For Brett and Stephanie Marlette, living in Minneapolis was not their life-long dream. The couple, both graduates of the School of Mines in Rapid City with engineering degrees, had moved to the city for work, but after the birth of their two sons, recognized it was not where they wanted to raise their family. They debated moving to Yankton, where between the two of them they still have several grandparents (Gar and Evelyn Timm, the late Bud and Judy Sagmoe, and the late Neal and Patricia Nielson) and because of that have made the community their second home. Brett and Steph, however, said they found their dream a little further west, in the Black Hills to be exact.

Taking a leap of faith, the Marlettes purchased Recreational Springs Resort near Lead in November of 2013.

“We have always loved being outdoors, from boating and camping on the lake down at Yankton to snowmobiling in the Hills, we just have always spent time together doing things in nature,” Stephanie said. “When Brett and I, realized we didn’t want to be in Minneapolis with our boys, Roland and Teddy, we started talking about what our dream would be. We realized we wanted to build something that we could do as a family, and eventually, give to our boys, and we wanted to do it closer to our family in South Dakota.”

Stephanie said that the pair spent several years researching different opportunities, but when they saw Rec. Springs they knew they had found their new home.

“It just was the perfect setting to raise a family and build a successful business,” Stephanie said. “The resort had gone through several owners who had not been all-in in their efforts to make it a success and, honestly, when we bought it, the bones were there but it needed a lot of updating.”

The resort is located five miles outside of Lead and is located on the snowmobile trails in the winter and the off-road trails in the summer, providing a strong base to build the business on.

“Not going to lie to you, this was a huge investment for us, a long-term investment of time and money that we know will pay off, but these first few years we are going to be working hard to update the

rooms and cabins, getting new snowmobiles, new four-wheelers, you name it, we are updating it,” She said. “It is a lot of work, but it is so worth it.”

 

Stephanie added that the bonus is they get to have their boys with them while building Recreational Springs into their vision of a destination resort for the Black Hills.

“It means everything for us to get to be with them every day,” she said. “It means we get to raise them instead of putting them in day care. It means they get to play outside and be raised in nature, in the beautiful setting of the Black Hills, instead of in a fenced in small backyard. They are the reason we are doing what we are.”

“Our first year was a lot of hours, we converted two of the hotel’s 18 hotel rooms into a living space for the family, and we were going non-stop from the time we took possession in late November until the end of the snowmobile season in March,” Brett said. “Steph wasn’t able to come out because she was finishing up a contract at her job in the cities, so for the first month, I was here getting everything ready for both us and the customers. Stephanie and the boys were able to move out at Christmas time, so since then we have been working hard.”

Stephanie said the couple purchased 17 new snowmobiles last year and an additional 15 this winter. They also purchased four ATV/side-by-sides for rental in the non-snowmobile season.

“We are just really getting into the ATV rentals,” she said. “We found out we are the perfect place to rent an ATV from as we are in the middle of the Northern Hills ATV system. We are in the perfect spot to take a half-day, day or even week-long vacation from as we are so centralized.”

Another addition the Marlette’s have added to the Rec. Springs summer is they are now offering weddings at their facility.

“We are just set up perfectly for it,” Stephanie said. “We have the rooms, the six cabins, and we have spots for 60 campers. We have the full service kitchen, the lodge, and then we have the great outdoor pavilion which is just a perfect summer reception location because it is all covered but still open to the outdoors.”

Brett said that last year they only held a few weddings, but this year they have booked five weddings, two reunions and that is with most of the month of August filled with reservations for the 75th anniversary of the Sturgis Rally and Cool Deadwood Nights.

“We have had phenomenal word of mouth, the people who are coming in love the fact that we are family business and cater to families,” Stephanie said. “We have depended greatly on our customers telling their friends about how great the experience is here at Rec. Springs, so it is only in our best interest to make sure that every person that comes in leaves happy and has the best vacation possible.”

Brett however said that the snowmobile rentals have been and remain the mainstay of the business.

“There are more than 23 acres on property that people can snowmobile on in addition to being right on trail no. 5 of the 350 miles of groomed Black Hills Snowmobile trails,” he said. “People can literally park their sleds right in front of their room or cabin, walk down to the lodge, have breakfast at our all you can eat breakfast buffet, jump on their sleds and hit the trails. It is a blast and they can make every trip unique.

“We offer a full service kitchen throughout the day, where we have a soup of the day and made to order items. Then every Friday night we will do a special meal like a prime rib. We also have the bar in the lodge for when they are done on the trails and just want to hang out with friends and family. We just are really striving to offer anything a guest could want.”

Stephanie said it all comes down to location.

“If we could have found something like this near Yankton, we would have been there in a heartbeat,” she said. “But this gives us the best of both worlds. Look what is in our backyard. There is no better place to raise our family and build our business and we are still a short drive from our family, either for them to come here or us to go there. We absolutely love what we are doing here.”