A deep love of rivers is what originally drew Grant & Lottie to Minam.
The Minam Store has always been a family-run business dating back to 1909, when the Goff and Fleser families built the first store at Minam to provide essential goods and services. The sheep, logging mills, and community are long gone at Minam but the tradition of providing a needed service and etching out a living at this beautiful junction of rivers is going strong today.
A Little History
The Minam Store has a long history of serving the needs of people who come to Minam or are just passing through. The first Minam Store was built around 1909. A large 2-story Minam Store was built by Cortes Goff and Bill Fleser in 1925 that had a general store downstairs and a dance hall upstairs. Bill was Cortes's son in law and they had a sawmill close by as well as a ranch at Minam on Top. The Minam Store built in 1925 had a long and warmly remembered history of serving the needs of customers until the new highway was built in the early 1960s. The grand old store was torn down to make way for progress of the new wider highway. The Minam Motel was built by Myron Fleser (Cortes Goff's grandson, Bill Fleser's son) around 1952 offering rooms for travelers. In 1984 Jim and Melva Horn (Melva was Myron Fleser's daughter) built a 3rd Minam Store to operate the newly thriving shuttle company from. In February 2011 Grant and Lottie Richie bought the Minam Store, raft rental, and shuttle business but the land was already being sold to Western Rivers Conservancy. Grant & Lottie leased the property for 2 years and then bought the Minam Motel in February of 2013, moving the Minam Store, raft rental, shuttle, and guide business to a permanent location on the east bank of the Wallowa River.
See you on the river!
