Ed Marquand: How a Punctured Tire Leads us to Mighty Tieton

Welcome to another exciting blog post on the “Exploring Washington State” podcast! In this episode, our host Scott Cowan sits down with Ed Marquand, a remarkable figure behind the transformation of Tieton, Washington. Join us as we explore Ed’s fascinating journey and dive into how creativity and community spirit have revitalized a small town.

Discovering Tieton: A Serendipitous Encounter

Ed Marquand’s journey with Tieton began in 2005 when he experienced 18 punctures in just 10 feet while cycling from his cabin toward Yakima. This unexpected stop led Ed to explore the nearly vacant storefronts in Tieton. At the time, economic challenges caused by changes in agriculture had left many businesses closed. Yet, Ed saw potential in those empty spaces and wondered what they could become, sparking the vision for what would eventually be known as Mighty Tieton.

Breathing Life Back Into Town

Together with his partner and a group of creative business owners from Seattle, Ed embarked on an ambitious project to revitalize Tieton. They envisioned a place where creative businesses could flourish, provide local employment opportunities, and reconnect Tieton with broader markets. Through their efforts, Tieton gradually transformed into a vibrant hub of creativity, design, and community.

Revitalizing Local Spaces

One of the first major projects Ed and his team undertook was the conversion of an old fruit warehouse into studio lofts. This venture not only provided functional spaces for artisans but also attracted other creative minds to the town. Loft owners contributed to Tieton’s economic growth and established a connection between urban creativity and rural resources. The project was completed just weeks before the 2008 financial crisis—a fortunate stroke of timing.

A Mosaic of Success

An exciting addition to Tieton’s business landscape is the Tieton Mosaic studio. Born out of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, this studio specializes in creating limited edition handmade art books and intricate glass mosaic projects. These mosaics, inspired by New York City’s subway art, have now become a signature feature of Tieton, celebrating the town’s rich heritage and serving as a testament to Ed’s visionary approach.

Community-Driven Endeavors

Tieton has become a vibrant center of innovation and community events, thanks to its dynamic residents. Notable annual happenings include the Tieton Dia de los Muertos celebration, the Tour de Tieton cycling event, and the highly anticipated Tieton Grand Prix—an exhilarating race featuring handmade cycle cars. These events not only draw visitors but also foster a sense of pride and belonging among locals.

Mighty Tieton’s Expanding Vision

Looking to the future, Ed has grand plans for Tieton. By enhancing its connectivity, developing new workshops, and fostering a sustainable local economy through industries like coding for agriculture, Tieton is poised to be a beacon of creative industry and community resilience. Ed’s vision is to provide opportunities for the next generation while preserving the town’s unique character.

Conclusion: A Community Reimagined

Ed Marquand’s story is a testament to the power of creativity, collaboration, and determination. Through Mighty Tieton, he has not only revitalized a small town but has also inspired others to see how rural communities can thrive. Ed’s commitment to connecting Tieton with wider markets while nurturing local talent ensures that this delightful town will continue to flourish.

Join us in celebrating Tieton’s remarkable transformation. Whether you’re interested in art, entrepreneurship, or simply enjoy hearing about innovative community projects, Tieton’s story is one of inspiration and hope. Make sure to tune in to the “Exploring Washington State” podcast for more captivating tales from the Evergreen State!

Ed Marquand Mighty Tieton Episode Transcript

Ed Marquand [00:00:00]:

In 10 feet, I had 18 punctures, and both tires just went totally flat. Also, it was both tires? It was both tires. Welcome to the Exploring Washington State podcast. Here’s your host, Ed Marquand.

Scott Cowan [00:00:32]:

Alright, everybody. Welcome back to this episode of the Exploring Washington State podcast. I am now sitting with Scott Cowan, and we are sitting in Tieton, Washington. And, Ed, you have an interesting story, but I wanna start you off. I really wanna hear the, kind of, the origin story of of you and Tieton.

Ed Marquand [00:00:54]:

Well, I live my partner and I live in Downtown Seattle and now we live here too. So we go back and forth across the Cascades pretty regularly. I spend much more time here in Tieton than I do in Seattle. For forty years, I’ve had a art book publishing company based in Seattle. We produce books for museums all over the country. My partner’s an attorney. About thirty years ago, we bought a very large piece of property about 15 miles from Tieton, and we built a little tiny cabin. It’s off the grid.

