Treasures of our Town

“Discovering Small Town America”: Behind the Scenes of the Web Series “My Town” with Cory Hepola

• Craig (Seemyshell) and Joshua (Geocaching Vlogger) • Season 3 • Episode 24

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What if the life you’ve been chasing is waiting in a town you’ve never heard of? We sit down with journalist and filmmaker Corey Hepola, the creator of My Town, a high-quality docuseries that spotlights the people, jobs, and everyday magic inside America’s small communities. Forget the stereotypes—Corey shares why the data, the stories, and the views from the ground all point to a different truth: rural places are growing, evolving, and attracting families who rank quality of life above everything else.

Corey takes us from his broadcast career to the conversation that changed his path, then opens the curtain on how My Town comes together: months of research, a local leadership team, and three interwoven storylines featuring stayers, boomerangs, and newcomers. We hear how Watford City turned an oil boom into a welcoming culture with top-tier schools and healthcare, why Fairmont’s bacon economy and chain of lakes create surprising momentum, and how St. Joseph’s award-winning restaurant and bakery make a compelling case for destination dining far from the metro glare. He also shares Joy Ranch’s moving mission and a peek at season three adventures, including a hot air balloon championship.

If you love road trips, geocaching, or simply finding what’s real beyond the freeway, this conversation delivers a map of places worth your time—and maybe your future. Watch the My Town series on YouTube, then come back and tell us which town stole your heart. Subscribe to the show, share this episode with a friend who needs a weekend escape idea, and leave a review to help more curious travelers find us.

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SPEAKER_00:

It's my town, not yours. No, it's my town.

SPEAKER_02:

No, it's my town. It's my town. Do you love to travel?

SPEAKER_00:

Do you love road trips?

SPEAKER_02:

Do you love finding hidden treasures in towns all over the USA? Hi, I'm Joshua.

SPEAKER_00:

And I'm Craig. Welcome to Treasures of Out Town. It's a podcast that explores unique and charming towns scattered throughout the United States.

SPEAKER_02:

Guided by our love for location-based games like geocaching. Join us as we venture to some of the country's most intriguing destinations, uncovering hidden gems and local secrets along the way.

SPEAKER_00:

On today's episode, Josh, my town, not your town.

SPEAKER_02:

No, it's my town. No, it's my town.

SPEAKER_00:

No, it's my town.

SPEAKER_02:

It's actually Corey's town. It's actually my town.

SPEAKER_00:

It is actually your town. Well, one part is your town. Anyway, we're getting into this argument already. What's going on, mate?

SPEAKER_02:

Yes. We're excited to talk to Corey Heppla. And he has an amazing web series that is just perfect for our episode. I think our listeners will really enjoy uh listening to him and hearing about his really cool professional docuseries called My Time. I think you're going to be really impressed with it.

SPEAKER_00:

And when we say professional, it is professional, Josh. Like it's not, it's not like the average YouTube sort of stuff. This is television tiles or profession.

SPEAKER_02:

We're talking like dirty jobs quality. Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, exactly. That's exactly what we're talking about. But but highlighting small rural towns, which is perfect for us, Josh, including your small rural town where you came from. From your hometown.

SPEAKER_02:

These treasure places where geocaches are everywhere. Actually, in my small town, it was so interesting. I follow my small town's social media account, and one day all of a sudden came up on Reels. Hey, have you ever tried geocaching? It's in our town of Fairmont. I was like, what?

SPEAKER_00:

In actual fact, Josh, the uh he featured, he featured your your actual town yesterday on uh on the series 2. I know that's really cool. That's really cool. The actual small town. And I've been there as well. I yes, I went to I had a burger at that burger place. I don't know what's the burgers place, nice.

SPEAKER_02:

The channel in. It was called the channel. The channel in.

SPEAKER_00:

The channel in.

SPEAKER_02:

Went to the blazer.

SPEAKER_00:

The blazer, which is a uh dive bar, like a divey dive bar, like a good dive bar.

SPEAKER_02:

That's where I really grew up inside that bar named Pinball.

SPEAKER_00:

And jumping, jumping amongst the actual chairs between the windows areas, too. That's what you told me. Exactly. Really cool, really cool. But but Josh, before we go on, before we start, we've got to tell everyone what's going on in our personal lives with our delays and upgrades.

SPEAKER_02:

Cue the sound.

SPEAKER_00:

There you go.

SPEAKER_02:

There it was. Craig, let's go with the positive. What have been your upgrades?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, my upgrade, sir, was uh last week while I was out and about in the Nevada Desert. I completed my 20,000th geocache milestone. Wow.

SPEAKER_02:

20,000. You've doubled me. You've doubled me.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow. Well, you double me on like social media stuff, so I can at least double you in in response.

SPEAKER_02:

And videos, triple you maybe videos, full-size YouTube videos.

SPEAKER_00:

And what I did, Josh, if if you're a geocacher out there, um, you and you're not sure of this, and there's a possibility, but you can actually change, you don't have to look and make sure you get the actual milestone itself because you can change within like I think it's 100 different types, um, the the milestone on the actual website, the geocaching website. You can change which one you want to make your your milestone.

SPEAKER_02:

So which one did you make your milestone? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

The 25 locationless cache. You know the special locationless one, the 25 for the 25 years. Yeah, so I made that one because there was a sign, a road sign, saying 25 on the road sign. That was the speed limit. So I went, you know what? This one's gonna be that. So there we go.

SPEAKER_02:

That's a really easy. I I would have found something more creative.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, it was creative because it was in the middle of this power trail on the ET by in the desert. This is inside the Nevada desert on a dirt road. So that's the reason why it was 25.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so it's memorable. It's memorable, even though it was just a random sign. Well, that's great. That's great. Um, my is not as exciting, but I'm looking at it right now. I'm really proud of it. I have a little, I have a little Christmas tree here. It's a aluminum, it's an aluminum Christmas tree. Underneath the Christmas tree is the popcorn bucket that I've talked about before of the DeLorean. And so I decided to take this Christmas tree. Maybe I'll put a picture of it on our social media.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And I made the Christmas tree a back to the future Christmas tree.

SPEAKER_00:

So there's all the back to the future there.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Marty's on there, Doc's on there, Biff. I have a back to the future advent calendar that has little back to the future things, and I've been hanging them on the tree every day. So it's the small joys in life. It's not a whole lot going on. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

With all the snow that's happening around Minnesota at the moment as well, it's it's hard to do anything else apart from being indoors.

SPEAKER_02:

So but I did get out this weekend and I did film a video for the Geo Challenge of the month. And so that was a highlight too.

