ST. REGIS — The big, red barn at St. Regis Moxie Market sells all sorts of Mineral County goods, from clothing to skincare to zucchini relish. The market hopes to use the county’s creativity and intersection with tourists passing by on I-90 to benefit the local community.
“Let's showcase what we have in Mineral County,” the market’s operator Jelena Banks said. “Our goal was just to create market access for our local artisans and agricultural producers.”
The barn used to house the Montana Moxie Market, which closed for a few years. In the fall, Banks met the former owner and leased the building. She and her business partners re-opened the iconic local shop as St. Regis Moxie Market.
“We get so much through traffic through here headed to Glacier, Kalispel, Quinn's Hot Springs. We have people from all over the country, all over the world,” she said. “So, I get the opportunity to brag on all of our local producers and artisans and it's just really rewarding.”
Kaylee Kay sells skincare products at the market. She uses local ingredients, like fat from Superior Meats.
“It goes from balms to creams to blush, as well as hair oils,” she said. “I started making them more so for safe products for my babies, originally, and then it ended up being something bigger than I thought it was going to be.”
Local family rancher, Rachael Fitzpatrick, sells her creations too. For the past decade, she has been raising goats in the area for milk and meat.
“In the last couple years, I started expanding, making different milk products and realized that soap, goat milk soap, is a thing, which I didn't really know about til maybe five or so years ago. And so I thought, ‘Well, let me give it a shot,’” she said. “Our goal is to make our farm a profitable farm and have a farm for our kids to grow into, so I just thought the soap would be great.”
Banks and her business partners have big plans for the market. It started out with local art, now they are starting to get more shelf stable foods, like jams and honeys. Banks also hopes to eventually add produce, lunch service and maybe even a farm to teach people about local food.
But, she is starting smaller, or larger, depending on how you look at it. After talking to some Missoulians about placed to check out around the county, Banks was inspired to create a map, showcasing farm stands and businesses county-wide. She is working with others, including the chamber of commerce, to bring the maps out in the next couple of weeks.
“We have so much to offer in this county that, because of our terrain or just the fact that we have so much public land, so many of our businesses and Airbnbs and recreational opportunities are kind of tucked back. So, you know, let's make this more visible,” she said. “It's just kind of going to be a community project to definitively say like ‘This is who we are.’”
Banks hopes the market will be a place for everybody, from the locals to the tourists who rush through Mineral County in the summer. Kay and Fitzpatrick said the market has already been beneficial.
“It's great to be able to know that I can be personally supported by the community and then by the tourists,” Fitzpatrick said. “And that feeds into our family farm, that feeds into our kids learning with me how to grow a business.”
From connecting locals with each other to bringing in traffic, they hope to help continue on Mineral County’s way of life for the next generation.
“Just to be able to support each other, like to buy your product and you buy my product instead of finding something at Walmart or in Costco,” Fitzpatrick said to Kay. “Jelena and I were talking a few weeks ago about how there's the phrase ‘go back to your roots.’ In Montana, a lot of it just never really left its roots.”
“Knowing everything in this store is from someone around Mineral County and it goes directly back into Mineral County, I think that's just beautiful,” Kay said.
