, but the toughness it took for those people to come down and do all that and a lot of things. There was nobody then and now you look at the, the volunteers we got that are trying to bring those memories out. Whether it's a museum down in marmoth, uh, folks, if you haven't had a chance to go there, go to dory's uh museum there in marmoth. It's not just a car museum which you got a lot of, a lot of western memorabilia. You've got to get to that place and take a look, because that's it's world-class. They have.
Speaker 3:They have pictures on the wall I wish I had. Yeah, I can tell you that I mean there's a lot of, but that's, that's the uniqueness of all of that kind of stuff in every museum.
Speaker 2:But you you take that it's not that far in this radius. You know what we have in southwest north dakota and even up northwest but the bismarck's. But all of a sudden you know you've got members from the eastern side of the state and there was a lot of farming and ranching history uh, way back when. That guys are still doing. But the, the farm ground is too nice, so they, they're farming it. But there's a lot of value having those people from outside the area to come here to help shape how we want to do this.
Speaker 3:You know, yeah, and it's like, wherever you go, there's a piece of history. Yeah, I mean there's. It doesn't matter if you're in Pemina or if you're in Carson, north Dakota. There, there's history there and I want to know about it. You know, and, and you know my job is the greatest in the world because I get to visit with those kind of people, and you know we lose those people every day. We lose a piece of that history. You know when somebody leaves us because they know, and if I'm not there to you know, or somebody isn't there to gain some of that.
Speaker 2:Brian Fisher was very good years and years ago. Maybe you were part of that. On Saturdays They'd interview people. The museum would come in and then interview the locals about the different things that went on in the area and those tapes are still available over at the museum in Bowman and we've got a great little museum there.
Speaker 2:But you know we have to preserve this. But we also want that legacy to live on like with you. Know our kids want that legacy to live on like with you. Know our kids, and you know my daughter and son-in-law. My daughter's the fifth generation, my grandkids now are the sixth generation on our ranch. That's a lot of generations right there. But that's what we want to preserve is for those people and I tell you what folks. We're coming up at the end of this second segment and again Rick Thompson, my guest here this morning with the Cowboy Hall of Fame Executive Director, and we want to just thank everybody with Pifers who sponsor this. If you've got any questions about Pifers, whether it's selling land, selling machinery get a hold of us, any one of us, go to our 800 number or go to Piferscom to check things out. Again, nobody does it better than Pifers and again we'll be right back after a few moments with our great sponsors of Piper's Welcome back to America's Land. Oxyneuron.
Speaker 2:Jim Sabby with Rick Thompson sitting here at the Cowboy Hall of Fame. What a beautiful day here in Medora. I mean it's nice and cool. We do have some smoke in the air, but it is a beautiful day you know fall is and it's not quite fall, but I call this fall.
Speaker 3:After Labor Day it's fall and it's a beautiful fall day and, yeah, it's my favorite time of the year.
Speaker 2:And what's really nice is, you know we've had a lot of moisture this year, timely moisture, but you know this country is usually brown by middle of July and we've had green grass the whole way and I drove up here and, yeah, the grass is starting to mature now and turn that brown, that fall colors, but there's still green grass there. And you know, just last weekend well, about five days ago now we had another inch and a half of rain down there south of Scranton and south of Reeder and Buffalo, south Dakota has had close to an inch again, you know. So we've been blessed on that state line down there. And of course, you know everybody's kind of caught some rain and I know combiners are saying let's hold up on the rain a little bit and guys are trying to finish hay in. But everything's starting to wrap up here this fall. But the country looks beautiful.
Speaker 2:You know I can't imagine our ancestors when they were coming out here to settle what this place looked like just grass waving everywhere, you know. And I try to imagine it and I run through a picture yesterday I found in my dad's stuff but it was our neighbors just south of Reeder that had a picture of their wheat from 1911. It was on a postcard and it was from right on the Grand River, but that wheat was about, I'm going to say, chest high on them and it looked like you could roll the top. I mean, imagine how fertile the ground was. So you imagine coming out here. I can see why people wanted to run cows out here. I mean, this country does produce grass and we get enough moisture to get that grass going. This country is good.
Speaker 3:You know, my grandpa and grandma came from Minnesota, like many across North Dakota, and I've often wondered why in the world would you stop east of Ludlow, south Dakota, and say this is it. It had to look good that year. Well, you know, it makes you wonder what they did think.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know, in a lot of them it's kind of our area they stayed where or they went to where there was people from their home country, yeah, whether it was Norwegians or Germans or Polish or whatever. You know, south of Rieders, south of Gasko, and Scranton is a big area of Norwegians, yeah, and they knew them from being in Norway and you get a little bit west of me and, and they knew him from being in Norway and you get a little bit west of me. And then we got the Polish and Germans and you know that was one thing I always tell the story of In my area we had Sosinskis, we had Polchewskis and we had Myshaks.
Speaker 2:In order in grade school to get to the next class, fourth, third or fourth, fifth grade we had to be able to spell every one of them. And I tell you what we got good at that. But you know so it's a melting pot. You know we've heard that before. It's a melting pot out here. And now you look back and you know it's kind of a shame we don't have the neighbors we did back then. You know we don't have hardly have a neighbor. We got one neighbor within, I'd say, seven miles east of us. You know, and you get up in this country it could be 30 miles or down the E clock of 40 miles, but you don't have the neighborhood get togethers and and somebody that always you're willing to help. You know we always willing to go help a neighbor. Well, now everybody seems to be so busy you know, they're.
Speaker 2:They're running five times as many cattle as what they once did, or farming, you know, 20,000 acres. You just don't have that neighborly thing like we used to. But you know, back then when these guys were settling, they had to rely on neighbors and to help them get to a well dug or or moving some things around and building their sod houses. So, um, you look at that and people were very lucky. But yet I don't believe they thought they're very lucky when they got to this country. But you know, people persevered and made it through it.
Speaker 3:You know it's not much different. I was just thinking as you were talking there. It's not much different today, though, because you take the snowbirds and they go south. If they have neighbors that live in Florida or that go to Florida, that's where they go if they have neighbors that go to or friends that go to arizona. That's where they go and they're in the same village.
Speaker 2:If you will, you know, see that in arizona you know that's where I like to go, but you know wickenburg I mean we can probably name off 35 people I know there you know absolutely and then you get into mesa and chandler in that area you know we know a lot of other people but that's what's nice, you know like went down to.
Speaker 2:We're always down there in March but for that, uh, north Dakota picnic they have down there, you know three to 5,000 people. There are mainly North Dakotans that are coming to just say hi and walk around the booths and and visit and you know I see a lot of my neighbors that you know are down there now and it's just kind of fun and you see neighbors that you haven't seen for a long time, especially there at North Dakota Picnic.
Speaker 3:Yes, you know people that have lived there and you know you get reacquainted.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, it's a lot of fun. And then there are some guys that I went to college with and I hate to say this, but back in the early 80s down at Wahpeton, and one of them looked me up because he knew I worked at Piper's and because we had a booth there and I hadn't seen him since we graduated college in 1983. And so there's a lot of things when we're talking about this comes back to our heritage and history and that's what we want to do Now. There's a lot of things that you guys are doing and I want to get into. We got about half a segment left here and then the fourth, uh one we'll do a full segment on. But you you're looking at another building project. I mean, I will say here I was able to help at the nfr watch party that you had here and be a part of.
Speaker 2:It had a great turnout I mean 50, some people and stakes and watch the rodeo, and but every place I went is there stuff being stored that you really don't have room for anymore. You walk around here and a lot of that stuff you just can't set out in a cold storage shed either.
