Captain’s Log We’re Shop Keepers Now

Open a store, they said – it’ll be fun, they said. 

So, we did, and it’s a blast. But oh, goodness. 

A few weeks ago we got the chance to rent a spot back on Maine Street and since we’ve always wanted to be on Maine Street and last summer gave up our spot, we jumped at the chance to be back there among the darling little shops and the hustle and bustle and who are we kidding – a front-row seat to the annual tree lighting, Fallon’s best night of the whole year. 

It’s worth the price of admission, or rent, just to be down there for that event alone, but honestly, having a “front porch” to our media empire (I’m totally joking, we aren’t an empire just yet) is absolutely awesome. We definitely noticed a difference in our local foot traffic as soon as the store opened up. 

We call it “Great Basin Trading Co.”, and the idea is to have a local bookstore featuring local authors and artists, along with a newsstand for all our papers, the magazine, and all the merch that comes with RANGE magazine. We’re building a website so our customers across the country can shop online, but we hope all our local customers will come downtown to enjoy shopping at 31 S. Maine Street. 

In addition to the store, or better yet, for it… We’ve published two books for local authors, my dad, Joe Dahl, and our dear friend, Larry Neel.

We spent the summer learning how to be book publishers, and our imprint is officially Oasis Books. 

Dad’s book is called “Horse Stories” and is a collection of short stories about the horses he’s had over the years, from growing up on a ranch in Elko County to learning to jump horses to ending up at the polo field training polo horses. It’s a fun collection of stories that makes you wish you were sitting around a campfire, with weeks to listen to a natural storyteller.

Larry’s book is a coffee-table collection of his beautiful photographs of creatures from the Great Basin, titled “Shadows in the Sagebrush.” Each accompanied by his pithy style of writing, what I call “vignettes,” telling the story of how he captured the image and the relationship he formed with each subject while setting up the shot. It’s a treat for your eyes and your love of story. 

They’ll both be in the store on Saturday, Dec. 6, to sign books, so come down and get some Christmas shopping out of the way.

We also have originals and prints of the very talented Nettie Rickerson’s art, Larry’s photographs, notecards by Marie Nygren, Dale Erquiaga’s books, Michon Mackedon’s books, books by Molly Dahl, silver by Marissa Julian, all the RANGE magazine books that CJ Hadley has published over the years, some rare Lee Pitts books, and Cheryl is doing a lovely corner of high-end consignment. 

We’ve got a list of local authors and artists we’re reaching out to and hope to add, but if you are one and haven’t heard from us yet, we would love to have your work in the store. Please stop by and see us. 

So while we broaden our horizons and learn some new skills, we’ll still be right here…

…Keeping you Posted.

Rach