Ed Marquand [00:01:38]:

It’s it’s fireproof. It’s just a little bunker that sits on this beautiful piece of property. And, we like spending time there, but since it’s off the grid, it wasn’t easy to do work there. We could chill out for a couple of days but that was about it. In 02/2005, I took a bike ride from the cabin toward Yakima, saw the sign down in Natchez directing me to Tieton, and I thought, well, I’ll go check it out. So I rode up the grade and and spun around town. Tieton is a small town. It’s about 1,400 people.

Ed Marquand [00:02:21]:

It’s about 70% Latino. The town isn’t particularly distinguished architecturally, but it has a beautiful little park in the center and four blocks of of retail around the park. So it’s kind of set up like a little bit like a Midwestern town. In 02/2005, many of the storefronts were empty. We’re surrounded by apple and pear orchards. It’s a beautiful country. It’s on the dry side of of the state. And, but its proximity to Yakima, really kind of worked against the retail in town.

Ed Marquand [00:03:12]:

Also with changes in the agriculture business and small farms consolidating and and agribusiness taking over chunks of farms and getting bigger and bigger and bigger, really put a strain on small family farmers. So many of them moved out of the way. Some of the some of the farms went bankrupt, and that didn’t do anything to help the retail in poor little Tieton. When I showed up on my bike in 02/2005, about half the storefronts on the Square were empty and had been for about a decade. So there wasn’t the bowling alley, there wasn’t the movie theater, there wasn’t the hair salon, there wasn’t the the shoe repair store. There wasn’t the variety store. There there wasn’t the the butcher shop. So all those businesses went away and as as much as people in the community wanted them to come back, the economic pressures and proximity to Yakima, really made the restoration of those businesses impossible.

Ed Marquand [00:04:22]:

Everybody in town wanted some businesses to come back or some some businesses, but they could never figure out what what businesses those could be. So I’m spinning around town on my bike and I pull into the back of an abandoned warehouse, fruit storage warehouse, pulled into the parking lot and hit a whole bunch of goat head thorns. In 10 feet, I had 18 punctures God. And both tires just went totally flat. So it

Scott Cowan [00:04:53]:

was both tires?

Ed Marquand [00:04:54]:

It was both tires. Oh, okay. So I, pushed the bike into the park and spent the rest of the day with my little tiny patch kit trying to repair these inner tubes. And so I could get back to the cabin. So as I was patching the tires and noticing these storefronts, I started wondering, well, with real estate prices, with studio space at such a premium in Seattle, I wonder what sorts of businesses could make sense in these spaces that, could also hire people from the community to train them to do work at a very, very high level, thereby improving the economy of the town, occupying these spaces, but also fulfilling creative ambitions in from urban areas. And here we are sixteen years later, and that basic model has played out in these spaces in a variety of different ways. And, that’s what we’re going to talk about today.

Scott Cowan [00:06:04]:

So I’ve got a couple of questions based on that first story. How long did it take you to patch the bike? I mean, that’s so you were sitting here for a little while.

Ed Marquand [00:06:13]:

It was about three hours. Okay. And

Scott Cowan [00:06:18]:

what was your partner’s response when you rode back and you said, I’ve got this idea? Was it?

Ed Marquand [00:06:25]:

Well,

Scott Cowan [00:06:27]:

I

Ed Marquand [00:06:29]:

he said, well, let’s go check it out. Okay. And we rode around, drove around and walked around the next day. And he grew up in a town that’s about the same size as Tieton in Upstate New York. And that town essentially died Because there were no ideas of ways to develop a narrative for some sort of a successful future. And that’s a problem that small towns have across the country. And it’s my belief, sixteen years into this project we call Mighty Tieton, that without that narrative for some sort of a successful future, these small towns are doomed. Mhmm.

Ed Marquand [00:07:31]:

And as much as people would like them to remain the way they were in the fifties and sixties and seventies, the economic pressures are never going to allow that. Now in the case of Tieton, we’ve created this hands across the Cascades business model. So it’s dependent on the needs from outside this area.

Scott Cowan [00:08:02]:

Mhmm.

