Almost three decades after he took over the Decker Lake Trading Post, Lawrence Hallgren is hanging up his owner’s hat and passing the torch on to his daughter.
Hallgren, who is originally from Breton, Alberta, bought the shop in 1990 when it was a second hand store. Before that, he owned a Marshall Wells hardware store in Burns Lake.
Since then, he has run the Trading Post with his wife Helen and daughter Janet Macadam, who will take over the store on April 1.
Macadam’s 35-year-old son will work at store too.
In their time running the shop they’ve expanded it, put in an above-ground gas tank and built a warehouse, which they use for cold storage.
The building was constructed in the 1960s, Lawrence told Lakes District News.
“[But] things haven’t changed that much. They just changed more. More stuff and more stuff and more stuff,” he said with a laugh. “When we first came here there was a couple of 4 x 8 tables down in the middle here. And it was mostly heaped up with dirty clothes, old wore out boots. We hauled a whole gravel truck load. I think Randy Hamp in Burns Lake came here. He was young. He came here with a gravel box. We loaded the whole damn thing in there.”
Positioned as it is on Highway 16, the Trading Post has had its fair share of interesting visitors over the last 29 years.
Lawrence points to two photos on the wall, one showing a group of young men, and another showing their large, bulky truck. They were documentary filmmakers from Finland who had flown to Alaska and then driven a large 1950 GMC truck to Decker Lake, along with another truck of filmmaking equipment.
“The truck driver was getting gas…and I went to talk to him, asked him how his trip was. He said, ‘Horrible. The brakes are gone on the truck. No parts available.'”
Lawrence explained that earlier that day he received a box of things from the estate of an elderly man who had died. Among the items were four wheel cylinders.
“So I gave him the new parts for free. They fit the truck. They were pleased and happy to get the cylinders. They were later going to fly home and put that truck onto a barge back to Alaska.”
And there was the lottery winner from Terrace who won $25 million, and who, before his big win sold items along the roadside out of his van.
“He still does the same thing. He hasn’t changed his life much. He never had a job!”
Then there was the Elvis impersonator who pulled up in a Cadillac, the visit from former provincial Lieutenant Governor Steve Point – who posed with Janet for a photo – and numerous travelers a long way from home.
“Lots of Swiss, Germans, Japanese…even the odd Quebecer,” Lawrence said.
With just a matter of days left until his daughter takes over the store, Lawrence was about to say what he plans to do now that his ownership duties will soon end, but his wife interjected and said, “[He’s going to] bug me!” and laughed.
Janet said that owning the store has always been one of her dreams over the 28 years she has help run it with her father.
“It’s on my bucket list because a year and a half ago I had melanoma cancer. So I’m just doing everything I want in my life now.”
Blair McBrideMultimedia reporter
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