Caviar and second-graders: Native recalls success in caviar business

Louann Mohn is a fourth generation-resident of the Flathead Valley, but her ancestors came here by chance.

Her great-grandfather, Perry Hinton Kirkpatrick, was on his way from Iowa to Washington with his family in 1903, when he came down with appendicitis on the train. They stopped at the first town with a hospital, which happened to be Kalispell, and settled there. Mohn was born and raised in Kalispell. She graduated from the University of Montana-Western.

Her first year out of college she was hired as a second-grade teacher in School District 6. At the time, Mel Ruder, founder of the Hungry Horse News, was a great supporter of schools in Columbia Falls. She remembers working at Ruder Elementary when it got its name.

“It was a no-brainer to name it after Mel because of his support of education,” Mohn said. “He had this school district as one of the top small schools … in the state.”

She always felt lucky to be able to teach in Columbia Falls.

“It was well-paid, it was a choice position to come into and I really loved it here,” Mohn said. She taught the same grade for 39 years.

“It was never boring. It was always interesting,” she said.

Mohn came from a family of entrepreneurs and married one as well in 1979. Ron Mohn was also a Montana native, but had worked as a physician’s assistant around the country before he moved back and got married.

Together they owned Mountain Lake Fisheries for 19 years. The company harvested Lake Superior Whitefish using a single-line rod and reel from the Flathead River. Sometimes they took 19,000 pounds of whitefish from the lake in a season, which was less than one percent of the estimated fish in the lake at the time. Because of the overabundance of the fish, they were legally allowed to take as much as they wanted. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks wanted them harvested because they are a non-native species to the lake.

They would prepare the fish as plate-ready fillets for local restaurants. But they had a problem, too much roe.

So they went online and found a way to make a profit on the caviar, which otherwise would have been a waste.

“Ron was a smart guy,” Mohn said. Someone offered to pay $1 per pound of caviar, but he negotiated for $1.50.

That lasted for a year until a woman from the Great Lakes contacted them. They were flabbergasted as to why she would want caviar from Montana rather than from the Great Lakes.

So, Ron called the James Beard Foundation, a national non-profit culinary arts organization based in New York City, for a taste-test. Apparently the roe from Flathead Lake was unique and delicious. That year their Golden Whitefish Caviar made it to the Tavern on the Green in New York City’s Central Park, a high-end iconic American restaurant.

They ended up selling their caviar around the world for $100 per pound, from Israel to Hawaii and Finland.

But the good times came to an end in 2009.

The summer fishery petered out and the river meandered so they couldn’t get a jet boat up the river.

“We were planning on closing it, and Ron passed that year,” Mohn said with tears in her eyes. “I sold everything but my caviar screens.”

Now she spends her time volunteering and playing cards. Her heart goes out to children, for hunger and food safety.

She helps put together a CROP Hunger Walk every year to raise funds to end hunger around the world. A quarter of the money raised stays within the local community, which is used to host the Canyon Community Dinners once a month.

She is also a board member at the North Valley Senior Center and teaches cribbage to children.