Ed Marquand [00:08:03]:

What I’ve discovered in the years that we’ve been here is that the locals would really like to see solutions come from the town itself. But I just don’t think that’s possible anymore. And with the Internet and with tech, there are so many really interesting and exciting opportunities outside the area that can be connected to the the local resources.

Scott Cowan [00:08:40]:

Mhmm.

Ed Marquand [00:08:41]:

So what are those local resources? Property, when we started buying storefronts and couple of warehouses around here, the the property prices just seemed so ridiculously low, and they were. Renovation costs were not. It took much more money to renovate these spaces than we ever expected. But, here we are into it and we’ve made good progress. But the real resource in this town and in towns all over the place are the people who live here, who are really hunger hungry to connect to the broader creative fields. And, you know, they have creative ambitions too. Because of the Internet, they’re well aware of what’s going on in the rest of the world. But if they can’t leave this area or they don’t want to leave this area, thanks to the Internet there are now ways for them to connect, that just wouldn’t have been possible a decade ago.

Ed Marquand [00:09:48]:

I think COVID has also demonstrated that there are so many things that can be done without leaving where you’re living. And the world is much much more connected through the Internet than it was a decade ago, And that opens all sorts of exciting possibilities.

Scott Cowan [00:10:11]:

So when you first started up here, how I mean, the Internet’s evolved a lot in those sixteen years. But how is connectivity up here? Is this do you have good infrastructure for that here?

Ed Marquand [00:10:22]:

Well, it can always be better, but I’ll tell you. I have a condo in Downtown Seattle, and my main design business, the publishing business, is right Downtown Seattle. And in my studios here in Tieton, I have fiber optic.

Scott Cowan [00:10:40]:

Mhmm.

Ed Marquand [00:10:40]:

I can’t get fiber optic in Downtown Seattle.

Scott Cowan [00:10:43]:

Right.

Ed Marquand [00:10:45]:

Because of the buildings. Not because it doesn’t exist there, but because of the buildings. Mhmm. The buildings are not capable of, accessing fiber optic.

Scott Cowan [00:10:56]:

When we moved to Wenatchee from the Tacoma area, I started calling around and, oh, it’s $49.95 a month. I’m like, okay. So first off, I won’t mention the the the main cable provider in the in Puget Sound. We all know that. But, you know and I’m like, well, that’s a third of what I was paying. Oh, and it’s a gigabit? What? Yeah. I was huge perk about moving over to to to one actually for me was the robust connectivity. So so that’s evolved.

Scott Cowan [00:11:25]:

So you you mentioned something. Okay. So the initial cost was low to buy. Renovations, however well, no project ever hit hits its budget, does it? No. Uh-uh. Yep. I mean, no. What was the first building that you started with, and what was the first, what was your first what did you open first? And then the other part of that question is, so from the time that you’re spending fixing your flats, how long was it before you actually made an investment in the community?

Ed Marquand [00:11:59]:

Well, I was fixing the flats in the April 2005. That summer, we brought all these friends from Seattle, most of whom owned their own businesses. They were architects, they were designers, maybe gallery owners, people in the food industry, people in the beverage industry, photographers, retailers, whatever. But small business people.

Scott Cowan [00:12:25]:

Mhmm.

Ed Marquand [00:12:26]:

And we’d sit in the park and try to imagine what these spaces could become. That would make sense for the people who live in the community today and when we’re

Scott Cowan [00:12:39]:

Right.

Ed Marquand [00:12:40]:

Envisioning. But also what could attract more people to come to town to spend more money to help the economy of the of the town. The first building we we bought was a big abandoned warehouse that, had been a fruit storage warehouse, and it had been empty for about a decade. We bought it at auction, and then the very next building we bought was another large building that had been, deserted for about twelve years. And the, this group was very lively and fun group of small business owners, we all decided that we would take the second warehouse and convert those to loft spaces, studio loft spaces, that this group could buy Mhmm. To get some of these ideas up and running. The big warehouse, we converted to an event space, and then we started putting studios in, a wood shop, a metal shop, to provide some support for doing a lot of the construction and renovation on the other buildings. Then there were a couple of, storefronts that we bought.

