Holtan's Resort, Part 2

If you want to know why the first Holtan's Resort brochure was yellow it's because my dad was in the yellow page business.  He was first a yellow page salesman and through hard work and time he eventually owned a telephone directory publishing company. Yellow made sense to him. The second brochure was done in baby blue and that made sense too. My parents chose this because it was the trim color of the cabins (chocolate brown cabins with blue trim).

When I found this brochure it was nice to see photos of people other than me. My mom, my sister Heidi, my brother Tim, Duane Boss, and the Cullota family were pictured as well.  Based on my hairstyle, I think this brochure was put together in 1979-80.  I do know for sure that this was the last brochure used to promote our business.

In 1982, after six years, my parents decided it was time to close Holtan's Resort. The reasons were twofold.  One, I left the state to go to college at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. Two, the time commitment my parents needed to grow their telephone directory publishing company became greater and the day-to-day operations of running a resort were too much.  These two factors made it an easy decision to shut it down. I can say this about the six year run; other than the friendships we made, none of us were sad to see it end.   The reality of a resort business was this: after the "romantic idea" of owning one wore off, it was a lot of hard, hard work.

Going to college in Alaska opened my eyes to the opportunities that lie in the Last Frontier.  Quite a few years after the family resort was shut down, yada, yada ,yada, fish, fish, fish, blah, blah, blah, I found myself guiding on the Kenai River.  All I can can say is thank you Jeff King for the opportunity and for showing me that guiding can actually be a career.  I couldn't have asked for a better mentor in the fishing business.

You ask, "when did Beaver Creek Cabins enter the picture?"  Well, it was three years after I started guiding on the Kenai that the opportunity came about. The previous owners, Will and Becky Jahrig, like my mom and dad, had had enough of the business and decided it was time to sell.  I first thought, "been there, done that", and thought I learned my lesson about resort life a long time ago. But, it just made sense. Owning cabins would compliment my guiding. Although not nearly the salesman that my father was, I must have been just good enough to talk Jane into this lifestyle.  We bought Beaver Creek Cabins in 2003, and, to this day, I couldn't be happier that Jane is on this journey with me.

So, that's it.  That is my brief history of Holtan's Resort and how I ended up doing basically the same thing in Alaska.  I guess I could have named Beaver Creek Cabins Holtan's Resort but out of respect to my parents I wanted to make sure there was only one Holtan's Resort.

As always, make sure to come back next week to the blog.  I have some exciting news about our future....