Page 30 - Flathead Beacon // 12.9.15

BUSINESS IS PERSONAL 31 TRANSACTIONS 31 Business
Sixty Years of Trees at Snow Line
Kalispell Christmas tree and wreath shop celebrates six decades in business
BY MOLLY PRIDDY OF THE BEACON
Though it’s easy to anticipate, nothing can really prepare you for the wall of scent that hits you when you walk through the front door of the Elf Shoppe at Snow Line Tree Company in Kalispell.
The rst thought that pops to mind is “green,” quickly followed by “Christmastime” after the smells of dozens of trees, evergreen wreaths and centerpieces all com- bine; it’s crisp and clean, and powerful enough to make you comment on it.
And when you do, Carolyn Little, who owns Snow Line with her husband Tom, will just smile. Having worked at the enterprise for 32 years, she’s heard it all.
“We have people that were just children when they started coming here, and now they are bringing their children and grandchildren,” Little said.
Snow Line celebrates its 60th year in business this year, having been started by Tom Little’s father-in-law and his business partners in 1955. Theirs is an interest- ing business, selling trees while living among the boun- tiful forests of Northwest Montana.
The trees are there in the forests, Little said, but not everyone is able or wants to wander the woods in search of a perfect tree. And for a lot of people, buying a tree at a shop is their tradition.
They get their trees from their Ferndale farm, which started at around 300 acres but has shrunk down to 40 acres these days. The trees they don’t grow themselves come from Wisconsin, as well as the Confederate Salish and Kootenai Tribes.
“We buy all of our wild trees from (the CSKT),” Lit- tle said.
A good selection of trees and decorations are import- ant, Little said, but their employees play a major role in keeping the business rolling. Most have been there for 20-plus years, she said.
The Elf Shoppe is a friendly corner of the business, full of wreaths and centerpiece decorations, most cre- ated at the hands of Marilyn Brady, who has built ever- green decorations for Snow Line for 19 years.
Her room in the back of the shop is covered in glitter and full of ribbons and bows, and the ever-important
Clinton DeLong sprays ocking powder on a tree at Snow Line Tree Company, Inc. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
heat lamp. She started working with Snow Line as a way to cope with the anniversary of her father’s death, which occurs a few days before Christmas, and has been there every season since.
Her creations are simple and elegant, with bows appointing the boughs and glitter adorning the pine- cones. Classic designs are popular, she said, because they induce the festive spirit.
“I think that’s what people come here to buy, the ones that feel like Christmas,” Brady said.
In the tree barn – a covered area with sawdust oors over which the trees hang from chains – is like a for- est without roots, as trunks sway just inches above the ground. Clinton DeLong has worked as a tree farmer for
Snow Line for nearly 50 years, having started his career in the tree business as a 16-year-old boy loading trucks at a tree farm in Plains.
He liked the work so much he worked on the tree farm in the summer, and then moved to Kalispell and started working with Snow Line. He’s been there for 48 years this year.
“I like to work outside,” DeLong said, surprising no one within earshot. “The summertime’s great.”
They plant trees in cycles, DeLong said, with the hope that a new batch will be ready each year. Their inventory includes balsam, grand r, alpine, Scotch pine, Fraser r, white pine, and the traditional Douglas r.
Ten years is a long time to spend nurturing a crop,
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DECEMBER 9, 2015 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM