VALE—Learning the history of those who came before you is important in understanding the rich background of any town. One such case is the little town of Vale. This year is the 147th anniversary of its founding, and it was celebrated on June 13 at the Vale Community Hall.
Every year a small group of citizens work to keep the memory of the beginnings of Vale alive and well. On the second Saturday of June, a group of six members who make up the Vale Reunion Committee host the Vale Gathering. It is a community get-together with tables full of old high school yearbooks, newspapers and lots of old photos on display.
All of those interested in celebrating another year of life for the small town were invited to Vale Community Hall for a brats and burger potluck lunch with refreshments, followed by an afternoon of BINGO.
Steve Silvernage, one of the driving forces behind the yearly get-together, is full of knowledge about the town. He said, “I always came to this, and it was an older two couples that always put it on. So, about three years ago, they said, ‘We’re getting too old to do this, would you take it over?’ So, myself and a bunch of people living around here, some live in Spearfish, where I live, and we just continued with the history, you know, if you lose it, you never get it back.”
Back in its heyday, Vale was a booming town. “They had banks and motels, and I mean, they had everything here! There was even a jail,” shared Silvernage.
Back when cucumbers and sugar beets were big crops in the area, Silvernage’s dad was a farmer. “My dad bought his farm in 1950 and farmed in beets—I remember riding in with my dad in the sugar beet truck. They dump the sugar beets and then auger them up into the train cars, and they go back to Belle. That’s where the sugar beet factory was—and then that shut down a long time ago, and they moved it,” he shared.
In hopes of getting more interest in their gathering, the group decided to make the Vale Gathering a fundraiser. They took donations at the door and gave the BINGO proceeds to the Vale Fire Department. “We have way more people than last year! Right now we’re at $1,183 for the Fire Department. And any of the BINGO proceeds will also go to the fire department,” said Silvernage.
The idea to get more interest seemed to have worked. The Fire Department brought a big red fire truck to put on display and the public came out. “It’s pretty good today! Last year we only had 32 people and so far we are probably up to 60 now,” said Silvernage. “What we did before we were so anxious to get done that we start taking the food away, and one of the other people in town told us this. So we left the food, we played bingo for two hours, you can eat, play bingo, go back and eat a little bit more, and then the food’s gone!”
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