SPEAKER_00:

We all know, we all know, Josh. You filmed one video every single week for the last 14 years.

SPEAKER_02:

I should tell Corey that. Do you think he'll be impressed?

SPEAKER_00:

I think he will be impressed, to be honest with you. I think you should tell him that too. Meanwhile, Josh, what's been your delay before we get to chatting to Corey?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, I don't want to say the cold, but yeah, it's it's cold. And I just can't get out. I and I feel sad. I I feel most sad for my little dog, Goliath. Oh, yeah. I see him. He's so sad. He wants to be outside, but then the moment he gets out there, he doesn't want to be outside anymore.

SPEAKER_00:

No, he's like, nope, give it back in. Nope, I'm done.

SPEAKER_02:

So I'm sad for him. And I've been thinking, you know, since the kids have left, he's not he's home alone too often. And I think I'm gonna look into doggy daycare for him because I come home and he is and I come home and he's hyped. I mean, he's just like he's been waiting all day long. And I've heard people that do doggy daycare, like that really wears their dog out, and then they come home and they just they're they're done for the day. So I want that for a Goliath. So yeah, there's my delay, the sadness of my dog.

SPEAKER_00:

You don't work for you don't work for Google, so you can't take your dog to work.

SPEAKER_02:

I know. Well, I could take my dog to work, but you could. He did well at your work. He's an he can be he'd be too annoying. He'd annoy everybody.

SPEAKER_00:

This is true.

SPEAKER_02:

What is your delay?

SPEAKER_00:

Mate, my delay. Well, guess what? It's still about the chicken coop.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, I still three episodes in a row.

SPEAKER_00:

I know. I I've I've I'm almost there. I've got the roof on the the run to do, and I am done. I took a photo uh yesterday of it um as well. And I'm gonna put that photo in patrons as well for the patrons. I'll do I'll do a photo for the patrons in regards to that, Josh. So yes, it's almost there, almost done, almost finished. The girls are in the actual chicken coop, but I can't let them out onto the run yet until I put the roof on.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay. Oh, I just thought of another upgrade. It happened last night. What was your upgrade last night? I got to, you know, my favorite TV show. My favorite TV show is Survivor.

SPEAKER_00:

Survivor. You love Survivor too.

SPEAKER_02:

And so last night I got to interview Solomon Yi, Saul, from season 47. On the Geocache Talk podcast of hope. They do a fundraiser every year. And I always provide some sort of person. I want I always like try to find somebody I want to interview because the pot that show is not about geocaching. So I'm like, who do I want to? I was like, who do I want to talk to? So that I use that as an excuse to like find find somebody. And charity is a very good motivator to get people to come on your show. So he was and he was great and it was so fun. And get this, Greg, get this. Oh my gosh. I taught him about geocaching. He didn't know about it.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And he's really pumped about it. And he said, I could go out there and take him geocaching. And then he said maybe he would bring other people from his season to go geocaching. So, like a bunch of them that was on that season to go geocaching and do a video. Would that not be awesome?

SPEAKER_00:

That would be awesome. And then you get some, then you might actually get some views, Josh. Just right.

SPEAKER_02:

So I guess, yeah, that's my new upgrade.

SPEAKER_00:

If you think about it, if you think about it too, though, survive we're talking about Survivor here. What do they have in Survivor a lot? Is those idols. How do you find an idol? They're geocaches, they're actually geocaches. They're idols, they're hidden like a geocache. Josh, if ever you went on Survivor, you'd be the idol hunter extraordinary. That's what I'd say.

SPEAKER_02:

But according to him, it has to be stealthy because they don't, if you walk out in the woods by yourself, they get they're like, what is he doing? Oh, he's he's playing, he's like, he's playing too hard, vote him out.

SPEAKER_00:

And see the other thing, Josh, as well, I think you'd be really good at is if you found these two, um, you don't you don't write your name and put them back, you keep them, so therefore you don't need a pen.

SPEAKER_02:

Perfect. That's perfect for me. No pen needed. It's like it's like I'm at tribal council and and uh uh and Jeff's like, like, hey, I I would like to play this idol. And then he goes, Well, you have to have a pen to play the no that'd be funny.

SPEAKER_00:

That'd be fun.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, Craig, we need to get to our guest because I'm very excited to welcome to our show Corey Heppela. Corey, welcome to our show. Welcome to Treasures of Our Town, Josh, Craig.

SPEAKER_01:

Thanks for having me, guys.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, we are so excited to talk to you because you are a small town, I don't know what to call it, like a small town aficionado. Like you are curious about the small towns. And in our hobby of geocaching, we go to a lot of small towns. So we really want to talk to you. You you get into these small towns and you expose why they're great and the stories behind them. And I'm really curious about this web series that you've done that I believe you're in the second series, uh, second season. Before we get to that, Craig, uh, Corey, tell us a little bit about yourself. Who are you? What have you done? Tell us, tell us all about that.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I think my, you know, my passion for small towns is is because I'm from one and it's who I am. It's my it's in my DNA. And no matter how far away I've I've moved away at times, um, whenever I'm asked the question, like, oh, where are you from? It's Perm, Minnesota. It's not just Minnesota. It's not, it's, it's, or even Minneapolis, where I've lived now for 10 years, but it's Perm, Minnesota. Um, and so for for those who don't know, I mean, Perm's a small town. It's in western Minnesota, about an hour east of Fargo. Um and so it's a town of about 3,000 people, and that's that's what I knew. And and I'm proud to be from a small town. So that's kind of where where it all started. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Did you hear that, Craig?

SPEAKER_01:

I know, I know.

SPEAKER_02:

He's proud of his town. Uh that's a damn rare thing these days.

SPEAKER_00:

Corey, you know, because I think you've listened to uh one or two of our episodes before, and that is yeah, Josh needs to get that in every single at early again, Josh, this episode.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, he just it was just hanging fruit. I couldn't I couldn't not pick that.

