A production crew from a documentary series called My Town rolls into Beulah on Wednesday, September 2, and stays through Friday, September 4. By the time they pack up their cameras, they will have spent three days deciding how the rest of the country pictures this town for years to come. That is not an exaggeration born of small-town pride. It is how the series works: episodes stay live on YouTube long after they premiere, and My Town's own producers have said interest in a featured town can keep building for months or even years after air date.
Here is the part that should matter most to anyone who already calls Beulah home. The crew is closing its visit with the Beulah Miners' home varsity football game Friday night, and that footage is meant to be the scene that sums up the whole town. Whether the stands look full on camera depends entirely on who shows up.
What Actually Happens Over Three Days
The production is here to capture the ordinary texture of the place: interviews with business owners, families, educators, students, community leaders, and city officials, plus footage of the industries and routines that fill an average week. According to the announcement from the City of Beulah, City of Beulah Economic Development, and the Beulah Convention & Visitors Bureau, the storylines will touch on energy production, agriculture, outdoor recreation, entrepreneurship, workforce housing, and the kind of community spirit that does not show up in a spreadsheet.
| When | What the Crew Is Doing |
|---|---|
| Wed., Sept. 2 – Thu., Sept. 3 | Interviews across town and footage of daily life: the coal and energy industries, schools, local businesses, agriculture, healthcare, and outdoor recreation |
| Fri., Sept. 4, 10 to 11 a.m. | Public presentation at the Beulah High School Gymnasium introducing the season and the plan for Beulah's episode |
| Fri., Sept. 4, evening | Filming the Beulah Miners' home varsity football game and fireworks, with free admission provided by the Beulah CVB |
That Friday morning session at the gymnasium is open to the public. It is the production team's chance to explain what the episode is trying to do and how residents can be part of telling it. Then the cameras move to the football field that night, and the free admission to both the game and fireworks is the CVB's way of making sure the bleachers are not half empty when the crew hits record.
Why a Show About Small Towns Picked an Energy Capital
My Town has been to North Dakota before, and the pattern is worth knowing. Rugby was the only North Dakota town featured in the series' first season, built around its claim as the geographic center of North America. Linton followed in season two as the smallest town the series had ever profiled, with just over a thousand residents and at least one lifelong resident who never expected to end up starring in a documentary. Beulah's turn in season three lands differently, because Beulah is not primarily a ranching town or a geography trivia answer. It is home to Freedom Mine, the largest lignite coal mine in the United States, and the Great Plains Synfuels Plant, one of the only commercial-scale coal gasification facilities in the country. A Talon Metals processing site tied to the electric vehicle supply chain is also underway nearby. Locals already call the Beulah-Hazen stretch the powerbelt for a reason.
That mix of heavy industry and small-town rhythm is unusual territory for a series built around the idea that rural America gets misunderstood from the outside. The show's own director, Cory Hepola, an Emmy winner for his earlier series Rural By Choice about Otter Tail County, Minnesota, has described the mission behind My Town this way:
It is my personal mission to break down the popular misconceptions with the rural lifestyle, showing the opportunities in small-town America.
Most people picturing rural North Dakota are not picturing a town that also runs power plants visible for miles in every direction, or one sitting on the shore of the largest reservoir in the country. Beulah gets to be the episode that complicates the postcard version of small-town life, and the footage from that first week of September is what makes the case.
Where to Grab a Bite Before or After the Cameras Roll
If the crew is filming interviews around town Wednesday and Thursday, there is a decent chance they end up in one of the handful of spots locals already treat as regular stops. Country Kettle on Main Street West has built its name on homestyle cooking, and the Sunday breakfast buffet is enough of a local institution that people plan their week around it. Fanatic's Sports Bar and Grill is the go-to when the game matters more than the menu, with eleven screens and the kind of burger-and-beer lineup that fills a table fast. Southside Diner has built its name on hearty German cooking, and fleischkuekle, a dough-wrapped, deep-fried meat patty that counts as one of the area's signature dishes, turns up on more than one Main Street menu depending on who you ask. Jimmy's Pizza rounds out the rotation, and the town's own bakery keeps a rotating case of homemade goods that makes a solid stop on the way to any of the above.
None of this is staged for a film crew. It is just what a normal week in Beulah looks like, which happens to be exactly what My Town is here to document.
The Lake Doesn't Wait for a Film Crew
Part of what makes Beulah's story different from the geographic trivia of Rugby or the ranch life of Linton is Lake Sakakawea, and the outdoor recreation storyline the crew is chasing will find plenty to work with this season. Water levels came into 2026 running well below full pool, with the lake sitting nearly 30 feet under normal levels this spring. Guides who fish the lake regularly expected only a modest rise off winter lows, putting the peak somewhere around 1,831 feet. Lower water usually sounds like bad news, but the guides who know the lake say the opposite tends to hold: with less water, fish concentrate more predictably around structure, and the Beulah Bay ramp has stayed consistently usable through the swings when other access points on the lake have not. Walleye in the 13 to 20 inch range have been the dominant catch heading into summer. The annual Dakota Walleye Classic, a two-day tournament with food, music, and lakeside crowds, runs right out of Beulah Bay, and it is one more reminder that the town's identity was never just about the mines.
What Showing Up Actually Does
The episode will not premiere until early 2027, and the CVB has said marketing and promotional use of the footage will continue well beyond that, stretching through 2027 and likely longer given how the show's back catalog keeps drawing new viewers. That timeline is the reason Friday night carries more weight than a typical home game. The crew is not filming a game, they are filming the scene that closes Beulah's introduction to a national audience, and a packed set of bleachers under the lights reads very differently on camera than a scattered one.
Free tickets and fireworks are a low bar to clear for a chance to be part of how your town gets introduced to people who have never heard of it. Beulah has spent decades being known mostly for what it powers. September 4 is a chance to be known, briefly and on camera, for who lives here.
If you have questions about what's happening around town in the days leading up to filming, or you're simply curious about life in Beulah beyond what a documentary crew can capture in three days, Sandra Donahue is always glad to talk. Let's Connect.
