Page 19 - Flathead Beacon // 5.14.14

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MAY 14, 2014 | 19

Will Hammerquist, right, moves a new cooler into position inside the Polebridge Mercantile, which is in its 100th year of operation.
GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON

But irst, he has to learn to lip the place of divisive politics – North Fork- literally outnumbered by endangered
It is a place steeped in a history
sticky buns.
ers clash over land use and endan- species.
older than the name “Polebridge,” and
“That was your irst lip,” Stuart gered species, and about whether to There is no cell phone service and the Merc’s “General Mercantile His-
Reiswig told Will Hammerquist on a pave the wash-boarded old road – ev- no electricity – the power lines stop 20 toric District” is listed in the National
recent May morning, moments after eryone who lives here loves the place, miles down the rutted, pockmarked Register of Historic Places.
the Merc’s new caretaker slammed which becomes the common denomi- road – and the nearest town of Colum- William L. “Bill” Adair built the
a pan of sticky buns onto the bakery nator.
bia Falls is 35 miles to the south.
Merc back in 1914, just four years after
counter, the syrupy fusion of brown “I’ve deinitely always known this Visitors who brave the dusty Glacier Park became a park. He ished,

sugar and cinnamon commingling is a special place,” Hammerquist said. stretch of Montana 486, known sim- using only one ly (the Coachman), and
with the colossal sweet rolls, his “The more time you spend up here, ply as the North Fork Road, are re- drank and grew king-sized cabbages
anointment oicial. “How did it feel?”
the more that becomes clear.”
warded with striking views of the park while his wife (and later, after she died,
“I think I’m getting the hang of Polebridge is tucked along the and an array of baked goodies – huck- a second wife) ran the store and lived
this,” Hammerquist said.
western edge of Glacier National Park, leberry bear claws, cinnamon rolls, in their homestead cabin, which is now
And get the hang of it he must.
just short of the Canadian border, in macaroons, microbrew, cofee, fresh- the Northern Lights Saloon.
In purchasing the Polebridge Mer- the remote North Fork Valley. The baked bread and pocket sandwiches – He planted the only elm tree in
cantile from Reiswig and Flannery Merc, which opened for the season while the shelves of the Merc are lined the North Fork, which still shades pa-

Coats, who together bought it from May 1 for its 100th year, is a peren- with practical wares like gauze and trons of the neighboring saloon, and
Dan and Debbie Kaufman in 2009, nial re-animator of the backwoods parachute cord, power steering luid his transplanted hop vines continue
Hammerquist is investing in more enclave that is home to a small hand- and Spam, making it a one-stop resup- to creep up the saloon wall.
than just a bakery and general store.
ful of year-round residents, who are
ply shop.
The Merc’s interior still bears the
He’s committing to a place and log walls that Adair hand-hewed with
a lifestyle that can be inhospitable, a broadax so he could adorn them with
unforgiving and even downright hos- wallpaper, and the old glass-cylinder
“I’VE DEFINITELY ALWAYS
tile; in turn, it is a place that will reju- gas pump, which used a pump-and-
venate, recharge and even ofer rev- gravity system to fuel vehicles, re- KNOWN THIS IS A SPECIAL PLACE.
elations – the lulling quiet of a bright mains on the complex.
summer morning, the kaleidoscop- The Mercantile was originally THE MORE TIME YOU SPEND UP
ic star-scape on a moonless winter known as Adair’s, while Polebridge
night, the northern lights lickering was the store and post oice a half- HERE, THE MORE THAT BECOMES
across the mantel of sky, the crystal- mile north, toward the Glacier Na-
line clarity of the North Fork’s waters tional Park entrance.
CLEAR.” Will Hammerquist

bubbling south.
That second store was owned and
Even though the community is a
operated by another homesteader,