SPEAKER_01:

It was kind of a softball. I mean, yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_02:

So you grew up in Purnham, Minnesota, and so when you you left, you came to Minnesota to the Twin Cities, and what where did you go with your life?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so very interesting because I mean I lit I legitimately told my parents at eight years old exactly what I was gonna do with my life. I never had another plan. I told my parents at eight that I was gonna be a TV anchor in Minneapolis, and uh and I was gonna work at WCCO, I was gonna work with Mark Rosen and Don Shelby and all these iconic names here in Minnesota. And I never had a backup plan. I never had uh, you know, so I was laser focused. I have journal entries all through high school um on exactly where I was gonna go and um went to college chasing that dream and ended up getting into broadcast journalism there uh at Concordia in Fargo Moorhead and you know went to school for it and ended up getting an internship while in college. They hired me back and then uh promoted me. And so I was working in in Fargo Moorhead uh in the Fargo TV market while I was in college. Um and so then from there, I mean, I went to uh Washington, D.C. I went to Helena, Montana, Elmira, New York, Rochester, New York, Austin, Texas, Houston, Texas. And then uh finally made it made it back home to Minnesota in uh in 2015, so 10 years ago. Um, and uh, you know, got the job as a TV anchor at the NBC station here in Minneapolis at Care 11, uh iconic uh TV station. Yeah. And my story, it it was such a dream come true. And I I thought I would do that for the rest of my life. Um, but you know, as we'll probably get into sometimes your perspectives change.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, that's that's that's very interesting. And I did I have watched a couple of your episodes too on on YouTube, Corey. And um, one of the things you say uh is is in regards to that change you had, whereby you you've gone, you know, I've I've had this time of my life now. And I think you even said uh you turned 40 something, and you you then started and you kind of said to yourself, okay, there's something more in my life now, and and what what do I want it to be? When did that roughly occur and how did that occur for you?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, that's yeah, uh I I know the exact moment. Um so it was 2017, and I I'll tell you, like there was I saw somebody who was a pillar of the community, and this person was a um an executive and he was a faith-driven person. He was considered widely like just an amazing person to work for. He was a father, and he was a community advocate. And he the way that he would speak about uh Minneapolis-St. Paul, but also the state and being that advocate. And um I I really admired this person, and I I reached out to him blindly and just said, hey, you don't know me, but I would love to pick your brain on leadership because I felt myself sort of shifting inside that uh this shift, and and I'm very spiritual. And I felt this this shift of like, okay, you've really, you know, you've you've had this goal your entire life, you've set this goal, you've kind of been telling your life what you want to do with it. And now it's time to to to utilize the platform, but also the skills that you've developed for a different way, for a more purposeful way. And that's really where it started. So I reached out to this person um and I sent them, I spilled my guts. Like I just was like, you know, and I just got this on my heart. It was on my heart to reach out to you. And I just I feel like I meant to do something else, but I don't know what. And it was kind of scary, right? I mean, all I ever wanted to do was what I was doing. Um, and I hit send. I guessed at his email. I hit send. And and then I waited, and like it was like, what did you just do? You are an idiot. Why would you do that? But my life changed 30 minutes later when he responded and said, That's a very kind note. I would happily have uh a meeting with you. How about we have breakfast? And uh this person really changed sort of my perspective on life. And and I'll kind of tighten the story up just for but the one thing from the first meeting we had is and and he's become a mentor, but like um, I had asked him, I said, Well, were you like me? Did you like write down on your wall what you wanted to accomplish? Did you want to be CEO? Did you want to do this and want to do that? And he he told me something that that really shifted my perspective and helped me kind of think differently. He said, uh, he kind of laughed and he said, No. And he goes, and oftentimes I even took lateral moves across uh, you know, along my path where other people, my peers were passing me up, but he said, what I recognized was I had uh curiosity. I maintained this curiosity, and as I I took lateral moves and whatnot, I I recognized that I was being prepared to help serve because I understood people and I understood different parts of the business. And I under and it was like, oh wow. So it that kind of shifted my perspective. And he said, he goes, uh my my um you know, he basically said, Stop telling your life what you're gonna do and just start to listen. See where the Lord's calling you, see where uh it all might go. And um, and that just that really shifted it for me. I I just started to open up to more possibilities and opportunities.

SPEAKER_00:

I think I think that happens a lot, uh Corey, as well, for a lot of people, to be honest with you. Um, especially when you get to sort of that age group where you're 40, 45, 50, for instance, as well, and you try you do get sick of that, that the big smoke, so to speak, and the city life. And you go, you know, that city life is probably more for younger ones. You realize the the relaxation that there is in the smaller towns and the and the the lesser communities, whereby you can actually serve the community better and if it feels better about yourself than anything else. And I do really enjoy uh you use utilizing your actual talents that you've uh gained over the last few years and doing this actual um web series as well. I think it's great. But um apart from that though, we're we're talking about the series called My Town. Tell us a little bit more about the My Town series itself.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so where it all spawned, and I I appreciate I appreciate the kind words, and I think where it all spawned was um I kind of opened myself up to you know wanting to make more of an impact with sort of the work that I that I was doing. And um it didn't happen overnight, and there were some missteps, and there were some things where I thought maybe I was starting down this path or whatnot. But the mission really came into focus when um you know, working in in a large city, um, and especially working in a newsroom, the way that uh, and this always bothered me, but it became more apparent. Uh a couple things. One, and and Josh, you being from a small town in Fairmont, you would get this too, is oftentimes people would would, I would tell them proudly, Craig, proudly, that I'm from a small town. Yeah. And people would people would look at me like, oh wow, good for you. You made it out of there. You know?

