Washington family puts it all into opening Swan Lake business

The empty-looking, brown building with red trim on Montana 83, just north of Swan Lake, is now occupied by the Huddleston family. Their vision for its future is a family-run gas and grocery they plan to open by April.

The building was vacated at the end of the summer. Tracy Gardner-Huddleston, the mother, found an advertisement on Craigslist in December and the family drove to Swan Lake from Long Beach, Wash. on Christmas Eve to check the place out.

They bought it and moved the whole family 700 miles from home at the beginning of February.

“It’s hard to relocate a whole family,” Mike Huddleston, the father, said. “It’s kind of weird how it all worked.”

The parents and their adult children moved into the gas and grocery building with a house built onto the back- Tracy and Mike, Tracy’s daughter Kelsey Gardner, Mike’s daughter Ashley Huddleston and her husband Chris Cox. Once school gets out in May, their 16-year-old twins will move from Long Beach and be added to the staff at Swan Lake Gas and Grocery.

“We’ve wanted to have some sort of a family business for a long time,” Tracy said.

And that business was destined to be in Montana. Tracy has wanted to move to Montana since she was a kid. Mike’s Long Beach construction boss wanted to open a new branch of his business near Great Falls.

Although Mike’s boss never started a Montana branch of his construction business, the seed of moving to Montana was stuck solidly in the Huddleston’s mind-set.

“We were looking for a way to get us all out here and at least be employed when we got here,” Mike said.

While buying the Swan Lake gas station was the key to moving the family to Montana, the Huddlestons are realistic about the station’s ability to support their family. Every member has a skill they brought with them.

Mike and Chris are starting a construction business as well, Big Sky Contractors LLC. Tracy is a medical transcriber, something she plans to start doing again once the gas station is officially opened. Ashley is a certified nurse and Kelsey is opening a coffee shop in the gas station.

Pulling money in year round is a tough order for Swan Lake businesses, said Dani Carlson, owner of Swan Lake Bar & Grill.

Carlson has owned the bar and restaurant with her husband for 21 years. She’s seen many business owners come and go over the years, both at the gas station and at the Swan Lake Trading Post, which started closing for the winter this year. The post will open back up again come summer.

“You make your money from the fourth of July to August. Any money outside of that is kind of iffy,” Carlson said.

Usually the first big weekend for business is Memorial Day weekend. Then, depending on the weather, business could pick back up again in mid-June and be steady until August. Hunting season can be good or bad and is weather-dependent as well.

But if business is slow or non-existent, Carlson said she can’t take a chance and close.

“That’s the worst thing you can do,” she said. “If one person stops by and you’re closed, they’ll never take that chance on you again.”

The Huddlestons are optimistic about business. Some Swan Lake residents have already stopped by looking for groceries or gas.

They plan on opening 24-hour gas pumps, a convenience store with things like milk and eggs, and a coffee shop.

But, if business does get slow, they plan on depending on the family for support.

“That’s the advantage we have,” Mike said. “We can all work.”