May 24—CHAMBERLAIN, S.D. — A smokey, tasty aroma is overpowering one step into the door.
It doesn’t faze Nikki Ashley, owner of Bad River Jerky company.
“I don’t even smell it anymore,” Ashley said.
That’s because a lot of time and effort has been spent building her business, located one block east of Chamberlain’s Main Street. It’s been about three years since she got off and running, and her jerky and other meat snacks are sold across South Dakota at farmers markets, the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, fairs, rodeos and gas stations.
And those around her are noticing her hard work and success as her products make their way across the country.
“Nikki is a remarkable example of a successful woman business owner in central South Dakota,” said Taryn Reidt, executive director of the
Chamberlain/Oacoma Chamber of Commerce.
“Her dedication to excellence with Bad River Jerky not only showcases her entrepreneurial spirit but also highlights the vital role that women play in driving our local economy.”
What was formerly a small-engine repair shop at 215 N. Sanborn St. in Chamberlain has transitioned into Bad River Jerky’s home location. Ashley opened the doors to the business in June 2021.
“When we came in here it was so gross,” Ashley said. “We didn’t do too much to the building but we had to clean a lot of grease and grime out.”
She needed a location after purchasing the meat recipes and learning the business from Don and Mary Ward, who owned Bad River Pack in Fort Pierre for four decades. The Wards were looking to sell, and Ashley figured she could start a side-hustle type of business. The Wards, now retired, helped Ashley during the transition for six-plus months. She tweaked the name — from Bad River Pack to Bad River Jerky — since its location moved, but hoped old customers would stay familiar with the products.
After spending hours scrubbing what remained of the dirty shop, the meat processing area began to take shape. That included the installation of a massive smoker, shipped from Washington state, that can cook up to 400 pounds of meat.
“It took us three days to get this thing in place because it was so stinking heavy,” she said. “We just thought we’d get four or five big guys, but no. We actually had to put a pulley system up and use a Bobcat to install it.”
The processing area has all the tools needed for an efficiently run operation. A walk-in cooler that came from Minnesota, a slicer, a massive grinder that holds 200 pounds of meat, holding racks and a jerky tumbler are all ready for use.
Now, a simple, perfect shop has everything she needs for a retail setup and an open area for making meat snacks. Not only does a heavy waft of smoke welcome guests, but multiple options of packaged goods are available.
After opening, Ashley’s business received a
Meat and Poultry Inspection Readiness Grant
for $200,000 from the United States Department of Agriculture. It was part of $32.7 million handed out nationwide from the federal government during the pandemic from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to help small- and mid-sized processors.
In her grant application, Ashley said her business was booming and she was seeking to transition from retail exempt status to federal status “to give us more options to put our product into the hands of the consumer,” she wrote.
Federal status means she was able to make her products and sell them not only at her storefront and farmers markets, but also ship them across the nation.
Her main sales come from South Dakota. She still often travels to weekend farmers markets and craft fairs, but also sells products in Florida, New York, Washington, D.C., and at a second storefront in Arizona, which continued from the Wards’ work from years ago. Everything can be found and purchased at
her website, badriverjerky.com
, and Chamberlain visitors can buy the snacks at her store or BFF’s Sip and Shop Boutique on Main Street.
Ashley, a native of nearby Brule County town Kimball, enjoys the work. She says a typical week means processing about 1,200 pounds of meat.
Her most popular, unique flavor of jerky is the buttery prime rib, but dill pickle also sells well. She says her jerky is drier than most, calling it “saddlebag jerky like they used to make in the old days.”
Snack sticks, meat sticks, summer sausage and chicken jerky can also be found on her website, but perhaps the most interesting option is pemmican.
An indigenous food, pemmican was a favorite of Native Americans and typically made with buffalo meat, tallow and dried berries or nuts. Ashley makes beef pemmican flavors in raspberry heat and teriyaki pineapple, among others, but she made a custom order last fall that had quite an impact.
Troy Heinert, former South Dakota state legislator from Mission, has known Ashley for 35-plus years. He is now the executive director of the
InterTribal Buffalo Council
, which, according to its website, is a collection of 80 tribes in 20 states that facilitates the management of over 20,000 buffalo.
In October, the council needed a product for the Native American Food Fair in Washington D.C., and Heinert asked Ashley for a favor.
“We wanted to make sure the product we were creating was reflective of, not only indigenous knowledge, but of the Indigenous diet,” he said.
Tribally sourced buffalo meat and local dried chokecherries were provided and Ashley made pemmican that was shared on a big stage — at an event that was attended by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, the first Native American to serve as a cabinet secretary. The custom pemmican, Heinert said, was well-received. It may have been the first time Ashley used buffalo for pemmican, but the successful turnout was not surprising, Heinert says.
“Nikki has approached this endeavor with the heart of a cowgirl and the mind of a business woman,” Heinert said. “I think for her, when she set her mind to do something, she was going to do it and do it right. That’s how she was raised and that’s what she did. Just super impressed because that’s not an easy job, and we were proud to be able to support her.”
It’s stories like that, the hours she gets to spend selling her product during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and meeting customers all over that make the work worthwhile, Ashley said. She has two teenage sons who go to school in Chamberlain and she’s proud of the business she’s built in the central South Dakota community.
“Some of the best jerky I’ve had,” said Nick Evans in an online Google review comment. “Much higher quality than anything you’ll find at a big box store or a gas station.”
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