In 1921, Ira Yeager was in the furniture business, but being an avid outdoorsman, he decided to make a change and contacted the Evinrude Company and was given a dealership to sell their outboard motors.\u00a0 When Yeager\u2019s surrendered that franchise in the 1990s, it was the oldest continually operating Evinrude dealership in the U.S.<\/p>\n
Eventually, Ira opened a store in downtown Bellingham in 1928 and was very successful there.\u00a0 Also, his married daughter, Marianne, entered the business and within a few years convinced Ira to build, and move into, a bigger store a couple of miles out of the downtown core in 1956.<\/p>\n
The secret story here is that Ira was so concerned about giving up his downtown location that he continued to operate both stores in case the new one failed.\u00a0 Within a few months the new store was doing so well he closed the old store and moved to the new one and within a few years, more than doubled it in size.\u00a0 Much credit goes to Marianne for her insights and wisdom as she was really the driving force behind the success of the store in those early days.<\/p>\n
Eventually her husband, Frank Uhrig quit his teaching job and came in to help run the store.\u00a0 Marianne and Frank had two sons, Frank Jr (Skip) and Ira.\u00a0 Sadly, Marianne died of cancer in 1968 so Frank became the overall manager. During the 80\u2019s, Frank Uhrig began the process of purchasing the store from Ira and eventually became the sole owner.\u00a0 Ira continued to be the figurehead and was active in the store into his 90s.<\/p>\n
During the 97 year history of Yeager\u2019s, the store has employed thousands of people and allowed hundreds of college students to work their way through college by working there part-time.<\/p>\n
Over time, Yeager\u2019s has become the mecca of retail establishments in NW Washington for the outdoor-minded: hunter, fisher, camper, skier, kayaker, and hiker, with a great workwear store and fabulous toy store thrown into the mix for good measure.<\/p>\n