Ed Marquand [00:14:12]:

There was the old pharmacy. There was, the old television repair place. There was a, the variety store. And those places too had been empty for over a decade. But we started buying them at the February. So the the flat tire happened April 2005. We started actually making Eight months. Commitments.

Ed Marquand [00:14:40]:

Yeah. About eight months. So that, that really got us commit committed and it also got, other people committed, but it also got their juices flowing and we started to to really make a commitment to the community. The people we met here and the the the people in the Tieton is a city, so it has a city hall, it has a professional staff. And they were very very excited, because in converting the one building into Lofts, our building permit application was the first one they’d had in three years.

Scott Cowan [00:15:31]:

Did they remember how to fill it out?

Ed Marquand [00:15:34]:

It wasn’t a hard form to remember how to fill out. But, you know, they were really struggling. And a lot of it had to do with big big changes in the agriculture industry in this area.

Scott Cowan [00:15:50]:

Mhmm.

Ed Marquand [00:15:50]:

So many of the farmers were much too heavily invested in Red Delicious apples. Nobody was buying Red Delicious apples anymore. And it was very expensive to convert the orchards into organics or more varietals. So, you know, I think our timing was was was good for what happened. But, it was really a town on its heels in 02/2005.

Scott Cowan [00:16:24]:

Well, let me ask you this. Just how did Tieton not to bring up maybe hopefully, it’s probably a touchy subject, but how did Tieton handle the the great recession of o eight and all of that? Was it was it was it severely impacted up here?

Ed Marquand [00:16:39]:

Well, we finished the loft project and sold the last unit two weeks before the before the great recession.

Scott Cowan [00:16:52]:

Wow.

Ed Marquand [00:16:53]:

So we dodged a massive bullet. Titan and the Yakima Valley in general suffers from these things generally later.

Scott Cowan [00:17:09]:

Mhmm.

Ed Marquand [00:17:09]:

Agriculture is a good industry in that it’s a pretty stable industry over long periods.

Scott Cowan [00:17:21]:

Right.

Ed Marquand [00:17:21]:

And in town there were still plenty of jobs in the fruit packing warehouses and managing the orchards and so on. The people who live here aren’t aren’t really doing the work that, migrant laborers do. Mhmm. But they do a lot of orchard management. They do a lot of, transportation, packing, that sort of work.

Scott Cowan [00:17:51]:

Mhmm.

Ed Marquand [00:17:52]:

So I don’t know that we were I don’t know that they were as hard hit as they might have been.

Scott Cowan [00:17:58]:

K.

Ed Marquand [00:18:00]:

Nobody had a great time during that time. Nobody had a great time. But, there we are.

Scott Cowan [00:18:05]:

Okay. So the loft was kind of the first project. It was. And how many units did you guys convert? 14. 14 units.

Ed Marquand [00:18:12]:

Yeah. And, they’re very comfortable and that’s where I live now. And many of the people who invested in the in the initial, construction are still there.

Scott Cowan [00:18:25]:

Mhmm.

Ed Marquand [00:18:26]:

But the architect who, Philip Christopheides was the architect, and he was involved in all these conversations we were having early on. But he he, I think rightfully said, look it, if we make this commitment and if these creative business owners with all these great ideas of of businesses that could fill these spaces here, If they make a commitment to real estate in Tieton, they’re much more likely to stay engaged. And that, proved to be true. Mhmm. Now, however, your question about the recession, since we’re all independent small creative business owners, we were all clobbered. Mhmm. Those businesses were in Seattle. The architect, he had to shutter his business.

Ed Marquand [00:19:19]:

Galleries really suffered. The restaurant suffered. Everybody everybody really suffered. And it had an impact on the ideas of what we wanted to do here in Titan. So a number of the ideas we were so excited about getting off the ground, restaurants, you know, tourist destination kinds of activities, that sort of thing, really just had to be put on hold.

Scott Cowan [00:19:43]:

Mhmm.

Ed Marquand [00:19:45]:

And they’re now sixteen years later, really taking a much stronger hold. But but, you know, that recession really threw threw us back on our on our rears.

Scott Cowan [00:20:00]:

Right. Okay. You’ve when we’ve talked before, you’ve you’ve somewhat facetiously call yourself the the the hand waver, you know, the and I I laugh at that. But once again, I’m seeing an example of that when you you you had flat tires in April, you’d gathered a group, and in by this by the end of the year, you guys are investing in in this in this vision. That’s pretty amazing as far as I’m concerned.