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And I but for me, I was like, well, my town is it's a thriving town. I know a lot of talented people who choose to live there, and they could live anywhere in the in the country. They could be down here in the Twin Cities, they could go to Australia, they could go to London, they like, but they choose Perm, Minnesota, and including all of my family members. Like, so I I I just I thought that was odd, but it also coincides with sort of the the national uh stereotypes of what it's like to live and work and play in a small town. And you look at all these uh the the rural narrative in general, it's always been negative. It's always negative. Death, destruction, uh nothing, your dreams go to die there, they're all small towns are dying, but it's simply not the truth. One, like data, the data support since the 1970s, rural counties have grown by 11 percent. So it's never stopped growing. But where did these misconceptions start? And so both of those things came to a head for me, and I thought, well, you know, why don't we start telling you know uh uh stories and not in a divisive way. I think everything today is usually us versus them. We never we never want to talk uh uh ill about living an urban lifestyle. That's great. A lot of talented people choose that too. But this was a way to say, hey, you know what? Maybe this is out here for you. Or maybe you had an idea of what it's like to live in a small town. And more than likely, it's not accurate. So why don't we tell the stories of talented people who choose to live in these small towns? And what makes small town living great? It happens to coincide now, too, with uh after the pandemic, where millennials and Gen Zers are choosing their top priority, which is quality of life. And who offers that better than a small town?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that's fascinating because I visited my hometown of Fairmont like a month ago, and I went to a local brewery that opened up. I was like, oh my gosh, they opened a brewery in my town. And I walked in there and I couldn't believe the amount of young people that were there. And it was just kind of shattered my brain a little bit. And I lived in that town because I just felt like, oh gosh, everybody leaves this town. And there's just like a lot of older folks. And Corey, I don't want to get political on the show. We never really do, but I think you made a very interesting point in a world currently right now that seems to be very polarizing. I think it's more important now than ever to be able to highlight, um highlight, you know, the rural life that doesn't have as big of a megaphone to show the good people that are there doing good things that are, again, like you said, very, very talented. So uh I give you kudos for that. I think that's really um really neat. So uh going back, so you had this idea 2017. Tell us like the process of getting my town started.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, uh I'll be honest, like it was not fully clear at 20 in 2017. It was just that I had to shift my mindset. I I had to stop saying, like, okay, well, this is the path I'm on, and it's never gonna shift, and this is what I'm gonna do for the rest of my life. I had to kind of shift that mindset. So for me, it became more of a uh learning how to discern a little bit better, stop telling my life what I'm gonna do with it, start to listen. And I'll tell you, it took a couple of years of really sort of trying to figure things out, wondering what that would look like, you know, what was my uh actual purpose and mission. Um, and then I got a call in 2019, out of the blue, from somebody I didn't know from my hometown, uh in the county of Ottertale County, Minnesota. His name's Eric Osberg. He's the rural rebound coordinator for the county. And he called me in 2019 and he said, You don't know who I am, but we have this problem. Nobody looks at us as a place to live, work, and play. And I give him and I give the the forward-thinking people in Ottertale County a ton of credit because they said the popular idea would be to do tourism videos. And he said, I don't want to do those. Everybody does those. And we will pay for them and we will watch them, and no one else will. We need to, you know, he was like, Can we tell like a unique story or tell an authentic story, or can we do something different to help highlight you know the people in in the county? And so that that's what really inspired me. But I'll I'll share that I would not have been in a place to to feel that call with a clear mindset of knowing, oh wait, this is this is purposeful. This is something that is uh you know real to me and and is so I wouldn't have been there had I not had that two-year process of really sort of uh starting to reflect a little bit more honestly on on myself. And so he called and and I it just it spoke to me. I was like, this is what I'm meant to do. Like, okay, so went to him with an idea of, well, I'm going through this, I'm turning 40, wife, uh, three young kids. And at 18, I wanted to leave, just like Josh. I wanted to leave my small town. But now I'm starting to look back and go, why was I in such a hurry to leave? I mean, the county has all of these wonderful things, including more than a thousand lakes. They've got great jobs. My family chooses to be there. My sister's a teacher at the school we went to. So why was I in such a hurry to leave? And not that there's anything wrong with that, but to view the county through that lens of now going back and and meeting with people, well, you never left, or you you moved away and you were a boomerang, and now you moved back. So we we started that uh and we we created a documentary series on a smaller scale called Rural by Choice. Okay. And we did 12 uh short uh episodes on the county with different people. Um and that's where it started. And then uh the company that I work for now uh happened to see that, which uh it's I know it's a little complicated, so sorry, I'll try to clear it up. But uh uh the company I work for now saw those and said, hey, um, we're an economic development company. We help communities, small uh rural communities across the country. Is this a storytelling model we could we could build out and help more more communities across the country uh do that? And so that's three years ago that call came in, and and so we that we've been on that path ever since with My Town.

SPEAKER_02:

So My Town is funded by this by this group that that sought you out.

SPEAKER_01:

Is that is that how it's sort of it's so well sort of funded by that. Yeah, it's um we team up, we actually partner with um the communities um to help them tell their stories. Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_00:

See, because like you said, Corey, you know, uh a lot of tourism videos are out there as well. But in actual fact, I I do feel a lot of uh urban areas and rural areas aren't actually really about tourism. They don't want the tourist dollar, they want people to come back and and be a part of their community long term. And so I really like and enjoy the fact that there's that one person who reached out to you and said, Look, I've got a bigger picture in mind here than just another tourist video. Because, you know, Josh and I, we've been to plenty of small towns. We'd me personally, I've done plenty of tourist videos for a lot of different towns, and yeah, they look good, yeah, they're catchy, yeah, they're edgy. TikTok love them and social media loves them, but does it really get the the the dollar into that small town? I'm not sure, but you know, that that's that idea really does uh resonate with me as well. I really like that.

SPEAKER_01:

I think what I appreciate that, and I I think you're right. And and I think you know, tourism can be viewed as well, you gotta get people to the area to, you know, um for if people are gonna move there, they're gonna look at it first, right? They're gonna experience it first, more than likely. But the way that we kind of film the episodes, so um, and I I appreciate you guys watching them, but but if somebody goes and checks out an episode, what we try to do is we have three different storylines and we try to get three different perspectives of how these people uh choose this particular community or this particular region. So we try to balance those stories and and and show three different perspectives. So, you know, whether that's of of age, of of cultural background, of job, um, but also of how you ended up there. Some people are those rural bike choicers. They they never left their small town, they choose that that community, they love it. Some are the boomerangs, the people who grew up there, they moved away, they went to college, they started their life, and they went, you know what, I want to raise my family here. Some are the people who grew up in a city and they said, you know what, I I want this quality of life. Um, and so they chose the small town. So we try to balance all of those three perspectives within the context of a of an episode. And then just the way we film them. These these communities are stunning. They're beautiful. And and so we really tried to show that uh not only that that beauty, but our our love for these communities as well.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, your latest episode with uh South Dakota and Chamberlain, that beautiful statue right off the interstate. We've talked about that statue on one of our previous episodes. But yeah, what an eye-catching way to to start that episode. It's so cool. Uh so Corey, you you go through telling the stories of the people in in these communities. How do you find the people? Like, do you just like go to the to the town and say, who's interesting?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, how do you find the people? It's such a good question. Uh, you know, we our our process really starts a year in advance. So the Fairmont episode, um, you know, Josh, your hometown. We um, I mean, we started working with them. I first heard from them, I think it was, was it February 2024?

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, and so we started going back and forth at that point. We are we selected them officially as a season two community in October 2024. And then we got to work. And so what we do is we we partner with, they create a My Town leadership team. So they have two, three, four different people uh from each community. And then I have uh, you know, a process where we start to brainstorm uh themes, people, places, all of these different things that make this this particular community unique. And what I think is is distinct about our episodes is so then they're tasked with sort of coming up with these ideas, but then we do all the research as well, and then we're able to provide an outside perspective and say, well, is this a deal? Is that a deal? What about this? What about that? So we start to form different, like you know, particular unique themes and storylines, and then we start, we start conceptualizing, well, who are the people that best represent the community um and and in what we want to accomplish with the story. So we really do a lot of production on the front end um and then build out the film schedule from there where it's like, okay, four hours we're gonna do this, four hours we're gonna do that, four hours we're gonna do that. Now we don't know what's gonna happen or what people are gonna say or anything like that, but um, it's a little bit more produced than it probably appears. Um and that's by design, because I just don't think, you know, if we were to go to a town for three days and start filming, um, who who knows, who knows what, if anything, we'd get. But we want to make sure that that we we tell a really good, authentic story and that the audience is able to uh understand it.

