Fed up in the Holland Tunnel

He was a national marketing manager for Sony. She was advertising copy chief for Macy’s. They lived in New Jersey but worked in Manhattan. “After getting stuck for the 15th time in Holland Tunnel, I decided that enough was enough and we moved to Sandpoint, Idaho,” said he.

And so began a new business, one that no one noticed or probably even gave much chance of survival when it started from scratch in 1984 in the town of 5,000 in northern Idaho. Their first catalog had 18 items in it. By 1991 they were doing $11 million in sales. Today they do $500 million as a public company, but one that is still headquartered in Sandpoint. The company is Coldwater Creek and the founders, Dennis and Ann Pence, still run the company from the charming town on the banks of Lake Pend Oreille.
My wife and I visited their main store this weekend, which is built over the actual Coldwater Creek on an old bridge which used to link the town to the train station. The bridge/store is often featured in their catalog. When we were there, a group of Tibetan monks were doing sand art in the store, raising funds to help Tibet.

Having one nationally know company in a town this size is quite impressive. How about two? Also located in Sandpoint is Lighthouse Dressings, which started out of a local restaurant.

Schweitzer Ski Resort is a destination ski area that is located just outside of town. The town offers numerous music and arts festivals, the largest of which is in August when the football field is covered with a tent and musical groups from all over the country are brought in to perform. The average house in Sandpoint is under $150,000. The town has a small town, artsy charm.

You’d hardly know that the entire economy was at one time totally dependent upon timber milling. The timber mills all moved out by the mid 90s, but the new economy of entrepreneurs and artisans is going to be a much better one for great places like Sandpoint.

Many think that Sandpoint is the next Jackson Hole, Wyoming and that it has many of the same characteristics of that town in 1970.