Wooden Store Sign Gives Small Town a New Feel

Small mountain town of Elliston, Montana has about 220 inhabitants, but don’t let the size fool you into thinking the community isn’t active and alive. About a 30 minute drive from my hometown Helena, MT, this small community has a charming feel and even more charming culture. People here care about their friends and family and are willing to lend a hand in just about any scenario.

The main street is also highway 12 that connects Helena to the 90 and subsequently, Missoula, and as a result, it is a pitstop for many travelers. Atop the continental divide, Elliston sits at over 5k feet and is surrounded by mountains and rivers and beautiful nature. You will find a hotel, a bar, a post office, and one store, which is now my sister’s store and it has been since 2020. The Elliston Store dates all the way back to 1890 and it is the only store in this mountain community. The locals use this convenient station to purchase gas, milk and eggs, gifts, beer, tobacco, coffee, burritos, and other grocery items. In a lot of ways, this store feeds the 220 inhabitants and my sister Cate is honored to have this responsibility.

Since Cate took ownership of the Elliston Store, she has persistently been making improvements and I have been fortunate enough to help her out with a number of the improvements, including a custom live edge bar and shelves that I built in 2020. She uses this bar and shelves for her numerous green and lively plants. More recently, I built her a new store sign. Hopefully, this store sign will bring more costumers through her doors and make Elliston feel even more like an alive mountain community. I made the backing of the sign with 3/4” plywood and all the letters were cut from hard walnut wood. This sign took a lot of work and luckily I was able to work in her back storage room during the cold winter days in late 2021. If you haven’t stopped by her store to say hello and see the sign, you MUST do so ASAP. I promise you will not be disappointed.

Like I said, locals in Elliston are willing to lend a hand and hanging this sign wouldn’t have been possible without a number of locals helping out. To those that helped, THANK YOU!

I will be posting videos about this build on my YouTube Channel and I hope you will give them a watch. I learned a lot during this process and I am happy to share with YOU!

Are you need of a 10ft long 3/4" thick piece of plywood? Do none of the local building supply stores stock this size? Watch this video to see how you can create your own with two sheets of 8 foot long plywood.

This video will kick off a BRAND NEW SERIES on how I made a GIANT store sign for the Elliston Store!