SPEAKER_00:

At the same time, Corey, you don't want to go there with all your camera gear, all your gear, and scare people off. They look and go, oh no, it's it's Hollywood's coming to town, you know what I mean? So because I know I know what sort of you know uh gear, manpower, that sort of thing it takes to do your sort of high-end production. At the same time, you said it it is well produced, but it's not story written in terms of you don't tell people what to say. There's no actual scripting uh of the story, too, which is what I really like. That's why you get that authentic person itself. But has there ever been, though, speaking of people, has there ever been that one person who stands out in your mind, their story really did resonate with you in some way or moved you or anything like that at all? I'm putting you on the spot now.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. There's so many, um, and there's so many great stories from the road that I mean, you guys too, right? You have so many great stories uh of the communities that you you didn't expect to be, you know, uh a particular way or whatever. Um there's there's so many. I would hate to you know leave anyone out, but I will tell you, going to Watertown, South Dakota uh really surprised me. Um we met with uh her name's Joy Nelson, and she runs this uh Joy Ranch of South Dakota. She uh grew up in Watertown, never wanted to leave, always wanted to stay there. And she ended up um, she she her parents couldn't believe it. She loved horses growing up. And they're like, I have no idea why she loves horses. She's not around horses, she's never, but she ended up staying in Watertown, having a successful real estate career, showing horses, winning a national championship. And she starts um, she wants to uh uh build out a ranch for herself, right? She builds out a ranch. And then she she you know, she does a lot of she's very uh faith driven. And she's like, I was out here one Sunday night just watching the sunset over this beautiful, she's got this beautiful land, this is a beautiful little bluff over a lake, and she's like, God said to me, you know what, this is not meant for you. You need to, you know, bring people here and bring children here and bring adults here. And so she created Joy Ranch of South Dakota for kids for special needs and and also uh you know, uh business retreats and and whatnot. And so she is helping now people all across the upper Midwest and really all across the US. And um, it's such a special story, and we got to spend a couple of nights uh at Joy Ranch, and I will tell you, I have I felt so at peace being there um just because uh of Joy and so that one really I didn't I didn't know what to expect, and it really knocked me over. But there are also like fun stories too, the one you were just talking about in Chamberlain, uh uh with Mason Daly on the farm just north of of Chamberlain. And uh we're we're you know, it's an agricultural uh part of the region. He's a farmer, a family farm, and we're we're getting water from the Missouri, we're we're shooting it up to a pivot irrigation system, and these things need to be cleaned. The sprinkler heads are all clogged up and we gotta clean them. And I mean, I how many times have you guys driven past those uh irrigators on the road and and never thought anything of it? The only thing I've ever thought is like, are they they gotta be on wheels or something? Are they smushing crops? Like, I didn't know. And so to be able to like, he was such a good sport because I'm such an idiot and I have no idea about any of this stuff. And but the fun part is is seeing how that one turned out because Mason, uh, I don't know that he was sure about us coming and filming, and he wasn't he's never been on camera before, and he's just like, God, what are these guys doing? And it turned out so fun because he was just, you know, he was just all right, well, now you got to do this, now you got to do that, and so it's stuff like that. I I love all of these scenes.

SPEAKER_00:

It sounds sounds a little bit like uh the dirty jobs sort of style episode. Uh I like it. I like it.

SPEAKER_02:

I was just gonna say that. We had we had the one of the executive producers of Dirty Jobs on our shows, and he talked about all the little towns and all the amazing people he met that did these quote unquote blue-collar jobs, which is really interesting people. So those are the people. Tell us how many cities have you done, like how many episodes have you done?

SPEAKER_01:

We've done, so we did um, you know, with Rural by Choice, we did 12 episodes, and those are shorts. But now with my town, we've done 15 communities across six states in in two seasons. We have been greenlit for a season three, so cool. We are in the process of we've had probably 75 applications. So we're in the process of kind of whittling that down to five to seven, I think, is is a good number. We'll we'll probably end up doing.

SPEAKER_02:

Don't let me forget because I have an idea for a community that I'd like to bring up, and Craig will Craig will Craig will smile and laugh because we love this little town. Um, so I know this is maybe like picking your favorite child. I don't know. But what community surprised you? Maybe was your favorite? What community, I'm asking several questions. What community would you went there and you're like, I don't know what the angle is, but then it surprised you because there was something really neat there?

SPEAKER_01:

Man, uh, good question. I I absolutely cannot pick a favorite. Uh and I will tell you, um, and that and that's not to be like uh politically correct or whatnot. No, it's because I legitimately leave each town and I go, I get it. I get it. Like, and I call my wife and I go, hey, I could live here. We could live here. I promise you, like, you gotta come back. We have we all got to come back. So every single one I've fallen in love with, and I understand why people choose it. Um, from a surprising standpoint, I don't know. You know, I will say the Fairmont one surprised me some. Um, in fact, what surprised me the most, I would say, is that one, I mean, growing up in Minnesota, I didn't know anything about Fairmont. And I felt like I know just about every a little bit of something about every town in this state, but I didn't know anything about it, um, except that it's the bacon capital of the United States.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