Speaker 3:You know it's, and you're absolutely right. It's more about that curation, and we have a great museum curator, tess Howey. That you know, we, we, you know we can't take another saddle. We can't take another picture. We can't you another picture, we can't you know it's. It's those, those things. And we needed to expand. You know we really did and, and um Medora's on the on the boom, if you will, and and uh, we thought it was time and there are a lot of reasons for this, and and, trust me, we didn't just decide one day that we're going to, we're going to remodel and and make this better. We, you know, we took, uh, we took a lot of, uh, a lot of time to uh think about, if we did this, what would we do, what would it look like? And and we had great architects, that that helped us through that process. You know we, uh, I'm, I'm just uh excited about what, what our next years can be.
Speaker 2:What's amazing to me is, from the start, I bet the people that when they first built this place, thought man we've got so much room here and we all know if you build a garage or a shop it's never big enough.
Speaker 2:And now you look here you're to the point where you need extra room and there's so many more people coming to Medora and you know there's different ways of fundraising and you guys are going out there. But I want to bring up a point that happened to us. You know, last May we were here for an auction, doing a land auction, and you approached me and said Jim, we've got this motorhome that was donated to us. Can you guys help sell this out of your auction? And folks, there's a lot of ways you can donate funds. You can donate pieces of equipment or at our sales and we can make sure it gets to this signing some documents. But that motorhome was probably the talking point of our car auction that we had in Bowman on July 26th. For two months, I mean, we had people calling us from all over the United States. You mean to tell me this guy donated this and I want to thank that family Chumleys out of Williston, right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he's originally from White Earth Ross.
Speaker 2:Okay, that area. So I want to thank those guys and I tell you what. There's a lot of people that can be doing stuff like this and you know, if you want to donate, it's just you don't have to just come in and write out a check or maybe buy some raffle tickets. That doesn't that helps, yeah. But some of these bigger projects you got, and you know, leading up to that sale, you know we knew we had a bunch of guys that want this thing. We had a dealer out of Kentucky, we had another one out of Tennessee, we had a guy out of Michigan, we had a guy out of Denver, colorado, another one out of Billings and then three local people.
Speaker 2:We thought we're going to have a fun auction here and we had no idea what it was going to bring. I mean, we appraised it and kind of thought, well, this is where it's going to be, but we don't know. I mean at auctions, and I want to thank you guys for including us in on this partake of basically a donation this family gave. But this thing went to Michigan and that guy flew out two weeks ago to finally get it and all he could talk about is he's coming back next year. He's already read or got his hotel rooms for next year. But he loved the way we did things in Bowman, north Dakota. He loved the atmosphere. But he said you know what, he's never been around more friendlier people. But we get this thing sold, get everything cleared up. That's a big stepping stone, the amount of funds this motorhome brought to you guys for the legacy fund of trying to get things started and get the ball rolling.
Speaker 3:All I can say is that's the best thing we've ever done, and I you know it's easy for me to say that, but you guys are professional and things worked well and I was very, very pleased with everything that went on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, thank you, and the advertising really worked. I mean, we spent quite a bit more in advertising and tried to do something special, but you know we had all these other vehicles too, so we wanted to treat them all the same. And you know we had all these other vehicles too, so we wanted to treat them all the same. And you know we had a fantastic auction there in Bowman and a car show. Don't worry, it'll be next year again. But you know we're hoping that if people want to donate something you know, to the Cowboy Hall of Fame, you know they can contact you or they can contact us and we'd be glad to help them put that machinery up on the sale and they can donate that back to the Cowboy Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2:And actually we really enjoy that. It's a lot of fun. We like pushing that out. People don't get to see that a lot. What happens like that? And when they saw that it's going to the Cowboy Hall of Fame, I know we had people bid more money than they probably should have because they knew it was going to be a great donation.
Speaker 3:And we, you know we get lots of donations in a lot of different ways, but it's certainly that that was a great thing and the exposure.
