American Legion Battle Creek Post 303 began in the late 1960’s with little more than a small group of determined, well-meaning veterans. The first meeting was held in 1968 in the store room of the town bar, sitting amongst the beer kegs and cases. As the group grew in numbers, they moved to the old bank building on Main Street. It had no heat, but it did have electricity, a desk and some chairs, permitting some semblance of an organized, if cold, meeting. As lack of progress was beginning to get to some in the group, Jack Lintz came up with the idea for a permanent post home – the old town grocery store. It wasn’t in great shape, but with 3 co-signers, 1st National Bank in Rapid City extended a mortgage, and the post had a home.

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Next effort, now that things seemed ready, was to work on a charter. George Gorwaski, a propane truck driver, was a prime mover in this cause. He had been involved in getting a charter for a post back East and had some idea what would be needed. He began working toward that end, and his efforts included recruiting veterans from along his delivery route to the fledgling American Legion Post. The charter was granted in March 31, 1969 with 41 charter members. It was countersigned by the District of South Dakota on April 10, 1969. First Post Commander was George Gorwoski.
That accomplished, attention turned toward making the old grocery a useful post home. It wasn’t in the best of shape. No one could even remember how long it had been vacant. The wooden floor was in bad shape, rotted out at the west end. With Jack Lintz again taking the lead, a plan was developed and work was begun. The old boards were torn up and the walls jacked off the rotting foundation. Jack brought in his concrete pouring business and crew and poured a new foundation and floor. To the best of the old timers’ memories, the bill was for materials only – no charge for labor. Much of the labor was done purely on a voluntary basis.

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Over the years, more improvements have been made. An entry was added on the south side and a store room was added on the north. The addition on the west side permitted the installation of a kitchen. At one point, the post even installed indoor plumbing, permitting retirement of the old out-house behind the building. The basic remodeling was complete in 1974 and a grand opening was held on October 5th of that year. In 1977, air conditioning was installed. With everyone pitching in to raise funds, including members of the community, the mortgage was paid off and burned during a community celebration at midnight on March 18, 1978. The post had a usable home, free and clear. Senator George McGovern even paid the post a visit to celebrate on Veteran’s Day that year.
Uniforms came to the post in 1978, at least for the Honor Guard (which for some reason is still referred to as the firing squad). Crown Clothiers in Rapid City helped in this area. They had several suggestions, and post members decided on dark blue jackets and ties with grey pants. Donated funds paid part of the costs, with each member who wanted a set making up the difference.
The post was active in the community right from the start. In fact, the first sponsored attendee to Boys State was Jim Preston, sponsored by his Dad, Bud Preston, in 1968, months before the post was chartered. As soon as the mortgage was obtained in 1968, the post began fund raisers and social events to pay it off and cover all the required renovations. Of course, this included all the usual Legion events. Post members participate in parades in Hermosa, Custer, and Rapid City. School involvement has grown from activities involving Americanism and citizenship, lessons in flag etiquette, and Veteran’s Day Ceremonies to include pumpkin preparation for the annual school-wide Halloween pumpkin carving and veteran’s presentations to classes to foster an understanding of military life and what military members do.

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Since its inception, Post 303 has always been a hub of the social life in Hermosa and the surrounding community. The Post has sponsored dances, pot lucks, steak parties, Rocky Mountain oyster feeds, Halloween Parties, turtle soup dinners and wild game feeds. We serve as the Hermosa Senior Center and the site of hot lunches for our senior citizens. The Post still sponsors monthly Bingo nights, taking on that project when the Junior Auxiliary could no longer support it. And it offers access to the Hermosa School Gym at nominal cost several nights a week. We provide the concessions stand at the annual 4-H Rodeo, as well providing some of the belt buckle prizes, and sponsors the Annual Variety and Talent Show, now held in the Hermosa School Gym.
The entire community looks forward to the Cookie and Pie Social hosted by the Women’s Auxiliary after Memorial Day ceremonies at the cemeteries in Hermosa and Fairburn, and also to the Chili Feed at the Post home on Veteran’s Day.
Certainly our most popular event, even famous, is the Annual Beers and Ears. Begun in 1976 as the Fall Harvest Festival, this has grown from a small in-house gathering with corn hand- picked by the members to an event bringing in people from South Dakota and 4 surrounding states. The post has to limit advertising to keep the crowd small enough for the Post members to handle. In 2013, 1182 plates of food were served, and the crowd went through 13 kegs of beer. In 2014, the program will be followed by a community street dance, bringing the festivities to a new level. This event now generates enough revenue to fund nearly all the post’s regular operations expenses for the year.

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In 2007 the Post began efforts to raise funds to secure a new post home. The original goal was set to raise $210,000 by 2010, but in a community of 390 that is a big order. While the goal still remains unmet, it is not for lack of efforts by post members or the surrounding community. Donations of several thousand dollars have been made by local merchants and the post has a plaque displaying the names of those individuals, families and businesses that have donated over $1,000. We have had raffles, auctions, parties, feeds, and every kind of fund raiser we could manage. We work events at the Rapid City Convention Center and take donations at all the events we sponsor.
We continue to grow as a Post. We first hit 100 members in 1977. In 2014, we have 141 members, and five consecutive years of 100% of goal membership. In 2013 Post 303 had one of its own, Rick MacDonald, elected to the position of Commander, South Dakota Department of the American Legion.
No history of Post could be could be complete without mention of the Women’s Auxiliary of our Post. It was chartered March 16, 1970, just months after the Post itself became official. Its members have been at our sides from the start. They provide cookies, pies, rolls, etc. for many of our functions. They help in fundraising for the new Post home. They have done visits to the Veterans’ Home in Hot Springs and provided gifts and cards to veterans. One of their popular projects at the Hermosa School is providing quality dictionaries to every student. One year they created and sold a cook book to aid our building fund.

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