But what I found interesting was that the region's proud of it and that it is such a driver uh for the economy. And and because of all of these hog farms and whatnot, you know, you're you have a a four like a uh state-of-the-art school and teachers and coaches, and and so their school is like high performing in everything from athletics to the arts to the educational system to, you know, and then you've got these these beautiful lakes, but then you've got all of these uh innovative companies that are now built around the ag sector. And so it's really a a community that has really uh come together around that bacon moniker and now at the art scene too, with all the the hogs going wild statues downtown.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, there's there's Craig, there's pigs all over town that are painted different ways. And Craig, I actually uh Craig actually visited my town. Remember, I drove you through uh the town, I show you where I grew up, and so Craig's been there. Yeah, and I I am proud of proud of my town too. And it's really unique because I think you go down southern Minnesota, anything southern, uh south of Mankato, it's a lot of farmland. It's practically I practically Iowa down there. So to go into a city and then all of a sudden see this like chain of lakes, which you would typically kind of just see up in the north, you know, the northwoods and cabin country. It is surprising to people. They're like, wow, I can't believe this is this is here. So um quite here's another question. Is there any town or person that you encountered through your series where you just like really learned something or you really you really took something away from them that really changed your outlook on life? Or yeah?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, so one of the episodes, season one, episode one, is Watford City, North Dakota. And uh it's way out there. Like you're you're you know, it's close to Canada, it's close to to Montana. Um, this is a town that's in it's the fastest growing county in the United States. Um, and this is one that to end it's it's a town where I learned a lot because it's a town that is the product of an oil boom. And but the thing that I learned is that okay, and this is why we love to break down misconceptions. You hear about the oil boom, you hear about all the negatives, right? You you hear, boy, they've had challenges there with crime, and not Watford specifically, but like the oil towns that there's these oil booms. You get these people from out of out of town that rush in there for money, everyone thinks they're gonna get rich. There, everyone's there. You have not enough housing, you have you know, these these bad actors and bad characters, and now those of a sudden there's crime. Well, Watford City was a town of 1,400 forever. 1,400 people, like steady for like a hundred years. And all of a sudden, um, they had this, uh, they found uh a way to extract oil um from the Bakken there, and it and so it boomed. Like, you know, all of a sudden, big business boomed. It boomed to like 8,500 people within a couple of years, which is insane for a town that that small. But what you think about is that that town, how do you handle that type of growth from a housing and education? Here, and and this is not to say there weren't challenges. There were. But over the 15 years now, Watford City is like the example of okay, this was unexpected, and yet now we've capitalized and we've made a warm, welcoming home with top of the line of I mean, you look around, you guys, if you go and watch the episode, you wouldn't believe that a town this size has the school uh that they have and the healthcare system that they have. It's incredible. And and so, but they've also created a welcoming culture where uh we met with a a mom who she wasn't from there, but her husband was. And she set up a Bak and Mom Co. crew. So they welcome in all the families and they welcome and get them plugged in and help them feel welcome, you know, whether it's through school or church or even daycare. Uh you know, so it's in the school has set up an ambassador program so that seniors and juniors are are welcoming new families and even elementary kids who are struggling because they're trying to meet friends, or maybe they're struggling with homework. And so they have them plugged in, getting them feel like a good big buddy. I just thought that's amazing. This could have gone wrong, and it has in a lot of small towns where you have this uh natural resource or uh and you're not unexpected, and you have this wild growth that you can't handle. And here's this town that is the model of success because of how they've capitalized uh you know on this opportunity, and but but more importantly, like just built a strong-knit community that is welcoming uh to any and everybody.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. Um, so Corey, as well, the we we this shows a lot about geocaching. We do have a lot of geocaching related stuff on the show as well. Um, you know about geocaching, D? You've you've you've have you found any or you just know about it? I haven't found any. Yeah, yep, yeah. But I know about it, mostly through you guys. But well, the the the thing I was thinking about is that you guys travel to these small towns, etc., as well. And and our this whole thing that we do with Treservare Town is is literally guided by our love of geocaching, location-based games, etc. But we do love our small towns. Is there any small town that you would think to yourself, man, this town like would needs a draw card like geocaching to actually visit the sort of areas? And uh, and which which town would you think would be like a real-world geocache, like a an actual hidden gem amongst the uh amongst the good old US events? That's a good question.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, okay, so this isn't exactly geocaching, but uh you look at St. Joseph, Minnesota, it's a small town in central Minnesota, which uh is an overlooked uh area in in the state of Minnesota. You know, you've got uh the the northeastern part of Minnesota where everyone talks about, and rightfully so, it's a beautiful part of the the country, uh, you know, in Duluth and Grand Mray. Up north, you've got uh the the boundary waters, uh, you know, you've got Minneapolis, St. Paul, but here in central Minnesota, it's kind of forgotten. It's kind of a hidden gem, it's kind of a hidden secret. Here in St. Joseph, you've got a couple of colleges, St. John's and St. Ben's. You've got the oldest, oldest Catholic church, so you've got some history there. Oh, you've got so many unique businesses downtown because of this uh college uh atmosphere. But here is is sort of a hidden treasure that people wouldn't wouldn't think about is they've got two award-winning restaurants in this small town. Wow. No one associates award-winning restaurants in a small town. And so Crewe Restaurant is a New Orleans-style inspired restaurant, Mateo McBee. We highlight him in our My Town episode, but he's from Minneapolis, uh, had a whole totally IT career, which is insane, but had an IT career and at 37 was like, you know what? I uh food's been chasing me my whole life. I'm gonna start up the restaurant of my dreams. And where's he gonna do that? In a town he had never heard of in St. Joseph, Minnesota. And so his crew restaurant, he was now um a finalist for a James Beard Award this year.

SPEAKER_03:

Wow.

SPEAKER_01:

And and it's inspired by his grandfather. His mom was born in New Orleans, his grandfather was from New Orleans, so they would go down there every year. He'd peel shrimp all like that. He'd just spend his days peeling shrimp, and he wanted to honor his grandfather and his mother with this New Orleans style restaurant. So who would think that's a hidden treasure in a small town? And then right next door, his wife's bakery, uh Flower and Flower, is another hidden treasure that is a national nationally renowned bakery, uh, New York Times best bakery, uh there in small town Minnesota. So who would have thought, right?

SPEAKER_02:

That's a that's a great tip, Corey, because I've I visit St. John's University to have it, we have a speaking commitment there once a month, and I've never heard of that place before. So now I need to go a little earlier to visit this restaurant. That is cool. Great tip. So that I love that. I love that you talked about food. Think about maybe a location you visited where you did something fun, like fun or expecting unexpected, like, oh my gosh, that was so much fun, or I can't believe this town has this thing. Um, it was a lot like a lot of fun, like a some sort of recreational fun thing.

SPEAKER_01:

Let's see. Okay. Uh, for some reason, and this is probably because we we just started uh work on this, but uh one of our season three communities, and I know they're in, and we're excited, we've been already kind of working, but they have the US uh hot air balloon championships. Oh wow. And so they have them next year, and so we're gonna be planning to go around that time, and I'm gonna be getting to uh get into a hot air balloon and get up in the air, which I've never done. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Can I can I guess what city that is or can I not? No, go ahead. Is it is it in Hudson in Wisconsin? They I know they have the hot air affair every February. No, it's not Wisconsin. Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, there you go, Josh. There you go. We'll have to we'll have to find out later on. I like it.