Speaker 2:You know we had that right on our website for about 70, 80 days that you know the Cowboy Hall of Fame was going to get this. So we're very fortunate that it all worked. We had a great turnout, some great funds went to you and I want to thank you again. But you know we're getting ready to close out this third segment and move into our fourth. But again I'm Jim Sabby with America's Land Auctioneer and I've got Rick Thompson here, executive Director of the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame, and we've been talking here for a good 45 minutes so far and we're going to be coming back this last segment. We want to kind of finish it up. But hey, contact Piper's If you've got anything going on, give us a call or go to Piper'scom Nobody does it better than Piper's and you've got the Bowman office and we're willing to help you any way we can or anybody else will in the company Hyperscom and we'll be right back and I have salty right there. Get bird to straight by.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to America's Land Auction. Here I'm Jim Savvy, along with Rick Thompson, executive Director of North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame, and we've had a great visit here this morning and you know, I just want to say we want to help promote the Cowboy Hall of Fame. You've got a lot of things going on in this last segment. We were talking about fundraising and you know, you guys, you got a lot of things going on selling raffle tickets all year long for trying to raise some extra money to help things.
Speaker 3:But you know, now's the time that is really needed to get some big fundraising going with what's going on here you know, fundraising is is a big deal for any, any type of uh organization, uh, that you know, non-profit that we are and uh, so it's a, it's a a vital source and uh, we, you know, I, I can't think of a better place in the world to live than where we live. And you, you hit it on our first segment as you talked about the people that we, that we get to deal with. But that's the way it is, and and uh, those people are always ready to step up and and say, yeah, let's, let's help they are and it's kind of fun when you go to different areas and you see the fundraising they're doing.
Speaker 2:And we talked about the volunteers.
Speaker 3:But with the project and I guess, once you explain the project, what you guys are up to and going to move along with you know, our addition to our original building here in Medora, north Dakota, is we're going to add 10,000 more added square feet and that is, you know, 5,000 on each floor, and that's something that, like we said before, is very much needed.
Speaker 3:But it's going to, you know, it's going to move us into more of a technology phase than we are and we're, you know, we're up on technology. We do not have what we probably should to tell that story. And when I say tell that story, you know we, you and I learn different than the younger kids that are coming up, and we want to be able to do that. We have a, you know, basically a technology section for the kids and I'm really proud of that. I think that's going to be something that's vital for the years to come, but it also gives us more upstairs. We're putting in an event slash learning center and we want to tell that story. We want to be able to tell that story in a couple of different ways but bringing in those guys that know the story from, you know, those older people or, you know, utilizing the universities or, you know, utilizing all the professionals that we can to tell the story of not just North Dakota but the history of North Dakota and where we're headed.
Speaker 2:Right, and along with that, and you know there's other museums that you know they've got maybe a story in there that none of us have ever heard about. You know you get into the Bowman one or the Marmoth one. It's just, you know, I could spend weeks in those type of places and I'm one of those, I'm a history buff, so I love it. But what goes on? To try to make this work? Now, this has taken a huge team effort from not only your staff but its members, to try to get this legacy fund built so you guys can start in on this project.
Speaker 3:Exactly, and that's where we're headed, that we're in that process right now, this project Exactly, and that's that's where we're headed, that we're in that process right now. And one thing that the board of directors, you know, laid it on me and said we do not want to build this unless we can get the money. And if we can get the money, we're full steam ahead. And we believe me, they're, they're a hundred percent behind this. I'm talking about the board of directors, but but they also are, are fiscally responsible for what happens. And and, uh, you know, so that's where we're in the middle of right now and it's things are going good.
Speaker 2:Well, we're not there to that goal yet, but when we get there, we're going to be marching on, you know, when you think about it, the, the cost of everything, and compared to what it was years ago and when they built this building um, you know we thought that was a lot of money back then, yeah, and now look at you know what the and compared to what it was years ago and when they built this building. You know we thought that was a lot of money back then, yeah, and now look at, you know what the costs are going to be. But you know there's enough people out there that can step up and will step up. You know you just got to stay in front of people and let them know that we have stories that are being told here. We need to have you come in and visit with us and I love the thing about the youth learning that the kids place where they can go on, because, you're right, they learn different than us. You know my kids, I'm sure, hear different things than what I hear, but you got to have those guys and you're right, we're losing a lot of these older people that you want to hear those stories and so if you're in a community, you know jot some of them down. You got a grandparent or something. Jot down or use a recorder and let them talk about when they were growing up and what it was like, and you know different things. We don't want to lose that.
