Last Friday, the Gazette was pleasantly surprised when Dwayne “Jake” Jacobson sent a couple of visitors to us. Cindy Garretson Shurtleff and her husband, Rob, of Seattle, WA, were visiting Devil’s Gulch and staying at Palisades State Park.
Upon some questioning, we discovered that Cindy was of the same descendants’ line as John Garretson of Eagle, ID.
John, who passed away this past June, had impacted the Garretson community greatly in his short time affiliated with us, providing yearbooks for Garretson students, prizes for Garretson Sportsmen’s Trap Shooting Youth, random gifts to local community members, and much more. John was a first cousin to Cindy’s father, Ronald Garretson.
Cindy noted that while this was her first visit to Garretson, she had heard about it when her parents visited the area approximately 25 years ago, and it had piqued her interest. Despite extensive travels, until now she had never had the chance to stop and visit.
“South Dakota is my 47th state [to visit],” Cindy said. She loved how positive the people were, and loved the rolling hills in this area. She and Rob also enjoyed hiking and biking in the Black Hills, at Custer State Park, the Badlands, and Farm Island State Park in Pierre.
Like John, Cindy is very interested in her genealogy, and had traced their family’s lineage back to the 1650’s, when an ancestor accidentally landed in New York (he was aiming for Delaware). This past January, John had discovered that their line had parted from Garretson’s founding father, A.S. Garretson, in 1684.
Despite having branched over 300 years ago, it’s still great to meet those who bear the same namesake as our small town’s founder, especially since none of the lines were ever established here.
