Waterton family business celebrates milestone

The Baker family celebrates 90 years of business in Waterton Lakes National Park

Waterton Outdoor Adventures
and Tamarack Outdoor Outfitters
celebrating 90 years

2012 marks a banner year for a local business family in Waterton Park.  This year the Baker family, owners/operators of Tamarack Outdoor Outfitters and Waterton Outdoor Adventures, celebrate 90 years of continuous business in the village of Waterton.  Over the years, they have watched the tiny settlement of Waterton grow into the international tourism destination it is today.  Generations of visitors have passed through the doorway of the Baker’s main business operation on Mount View Road.  Waterton has changed dramatically over the years, but the Baker family is a testament to hard work and the love of the land in keeping their business’ active in the Park since 1922.

The business legacy started rather inauspiciously in 1922. William Baker and his son George starting a trucking business, aptly named Park Transport Company, to fill the increasing need for movement of building materials in and out of the Park.  This need grew as construction on the Prince of Wales Hotel began in 1926.   George had also begun to sell gasoline as there was no one providing the service in the Park at that time.  By 1932 Park Transport Company was viable enough that George built the auto-garage on Mount View Road.  That building still stands as the home of Tamarack Outdoor Outfitters today.  Over the years George, proving to be an astute businessman, grew his business tenfold.  He ran an early boat concession and had the freight contracts with Glacier National Park, MT on the Upper Waterton Lake.  The garage of Park Transport Company became the town’s sole telegraph station, a GM car dealership, and in 1938 the telephone switchboard for AGT.  In 1939 George and his family were instrumental in developing the tourism services up at Cameron Lake.  A tour boat, boat rentals, tearoom, rental cabins and a general store all made up this successful enterprise that the Baker family ran until 1965. He was the consummate businessman, but also played an active role in community affairs and causes.  George Baker died in 1968 and his sons Rae & Alf took over Park Transport Company.


All the while, Waterton was growing and changing, as was the Baker family businesses.  The 1970 and 80’s saw the next generation get involved with Rae and Shirley’s children Brian, Penny, Shari and Robinn all pitching in.  By 1974 the tourism business was slowly evolving towards retail services, guiding, and shuttles for hikers and Brian started the small outdoor store, Rocky Mountain Sports.   The original Park Transport Company garage and gas station changed as well.  In 1976, the Bakers converted the old garage into the Tamarack Mall with smaller, individually run and leased retail spaces. They had also purchased the El Cortez Motel (now the Bear Mountain Motel) and by 1979 had shut down the original trucking and garage business altogether.  With Alf retiring in 1985, Rae and Brian took the business to its next level, Tamarack Village Square, with its host of unique shops and eateries.  Many a visitor will remember Shirley’s “The Brass Shack”, Windy Weather Kite Shop, Summer Thoughts Ice Cream, Touch the Earth, and the expansion and rebranding of Brian’s outdoor gear and clothing store store to Waterton Sports & Leisure.  The Esso gas station continued to operate until 2004, having served the Waterton visitors for 83 years.

By this time Brian and his wife Lauren had renovated the entire building yet again, turning it into one large outdoor lifestyle and retail store.  It is that today, Tamarack Outdoor Outfitters, at over 5400 square feet one of Alberta’s largest independent outdoor retailers.  In 2008, a new generation became involved when Brian and Lauren’s eldest daughter Aynsley moved back to Waterton and began transitioning into the management of the Tamarack.  Their younger daughter Kelley as a graphic designer offered creative input.  In 2010 Aynsley’s husband Carey Tetzlaff re-branded the small guiding and hiker shuttle company that Brian had started years earlier into Waterton Outdoor Adventures, the Park’s only full service guiding and hikers shuttle service.  Aynsley and Carey’s son, Arthur James, is now the 6th generation of Baker’s to call Waterton home.

In a 1952 Lethbridge Herald interview then celebrating 30 years in business in Waterton, George Baker stated that the Baker family had “the oldest business in continual ownership in Waterton Lakes National Park”.  He expressed his pride and deep affection for the mountain town he called home.  This year, after 90 years of that same continual ownership, the Baker family still holds tight to those emotions uttered by George 50 years ago.  They have pride in their deep roots and strong business and community accomplishments grown over the decades.  From 1922 to 2012 the Baker family has been an integral part of the business and cultural landscape of Waterton. This Summer, they welcome past and present friends, employees and visitors’ to come and help them celebrate their 90 years in business.