Ed Marquand [00:20:29]:

Well, or or Or or crazy, but Incredibly naive. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:20:33]:

Well, you know, it could be all those things, but it’s worked out. Even you’re still here. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. What was next? I mean, what so we we the studio space came. How did my how did the how did you come up with the name Mighty Titan?

Ed Marquand [00:20:48]:

Mighty Titan just occurred to me. The Titan River is, a few miles from here, and it it, hooks up with the Natchez River that hooks up with the Yakima River down in Yakima. And I was just playing with names, and I just thought, okay, the Titan River and rivers are often described as being mighty. You know, Tieton wouldn’t be classified that way, but I it just the name stuck and and here we are. And then, Carrie, wonderful old friend who, was really instrumental in getting so many of these projects here going. Always kind of thought of it as in a mighty mouse kind of way. Here we are, this little tiny scrappy town and these little scrappy independent business people and, we were trying to punch above our weight and, you know, here we are. But the name stuck and it’s kind of memorable.

Ed Marquand [00:21:52]:

Yeah. But the, the businesses so I’m, I’m thinking, okay. We bought the the old pharmacy that had been empty for a decade. What are we gonna do there? It’s a beautiful old space. And when I say beautiful, to me, workmanlike is beautiful. None of the architecture in town here is distinctive. It doesn’t have any any trim or decoration or whatever. These are concrete block buildings.

Ed Marquand [00:22:27]:

Some of them are covered, some of them are not. But they’re they’re very workmanlike. But the park in the middle of town is the thing that really gives the town its charm. But with this, pharmacy, I was thinking, well, okay. What business am I gonna start here? I publish art books for museums all over the country, and we’ve been at it for about four decades now. And I have a very, very talented staff in Seattle of designers and editors and production people. Over the years we’ve worked with about 300 museums around the country, so we’re pretty well known in that field. I came up with the idea of doing the creating a studio that makes limited edition handmade art books.

Ed Marquand [00:23:18]:

Books that are for a similar clientele, very few copies, much higher price points, and items that would be sold into museum collections, special collection libraries, and private book collectors. We know a lot of people in the art world and I I just thought, yeah, we we can put together some very, very, interesting partnerships and and that’s what we’ve done. But we also, the Seattle office moved to its current location, which is at Second And Union in Downtown Seattle. It came with the storefront, so we opened Paper Hammer. Paper Hammer is my little shop, and about half the merchandise we sell at Paper Hammer, we make here in Tieton. So when we’re slow doing the additions, we fill in by creating merchandise that we can sell in, Downtown Seattle. We also now have a little retail shop on the square Mhmm. And we sell a lot of that merchandise there as well.

Ed Marquand [00:24:30]:

So the, that was the first business that I started here. But the studio that is kind of blowing up right now in the best possible way is, Tieton Mosaic. In, about ten years ago, I got a call from Chris Tucker, who was then the head of the, Washington State Arts Commission, ArtsWA. She told me about a grant program called Our Town that was an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts. She says, we like what you’re doing in Tieton and this combination of community, enterprise, art, and design. If you can come up with a proposal that we like, we can give you a grant writer to help you go after grant money from the National Endowment. So a woman who was working for us at the time and I sat down and and she said, well you’ve always expressed admiration in the the, platform mosaics in the New York subway system. The the platform like Columbus Circle and and 50 Seventh Street and Times Square, all these mosaics that are a hundred years old.

Ed Marquand [00:25:55]:

She says, well why don’t we start a studio to do that kind of work? And I thought, sure, okay. I’m a graphic designer by by training and profession. I know a fair amount about typography. And, sure, let’s let’s just go for that. Never in the million years thinking we would actually get this grant, we submitted the the grant application. And a few months later, we got notice from the the NEA that we had been awarded this grant to create some directional signage around the town of Tieton using glass mosaic. So we needed to train ourselves up to be able to do that work.

Scott Cowan [00:26:38]:

I’m gonna interrupt you. You mean you I don’t know. Well, it’s too late. They already gave you the money and you’re already in business. But you hadn’t done any MOSAIC work before the grant was awarded?