SPEAKER_02:

That's a bucket list item for me. A hot air balloon, that's so cool. A little scary, but really um, really cool.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, Josh, I've got you there because I've already done a hot air balloon. I did my hot air balloon going over the middle of Melbourne central business district, first thing in the morning watching the sunrise. Going back a few years ago now. So yeah, beautiful. And it's so peaceful. I'll let you know now, hot air ballooning, it is so peaceful and relaxing. So, but especially like rural areas as well. I did mine in a big city, but if you do it over rural areas and you see literally, you see those farmlands and you see, you know, the the smaller cities coming up, etc. I I really like that. I'd like that a lot actually. Um Corey, what sort of things as well, um do you think these small towns can offer, though, the big cities? Because big cities and small towns, they're very, very different. But what can and and we always see like what cities can do and offer, but what what could rural areas offer the cities to do? Like reverse it basically.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I think when I talk to different rural communities and small towns, I said that you know, I always say the best thing that you have going uh for you is that uh you have that quality of life and people are after the outdoors, and whether that's fishing or hunting or camping, um, but allowing people to be one with nature and experience that. Um I would say to to to kind of one of the earlier points you brought up too, Craig, and and I I probably circled around it, didn't quite answer it. But our episodes, what we really try to do too is not just tourism, but but also be um, you know, towns are meant to utilize them for workforce recruitment. Um, you know, that's that's the idea of it, because when people are choosing to uh live, work, and play, mostly live or buy a house, or you know, they they they're weighing all these things. It's not just about the job. It's okay, well, does it have a good school district? Does it, you know, what's the quality of life? Does it have lakes? Does it have mountains? Does it have, you know, so all of those things play an important uh factor in in all of that too?

SPEAKER_02:

So your show, I love the tagline. It's like you kind of tell your story, you're looking for a possible place for your family to go in a in a small town. Have I haven't even I didn't even ask you, have you moved? Have you moved to a small town, or are you or is it still up in the air, or are you doing this project? And then when it's all done, you're like, I'm picking this topic.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, it's again experiment. We're still not in a small town yet, um, because that would have to be the end of the show. So we have plenty more seasons to do, you know. True. Yes, that makes a lot of sense.

SPEAKER_00:

So here's your wife and kids all ready to go. They've got their bags packed, and they're like, No, no, no, dad hasn't picked the location yet, so we've got to wait and go from there. But but Corey, speaking of being a father and and a husband as well, how has that actually reframed your mindset in terms of from city life to the rural life as well?

SPEAKER_01:

Changes everything, right? I mean, um, yeah, I just I'm I wake up every morning and I give thanks. I'm so blessed. Um, you know, my wife, who is, you know, um such a wonderful support, um, you know, and and yeah, and then the kids too. Like you, you know, it's cliche to say, but like you uh before you're a dad, everyone um you know will tell you, well, your life will change. And then it really does all of a sudden, there's nothing more important than the health and safety and love of those kids. So all that's changed. But I think what changed for me is I understood uh, you know, why my parents uh chose Pearl Minnesota. Um I got it. Like they wanted me to be in a safe place. They wanted me to have opportunities. And that's the other thing we haven't even touched on is you know, the schools uh, you know, uh one of the things and the schools in Minnesota are are great, right? Like we have great public schools here. Um, and we are in in the Twin Cities, which has, you know, we're in a great school district. Like some of those things you can kind of take for granted. Um so we're we're very blessed in that sense. But I look back at at where I grew up in in perm, and that's I guess another misconception is that small small town schools, they don't have this or they don't have that, or there's not as many opportunities. I would argue there's more opportunities.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And it's because you can be involved in so many different things.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, I mean, I was in three sports, I was in band, I was in National Honor Society, I was in student council. Um, and so you you're able to kind of be able to experience uh a lot of different things. And and I I truly believe that that helps prepare you for life, whether it's those life skills or also just even sometimes working with different people, teammates with different people, struggles, failures, because sometimes, like for instance, I was a better basketball player than I was a cross-country runner. And so, you know, you you deal with some of those things too.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that is so true. Um, my kids grew up in Apple Valley and they had to be laser focused on what they were gonna do, and that's what they did. And they they they had uh uh interest in other things, but you it the competition was too intense that they had to be good at one thing. Um, so they didn't have that similar uh experiences doing all those different things.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, in uh season two, episode two, we go to Rock Valley, Iowa. So that's in and not too far from Fairmont. Um, they had this catastrophic flood in 2024. The story's a beautiful story of this community coming together because they were really at a crossroads. It's you know, this town was devastated. Um 30% of people were out of their homes. Um, so that's a that's a significant amount. Yet they've come back together, they've built back together uh stronger than ever. But I bring it up because um in that episode, Andrew Van Ginkel of the Vikings is is featured.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Um and he's a a Pro Bowl player, you know, all pro player, just phenomenal player for the Vikings. And he's from Rock Valley and played every sport, was involved in all these different things, played quarterback in in high school, of course, and defense. And um, but I talked to him in the episode about well, you know, what was it like going to school here and whatnot. And he talks about being able to play different sports and being involved in different things and how that helped prepare him uh for his career. So I I I think personally there's something to that. I do get concerned about kids having to be uh, you know, just uh focus in on such an early age on what they're gonna do, on missing out on experiences, but also I just feel like when we get so uh siloed into what we are going to do, we kind of miss out on uh not only different opportunities, but we don't quite grow maybe as fully as as we we could.

SPEAKER_02:

That is such a that's such a good point. So currently people can see it, uh, my town anywhere because it is on the internet, and I'll talk a little bit about where we can find it in a minute here. Are do you have any other aspirations for this series or some series like a beyond the web? Uh, do you do you envision it uh or would you have a goal of it going to television? Or have you had some thoughts around that?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, my goal is to get as many eyeballs on these communities as possible. They deserve it. I want people, I want these towns to be discovered. I want people. My goal is that uh this becomes diners, drive-ins, and dives where people have a map and they go, why haven't we been to this one yet?

SPEAKER_02:

I love that.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, we should star that we need to go check out that restaurant in that small town, or we need to go experience that in that small town. That's the goal. Um, you know, so that and because that's the way I think we can, again, going back to our mission to break down those popular misconceptions, help people see the true, authentic reality from our small towns across the country. Um, so that's that's ultimately the goal. Um, we want to continue to grow it. We are on uh YouTube and and we did that on purpose. We want everyone to be able to see these for free. Um and and and yeah, uh I mean we are in very I I have no idea where or how this this will grow or where it'll go. I mean, I have different ideas and dreams, but but I don't know. Um, but yeah, I think if we could find the right streaming partner eventually, maybe maybe it would make sense to to team up with them. Um, but it's gotta be the right one, you know? Yeah, it's gotta be the right one at the right time. And but right now we just need to continue to tell awesome, amazing stories, and that's all we can control.