Speaker 2:You know, just going through some of my dad's stuff I found a Bible the other day that was given to him in 1938. And all of a sudden his name was James O'Dell and my grandson is Max O'Dell. So I thought that'd be kind of a cool gift. But he's only six years old. He's not really going to appreciate it, probably be a little disappointed at Christmas if I gave that to him. But you know, it's those type of stuff you want to pass down. And of course he's learning the legacy of our grandparents that came from Iowa and all the way out here. It's different on every place but yet it's kind of the same?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it is, and there's a perfect thing somewhere that needs to be in a museum to tell that story. You know, one of the main things that we utilize to tell that story is the induction process. Those people that we induct into the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame have a piece of history that we want and you know we have a board of trustees across the state now over 300 trustees that can nominate or and vote for those people coming in. That that is a to me is a is a cool deal to be a trustee and have have that. Uh, you know, and that nomination process and the voting process is is a big deal, yeah, and in it and they're all worthy, but who? You know who?
Speaker 2:gets to win. It's kind of fun when you got everything going up to that date and then listening to the ones up there on top of the hill when they were talking the Jaden Terrace, yeah, and it's very interesting and you know you're only getting a little snippet of what, but it'd be fun to just let's hear the whole story and I know most of that's all wrote down somewhere, but that was to me that was a big highlight of that week when I was listening to whoever talked to or, you know, got them in or themselves talking about it Very interesting.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it is and it's. You know. It brings that back to mind, if you will. For a lot of people, for some people, it's the same. You know it's the first time they're hearing about that and that's what's. You know, that's what's really, what's really cool. We've got so much history and we're just beginning.
Speaker 2:Yes, and we're a young country too. You know, you think if you're on the East Coast or or something, I mean they got you know 400 years or better or 500 years, and you know we're basically starting from the 1870s on and kind of collecting all this, but there's so much that goes on and and again. I, when I we're at pyfers, are very proud about that. We're helping sponsor a lot of the programs with you guys and it's fun to see. See that when we visit the people, people call and say thank us for doing this. But our main job is we love to promote our history and that's why Andy Murnox and John Cerides and myself and Allie Pierce, we want to do that because we want to promote everything out in this country as well and as we can with the social media things that you guys got going on, and we just want to say thank you for letting us be a part of it. It's been a lot of fun and we're going to continue to work through the future with you guys as much as we can. But again, folks, if you're looking to donate to the Cowboy Hall of Fame, talk to Rick Thompson or talk to his staff or give one of us a call here at Pfeiffer's in Bowman and we can help you through. If you want to sell something and donate it, they'd be glad to accept that. They're great people to work with. It's been a lot of fun on this last project going back and forth and visiting and and wondering how many people we have and how's the advertising going, and it's kind of exciting.
Speaker 2:So again we want to thank the Cowboy Hall of Fame for everything that's gone on. Folks support them in a huge way this next year with some funds and step back and tell your story to somebody else. Always tell your story, whether you come in with $50 or $100 or whatever. Your story is behind that and that's what counts. So again I'm Jim Sabby with America's Land Auctioneer. I want to thank Rick Thompson today for being my guest. Cowboy Hall of Fame has played a big part in all of our lives and we appreciate everything you guys have done and your staff has always been great to be here. But again, go to Piferscom to check out all our upcoming sales and we'd be glad to help you out with land sales, machinery sales and just doing what we can to help you out. And again, nobody does it better than Piper's, and we're glad to help out in the upper Midwest. We're in about six or seven states and we're glad to see you sometime in the near future. Again, this is Jim Savvy of America's Land Auctioneer. See you next time.