Ed Marquand [00:26:48]:

No. But, I knew enough about the technique Okay. To to know that it was it was would be perfectly capable of learning how to do it.

Scott Cowan [00:26:58]:

I’ve I’ve kinda given you a hard time, but it’s like, wow. Sure.

Ed Marquand [00:27:01]:

Well, and the the kind of mosaics where you’re interested in doing was signage, it wasn’t it wasn’t some of the the incredibly artistic, complicated, traditional mosaics

Scott Cowan [00:27:12]:

Mhmm.

Ed Marquand [00:27:15]:

From 2,000 years ago.

Scott Cowan [00:27:16]:

Right.

Ed Marquand [00:27:17]:

You know, it was it was going to be more like the New York subway mosaic. Sure. And those are much much easier to learn how to do. But as soon as the announcement was made that we had received this grant, a fellow named Steve Morgan from Natchez, just down the hill, showed up and offered his services and said, you know, I think I’d be really good at that. So I said, great. We hired a couple of mosaic artists from Seattle to come over to teach us how to do this work. Steve took to it just like fish to water. He was he was really born to do this this work.

Ed Marquand [00:27:59]:

And a couple of other people showed up or friends of friends showed up. And, you know, before we know it, we have a nice little mosaic studio and we’re working on the on the NEA mosaics. Now we also had to raise an additional hundred thousand dollars to be able to, get the studio up and going, but we were able to do that through private donations and, some additional foundation money. But the idea was to do a project, an art project, that would continue to create jobs in the community, amongst the people who live here. You know, hire people from the community because that’s always been an important, part of the mission. So when we finished the signage project, which we did on time, on budget

Scott Cowan [00:28:54]:

How many signs did you guys We

Ed Marquand [00:28:56]:

did six.

Scott Cowan [00:28:56]:

Six signs.

Ed Marquand [00:28:57]:

Okay. So there’s a welcome to Tieton and then some of the parks and some directional signage on the on the streets.

Scott Cowan [00:29:03]:

So that wasn’t the Apple box logo

Ed Marquand [00:29:05]:

ones?

Scott Cowan [00:29:06]:

This is No. Okay.

Ed Marquand [00:29:08]:

But as we were finishing that project up, we got a couple of commercial commissions, from companies in Yakima, some really nice ones. We got better and better at at doing the work and really kind of, you know, grew into the, into the skill that was needed. And then, another fellow who worked for us applied for another National Endowment for the Arts grant, but he didn’t tell anybody that he was applying for these grants, nor did he really explain what the grant application involved. I mean, he probably mentioned it and I didn’t really take it seriously because we didn’t expect to get the first one, and I really didn’t expect to get get any more. And then he moved away, moved to the East Coast. 1 day we get a letter from the NEA saying that we had gotten this grant. And I just thought, holy moly. What’s what’s he obligated us to do? We got 48,000 from the NEA, but he obligated us to a project that really cost a quarter of a million dollars.

Ed Marquand [00:30:24]:

So I had to be the one to go out and raise the rest of the money. But we came up with this project. It was all based on coming up with mosaics that would be displayed around the park, around the square, featuring vintage fruit label murals blown up into seven foot wide mosaics. They include, I don’t know, like, 10 to 14,000 little pieces of hand cut glass. They’re really beautiful. Mhmm. But when I realized how proud some of the families are around here about their, their fathers, their parents, their grandparents, Then it became a bit of a legacy project, and it was it was easier to raise the money, and it was going to be, really transformative for the town of Titan. It would give people a reason to come here any day of the year, drive around, admire these fruit labels

Scott Cowan [00:31:25]:

Mhmm.

Ed Marquand [00:31:25]:

And so on. If nothing else is open, the fruit labels are entertainment enough. So that project took about two, two and a half years. We completed it.

Scott Cowan [00:31:35]:

And how many how many of those?

Ed Marquand [00:31:36]:

There’s seven. Seven. Seven of those mosaics. And they look great, and people love them. Mhmm. It’s fun to watch people take selfies in in front of them. One of them, we had to do a Kickstarter campaign. But, anyway, the community was just really really terrific and and very pleased with the result.