SPEAKER_02:

So yeah, and you're doing such a great job. Um, so I do have a suggestion of a of a community that you need to check out. Although you have what you said, you had 72 applications for season three.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow, wow, words gotten out of there, Josh.

SPEAKER_02:

This little town, I just don't know if this little town, but it has such an interesting story to it that I would love that that Craig and I actually kind of told in a creative way. Um, it's the town of Gilby, North Dakota. Oh, Gilby, yeah. I saw your guys' yes, is that really Josh?

SPEAKER_00:

Is that really actually classed as a town?

SPEAKER_02:

It's a it's 243 people.

SPEAKER_00:

It's a town, it's it's a road and and farmland right now.

SPEAKER_02:

It's very small, very small. But Corey, there's a man there by the name of Chad, and he he's a farmer, he lives on a farm, and he he's he works, he does a lot of stuff. He's like the firefighter, he's the he's the town carpenter. He does, you know, he's it's he's kind of like Andy of Mayberry, kind of does it all, right? Anyway, many years ago, he's in he's a genius when it comes to building the most amazing creative geocaches in the world. Now, I've been all over the world finding geocaches. Germany is I've been to Germany like six times. They have like amazing geocaches. We're talking like creative puzzle boxes. And again, as somebody hasn't geocached before, it's hard for me to explain. But I'll just say it. They're the most amazing geocaches in the world. Corey, people come from all over the world to this little town of Gilby to experience these geocaches in the country in these shelter belts, you know, the the line of trees in between these fields where he puts these these geocaches, and people come from all over the world. It is called the Disneyland of Geocaching. Like there's like a hundred of them, a hundred of them out there to this little town of Gilby. And this guy is the salt of the earth. And we we um Craig and I participated. There's a geocache, believe it or not, there's a geocaching international film festival. Yeah, and so we we submitted a video about this, and and so the the thing about Chad, this guy, Chad, is I asked him, How do you get your ideas for these amazing geocaches? Because they're all different. And he actually dreams them, and he has a little pad next to his bed and he draws them up and then he builds them out in his workshop. So uh Greg and I had an idea. I was like, that's kind of like if you build it, they will come. So we made we made a geocaching version of Field of Dreams all about chats, but it's based on the true story, includes all the ghost geocaches coming out of the shelter belts as well.

SPEAKER_00:

So Josh was one of them.

SPEAKER_01:

You got me thinking about guys, that was such a great story, and you got me thinking about um uh so uh it in in Otter Tail County in in Perham, there's a guy named Ken Nyberg who has been in his garage building these these sculptures uh you know out of scrap metal for years. Yeah, and he's uh incredible artist. His daughter, uh Karen Nyberg, was an astronaut and was actually in space, was one of the first women, and actually at one point had the longest uh consecutive tour in space. But he's been creating these metal sculptures and just you know, kind of randomly placing them around town for like the longest time. Now I think they actually have a he's done so many unique ones that they have a sculpture park there. But that's it's not the same, but it kind of got me thinking about Ken. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02:

But you might, yeah, you might have a series maybe of not just particular one town, but people that have drawn people to their small town because of their unique talent. Yeah, just an idea there for you. I'm I just think it's it's he's such a great guy, it's such a cool thing.

SPEAKER_01:

I got it marked, Gilby, North Dakota. Gilby North Dakota.

SPEAKER_00:

And and when you have a look, honestly, if even if you look at Google Maps, it is literally one small street that lasts maybe two blocks, and that's it. And the rest is farmland.

SPEAKER_02:

So there's a mural. There's a mural downtown, and it literally this on the mural it says the Disneyland of geocaching on the mural.

SPEAKER_00:

On the mural. Like the actual town's mural has geocaching on it, too. So that is so awesome. It's very cool.

SPEAKER_02:

All right, Corey, thank you so much for spending some time with us. How can people find your series? How can they find you? Give us all your social media, all everything they they need to know to find you.

SPEAKER_01:

First, thank you. I'm so so thankful to be able to connect with you guys. Um, yeah, if if people, you know, uh find us on YouTube, just my town series on YouTube, you'll see it. Um, and uh if you subscribe, like, comment, uh the natural stuff, just like they do here with your show, uh, all of that would be helpful. Um, and so and let us know what you think. Like when you see the episodes, yeah, you know, drop us a line. Let us know what you think.

SPEAKER_02:

I cannot wait till the pheromone episode uh drops, which is I believe it's next next weekend, correct?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, well, depending on when this airs, because December 21.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, that's a couple weeks.

SPEAKER_00:

So it actually actually drops before this goes to air, Josh.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

So there you go. Yesterday. It dropped yesterday, Josh. So if you're listening, you loved it, Josh. Josh loved it. You loved it.

SPEAKER_02:

If you've ever been curious about where the geocaching vlogger grew up, well, it's gonna be on the web.

SPEAKER_00:

I want to see it, Josh, because as as uh Corey, as Josh said before, like I have visited his hometown with him as well, and he was proud of his town. Um, we had those burgers at the burger place, and then he took me to the local dive bar where he grew up in the dive bar playing fields, anyways. So there you go. Corey, thank you so much for joining us. Um, as Josh said, and uh everyone out there as well. All the links for everything is quickly in the show notes as well. So Josh, um, that's it for the episode. But I will say, Josh, this is the I'm throwing back now to the beginning of this episode, and that is you know, people out there they like the rural life maybe because they can actually have some chickens. Josh. Yes. I'm guaranteed Corey, I'm currently building a chicken coop for uh that's coupe de ville with just six chickens in it. But anyway, we'll soon see. Um Josh, how can people uh support us if they want to support us as well? Let us know at the patrons.

SPEAKER_02:

If you've been enjoying our podcast, we really appreciate your support. By supporting us, you're helping us create even better content, keeping it free for everyone, no annoying commercials, and we have some golden nuggets there, and we're gonna record one, Craig. Right after we do this. So please consider joining us at patreon.com backslash treasures of our town.

SPEAKER_00:

Otherwise, Josh, how can anyone else uh contact us as well?

SPEAKER_02:

Reach out to us at treasures of our town podcast at gmail.com, or you can follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or our BuzzSprout website.

SPEAKER_00:

So that's it for our show today. Please subscribe, rate, and read on your favorite podcast. And as always, Josh.

SPEAKER_02:

May your travels always lead you to the most unexpected and amazing places, rural places where the good people are around the world. See you next time, everybody. Thanks, Corey.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you, Corey.

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Craig - The Aussie Geocacher Seemyshell

Host
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Joshua - The Geocaching Vlogger

Host

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