The Good Ol’ Boys say Good-bye

Hats. Two-thousand, five-hundred give or take.

That’s about how many hung from the low ceiling of North Valley Ag in Columbia Falls.

Hats from all over— most from local farmer and rancher heads.

The hat collection started years ago. A person would come in with a grungy hat, Mike Davis and his business partner LaDelle Reynolds would take the old hat and give them a brand spanking new North Valley Ag hat.

Some even had pink lettering. Today the hats are all gone.

“One guy bought them all,” Davis explained last week.

After being in business together for 38 years, the good-humored “Good Ol’ Boys” from North Valley Ag are hanging up their proverbial hats at the end of the month. They sold the place and are going to retire. Davis is a young 71. Reynolds looks even younger at 70.

They’ve known each other since junior high in Littleton, Colo. Both were farm kids.

Davis moved up to the Flathead a few years after getting out of Vietnam in the early ‘70s. Reynolds said he heard Davis lived up here and in 1980 he came up to visit.

They went hunting for black bears.

They didn’t get a bear, “but we did get drunk,” Reynolds said with a smile.

Back then there were 13 dairies and 42 hog producers in the valley. They got the idea for a feed store and originally opened up in 1983 in the building that is now Glacier Produce.

Eventually they moved to their current store, which is a stone’s throw away.

“Mike had a knack for numbers,” Reynolds said. “And I can spell better than he does.”

They figure they’ve bought and sold about 222 million pounds of seed, feed,

fertilizer and hay over the years.

Humor and helping people out has been central to the business.

Davis greets many customers by asking them to “give him some skin,” a hand slide, rather than a shake.

He’s been married to his wife, Susie, for coming up on 50 years this year.

“I’m single and my three marriages added up to 28 years,” Reynolds joked.

The store has been a place for social gatherings as well. They’ve hosted 37 Christmas dinners, with homemade foods baked and prepared by family members and friends. As many as 600 people have attended.

The only year it was canceled was last year due to coronavirus concerns.

The family also pitches in. Mike’s son, Wes, worked there for 18 years, but has run into some health problems. Without Wes, several family members helped.

Times have changed, of course. The dairies are all but gone and there’s just a handful of serious hog farmers. They’ve been replaced by backyard farmers with chickens and gardens and lots of questions.

The good ol’ boys have the answers and if they can’t sell you something, they can tell you where to go to get it, even in the waning days of the business.

Some customers have been more memorable than others. They fondly recalled Ed Curtis, a retired Los Angeles police officer who would come in at least twice a day, sometimes in his pajamas and joke with customers.

Reynolds recalled Curtis walking up to women and joking, “Who cut your hair?”

All in fun.

The property will no longer be an ag store. It was bought by Empress Tents and Events, owned by Mike and Lynn Malmberg of Columbia Falls.

Despite Covid-19, their last year was one of the best, Davis said. “We’re ending it on a high note,” he said.

Reynolds and Davis still plan on spending time together. “I’m sure we’ll find days to hunt and fish together,” Reynolds said.