History of Badlands Ministries

• 1928 - Camps held in the North Dakota badlands.

• June 1933 - Lutherans in southwest North Dakota form Badlands Bible Camp (BBC) at the Open A Ranch (20 miles north of Belfield) with Rev. Chris Notsunde as Camp Manager. Camp was held at this location in 1933 – 1934.

• June 1935 – 1937 - BBC was held at the HT Ranch west of Amidon.

• 1938 – 1939 - BBC was shifted to the CCC Camp west of Medora.

• 1940 - BBC was again held at the HT Ranch.

• 1942 - BBC was held at the Buddy Ranch, a few miles east of Medora. The need for a permanent site was becoming obvious. During this time, leaders changed the WWII slogan of “Remember Pearl Harbor” to “Remember, Pray Harder” while they searched for the right location.

• October 29, 1945 - Badlands Lutheran Bible Camp was established on 798 acres 4 miles south of Medora.

• March 8, 1946 - Badlands Lutheran Bible Camp sold 759 acres to a member of its Board of Directors, Walter and Marion Christenson, to alleviate the debt load.

• November 1948 - A restrictive covenant was placed on the 759 acres stating that the land could be willed or sold without the BLBC’s permission and could not be used for any purpose other than ranching or agriculture in order to preserve and protect the camp.

• During the 1950’s a dormitory for boys and a dormitory for girls was built. On June 26, 1955 the entire camp experienced a flash flood of Davis Creek. Many campers sat on top bunks watching the water rise beneath them. Stories say the camp director stood in thigh-high water and lead campers in songs to keep them calm until their parents arrived, and they were boated out of camp.

• 1974 - Normana Lutheran Church (22 miles southwest of New England) building was moved to the current site and renovated into a year-round retreat center with 20 beds. It was named We-Cho-Ne, meaning “life” in Sioux.

• 1971-1976 - John Hoyme served as summer director with full summer staff.

• 1976 - Pastor Jim Liefeld was called as the first full time Executive Director.

• October, 1979 - The corporation became known as Badlands Ministries.

• Leadership followed with:  Carl Kelly, Dave Anderson, Carl Buetemaier, Greta Kessel, and Lowell Krogstad.

• September, 2001 - Brent and Jennifer Seaks were called from Houston, Texas as Executive Co-Directors.

• November 2001 - The Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation was in the midst of buying the 759-acre ranch for a golf course.  At closing, the TRMF lawyers uncovered the restrictive covenant and could not continue with the sale.

• March 2002 - Badlands Ministries sold its 38.99 acres to the TRMF.  Then, Badlands Ministries purchased 188.7 acres of the ranch southwest of the current location.  Badlands Ministries was given $75,000 for the removal of the restrictive covenant on the entire ranch.

• 2003 – Information was gathered from surveys sent to region-wide church leaders, local “Town Hall Meetings”, together with surveys from 2001 to determine the needs of our area churches and communities in order to build facilities that would meet those specific needs. A master plan was developed.

• Early 2004 – Master plan was approved at annual meeting, and a feasibility study was begun to determine how much of plan could be implemented in “Phase I”.

• 2005 - A 3 million dollar capital campaign "Moving in Faith" was launched to raise the needed funds for the "Phase I" plan. Project Manager Dan Peterson of Bowman, ND was hired to oversee the completion of construction plans and actual site construction.