ABOUT US
Dreams Take Flight, a sculpture by Rusty Burgardt, Burgardt KustuMetal in memory of Mike Hemphill
Mike Hemphill was well known in Minot for his dedication to providing quality service at a fair price at his businesses Harry’s Tire Service and Dakota Truck and Farm. Mike was raised in Sawyer, North Dakota and attended Sawyer School. As a young man he found his niche working for Harry Ommen with Harry’s Tire Service and Dakota Retreaders working in the retread shop. Mike would eventually buy Harry’s Tire Service to live his dream by expanding Harry’s Tire Service and starting Dakota Truck and Farm, which is the commercial truck, tire and trailer arm of the business.
After 42 years Mike sold the business to his son-in-law Clint Burgardt who moved to Minot from Garden City, Kansas in 2011 to learn the family business. Together they expanded Dakota Truck and Farm with additional truck, bus and RV service and alignment bays, a show room and offices. They added to their trailer line up to include Jet, Iron Bull and US Cargo Trailers in order to provide customers with quality trailers of all sizes and shapes for a fair price. Clint took over in January, 2016 and has since remodeled Harry’s Tire Service to include 3 state of the art alignment bays and additional service bays. He has also added Versatile and McCormick Tractors, Farm King Implements, J&M Grain Carts, and Kinze Equipment to the lineup.
Sadly Clint’s mentor Mike Hemphill passed away in October, 2017. Clint’s younger brother Rusty Burgardt recently presented Clint with a sculpture he created in Mike’s memory titled “Dreams Take Flight”. Rusty is the owner of Burgardt KustuMetal in Garden City, Kansas. Rusty created his 7 foot tall sculpture from old car parts and sheet metal, incorporating the logos for both Harry’s Tire Service and Dakota Truck and Farm. Rusty’s 9 year old son Kolton spent countless hours polishing old spark plugs to enhance the wing span on the sculpture. Utilizing old metal and giving it new life is a mainstay in the creative mind of this artist.
Rusty Burgardt is well known in Garden City for his many unique and one of a kind metal creations. Burgardt made “Pride”, a piece for Garden City High School’s Buffalo Stadium commissioned by the school’s graduating class of 1974. Whenever the team scores a touchdown, white LED lights light up the life size buffalo bust statue’s eyes and smoke rolls out of its nostrils. In November 2014 and October 2013, he made two public works of art for downtown Garden City including “Wind Fire”, a 20 foot tall kinetic sculpture on Main Street that has stainless steel flames that turn in the Kansas wind and “Prairie Thunder” a life size buffalo also located in downtown Garden City made of core plate steel, recycled gears and parts. Anyone interested in seeing Rusty’s most recent piece of art dedicated to the memory of Mike Hemphill is welcome to stop in at Harry’s Tire Service/Dakota Truck and Farm at 1604 20th Ave SE in Minot, North Dakota during their normal business hours of 8-6 Monday through Friday and Saturday from 8-2.
Clinton Burgardt, owner of Dakota Truck and Farm in Minot, ND has come a long way from the rural farm home he grew up in north of Garden City, Kansas. His father, Dennis Burgardt worked for a farmer prior to beginning his career as a tractor mechanic for CASE IH, where he worked for nearly 40 years. When he grew up Clinton worked as a diesel mechanic too, but his focus was on construction equipment. That is up until 2010 when he was approached by his father-in-law Mike Hemphill to move to Minot to take over the family business.
In 1997 Mike spearheaded the new business, Dakota Truck and Farm, to fill the needs of the truck and farm community in the area by becoming a Goodyear Commercial Tire and Service Network and Goodyear Farm Tire Dealer as well as an International Truck and Cummins Dealer. Several tire lines were added over the years.
Clinton spent time learning the business from Mike before purchasing it from him in 2015. He continued to strive to meet the needs of the area by adding Jet, US Cargo and Big Tex Trailers to the product line up to provide quality trailers at a reasonable price.
In 2020 the Versatile dealerships in Kenmare and Washburn both went out of business leaving a huge gap for the farmers and ranchers who owned Versatile equipment. With no one to service their tractors, Clinton was approached about becoming a Versatile dealer to help fill the gap. Dakota Truck and Farm mechanics had already become proficient in working on Cummins Engines since that is the majority of engines built into International Trucks. Versatile Tractors are built with Cummins Engines and the service bays were built large enough to accommodate the largest Versatile Tractors. Combined with the multiple lines of tractor tires serving the farm and ranch community it was a good fit to incorporate Versatile into the product line-up.
In December, 2020 the first Versatile used tractor and a new Fury 35' Disc was on Dakota Truck and Farm's lot. The first new Versatile tractor arrived in February and was sold in March leaving Dakota Truck and Farm with a CASE IH trade in, bringing Clinton full circle from his early days working with his dad on the farm.