Historical ice cream served at Mount Rushmore

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Kriss and Tonya Allard stand inside Pride Dairy, a creamery they bought in 2019 located in Bottineau, North Dakota. The Allards’ version of ice cream created using a recipe fashioned by Thomas Jefferson was selected to be served at Mount Rushmore.

 

BOTTINEAU, N.D. – Visitors at Mount Rushmore National Memorial can indulge in a cold dairy treat that was made using a recipe that was written by Thomas Jefferson. The vanilla ice cream, which has been enjoyed by people from all around the world, is produced in Bottineau, a little prairie town located about 10 miles south of the Canadian border in north central North Dakota. 

Pride Dairy was founded as Bottineau Co-op Creamery in 1930. Local farmers brought their milk to the creamery where it was bottled or made into butter. The co-op began to make ice cream in 1940. Due to the dwindling number of dairy producers in the state, the creamery stopped bottling milk in 1980 and shifted its focus to ice cream and butter.

The creamery was struggling to survive when it was purchased by Jeff Beyer in 2012. Beyer had worked at the creamery since he was 16. 

Kriss and Tonya Allard bought Pride Dairy from Beyer in 2019.

“Tonya and I had operated a food distribution business called Sunrise Delivery since 2011,” Kriss Allard said. “A big part of our business was the home delivery of milk, so we were familiar with the retail side of the dairy business.”

The Allards decided to take the plunge into dairy processing despite the fact that much of the equipment at Pride Dairy was outdated and worn out. 

“We could see that the creamery had a lot of potential,” Allard said. “They had great products and great people.”

Although butter is still a large part of the business, Allard said ice cream is their future. 

“Our local customers told us not to change a thing, so we haven’t,” Allard said. “Our ice cream still contains 14% butterfat, just as it did when Bottineau Co-op Creamery started making it many years ago.”

Pride Dairy sources its milk from Prairie Farms Dairy.

Some years back, Xanterra Travel Collection, the company that manages tourist operations at Mount Rushmore National Memorial, put out a call to ice cream makers. Xanterra challenged the makers to craft a vanilla ice cream made using the recipe that was written by Founding Father Thomas Jefferson in 1780. Jefferson had served the ice cream, which specifically called for Madagascar vanilla bean pods, to visiting diplomats and dignitaries.

Several ice cream makers submitted their samples. In the end, Xanterra gave the nod to Pride Dairy, and their vanilla ice cream began to be offered at the Memorial Team Ice Cream Station at Mount Rushmore. Thomas Jefferson Vintage Vanilla Ice Cream quickly became one of the most popular treats sold at the memorial.

“Mount Rushmore goes through about 8,000 gallons of our vanilla ice cream during an average tourist season,” Allard said. “One of the biggest challenges was recreating the ice cream without using the raw eggs that were called for in President Jefferson’s original recipe.”

Vanilla is by no means the only flavor of ice cream being produced at Pride Dairy. They offer 18 flavors on a permanent basis along with a handful of seasonal flavors. Pride Dairy also sells ice cream toppings, cheese and butter. 

The lineup of dairy treats offered by Pride Dairy continues to grow.

“We sell ice cream in waffle cones at our ice cream shop,” Allard said. “One of our workers got the idea of making an ice cream sandwich based on our waffle cones. We will be launching our ice cream sandwiches soon.”

Like with every business, Pride Dairy has also endured its share of setbacks.

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Visitors eat Pride Dairy ice cream at Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The ice cream is made from a recipe used by Thomas Jefferson and will soon be available at several other national parks as well.

 

“A storm in April of 2022 severely damaged our roof,” Allard said. “As a result, our production was cut for the next seven months. But, I view every problem as an opportunity. We used that opportunity to rebuild our plant and improve its automation.”

Pride Dairy products are currently available only in North Dakota and at Mount Rushmore. That is about to change.

“We are working on a distribution agreement with Prairie Farms Dairy,” Allard said. “We hope to begin distributing our products to a much wider area here in the Midwest. Our TJ Vanilla ice cream will soon be available in many more retail outlets.” 

Pride Dairy has added new equipment and will soon be ramping up its ice cream production. 

“We are currently making about 8,500 gallons of ice cream per month,” Allard said. “We hope to double that over the next two months.”

Some of the old equipment that was used by Bottineau Co-op Creamery continues to perform its duties at Pride Dairy.

“Our Juneberry ice cream is still being made by the Cherry Burrell V2D ice cream churn, which was manufactured in the 1950s,” Allard said.

A big boost in production is not the only news regarding Pride Dairy’s ice cream. 

“Xanterra will soon be offering Thomas Jefferson Vintage Vanilla Ice Cream at Glacier National Park, Yellowstone National Park and Grand Canyon National Park,” Allard said. “They have also started selling it at The Oasis at Death Valley, a luxury resort that’s located northwest of Las Vegas.”

People are encouraged to visit North Dakota’s only remaining small town creamery. At Pride Dairy’s ice cream shop, visitors can enjoy an ice cream sundae and purchase any of a number of their products to take home.

“Everyone is excited when they walk into our ice cream shop,” Allard said. “They leave feeling perhaps a little bit guilty but also very satisfied.”