Ed Marquand [00:31:59]:

And then after that was completed, we heard about a contract through Sound Transit in Seattle in Seattle Mhmm. To produce mosaics for a station in Redmond. And that’s the project we’re in the middle of right now. It’s a big project. There are five people working pretty much full time in the studio. We have about 11 of them done to date. They just really they look so great. And when they’re when they’re done, they’re going to be great advertising for the town of Tieton, but also Tieton Mosaic.

Scott Cowan [00:32:43]:

So when you gave me a quick tour through the area before, those are with different they’re different artist designs. Correct?

Ed Marquand [00:32:49]:

And there Yes.

Scott Cowan [00:32:49]:

Other are they Washington State artists that were awarded these?

Ed Marquand [00:32:53]:

Yes. They were and for the most part, they’re King County well, there’s I think I think Seattle and Tacoma Artists were the six who were selected by Sound Transit.

Scott Cowan [00:33:07]:

Okay. So

Ed Marquand [00:33:08]:

we’re not doing the design work on those, we’re doing the production. Right. So Sound Transit selects the artist and then we collaborate with the artist to take their ideas, which were, for the most part, paintings or graphics, and translate them into the form where they can be, glass mosaics.

Scott Cowan [00:33:30]:

Okay. In what you showed me, those are very interesting as well. But the the apple boxes, I think, are really I mean, I just think they’re very Yeah. You should I should keep doing more of those.

Ed Marquand [00:33:43]:

Well Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:33:44]:

I know.

Ed Marquand [00:33:44]:

If there are fruit families around who wanna commission us, we’re more than happy to

Scott Cowan [00:33:48]:

We’ll put a link in the show notes for that.

Ed Marquand [00:33:50]:

Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:33:55]:

Oh, you opened a Mercantile? Yep. Yep. Did I tell you my my observations when I went in the first time? So when I went in the first time, I was looking around,

Ed Marquand [00:34:08]:

and I was, oh, this is in

Scott Cowan [00:34:09]:

in interestingly curated selection of items. What on earth is Filson doing in here? Who’s gonna buy Filson up here?

Ed Marquand [00:34:19]:

That was

Scott Cowan [00:34:19]:

this is my initial thought. You’re smirking. Yeah. And I’m standing around. I’m just, you know, looking at this, and I’m like, this is cool, but Filson? I mean, really? Three people walk in from across the street from the gallery. Seventies age. A little older than me. Guy’s walking around.

Scott Cowan [00:34:40]:

Next thing I know, he’s got a Filson vest up at the counter. He goes and he and he was it was comical because he said something, and I I don’t have the exact words, but he says something like, well, what my sweater that I’m wearing now, I bought at a thrift store twenty years ago for, you know, 10¢ or something. It’s time for me to get a new one. And he bought a Filson vest. And I just thought, okay. So never judge a book by its cover. I mean, that was but it’s a very interestingly curated, selection of goods. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:35:06]:

How has that been received? I mean, obviously, you’re selling filth and wealth, but I mean, how has that how has that been?

Ed Marquand [00:35:11]:

Yeah. Well, the my my partner, Mike, is, pretty stubborn. And, we he he early on bought that building without even telling me. And I I just the building to me just looked like such a mess. And I just thought this is a tear down and I was a little annoyed that he bought this building. It was, you know, it was super cheap, but it was gonna cost a small fortune to to fix up and to turn it into anything because it had gone through so many iterations. None of them Removable?

Scott Cowan [00:35:52]:

Yeah. None of them none

Ed Marquand [00:35:53]:

of them improving the space. And he he got annoyed with me. He says, oh, you know, forget it. We’re never gonna have enough money to tear it down and build something new. So let’s just let’s rip the ceiling off, see what the bones of the building are like Okay. And, see what we have. And I said, okay. You’re on.

Ed Marquand [00:36:13]:

So, we yanked off the the crappy, you know, the ceiling stuff with the Jesus dust and everything. Ripped that off, and turns out it was actually a really great building. It had heavy timber, had these great posts, it, you know, tall enough ceiling, but it was just built. It was just so rugged and it completely changed our attitude about the building. We had to change we had to, you know, replace the windows, replace the roof, put in heat.

Scott Cowan [00:36:53]:

Did he tell you I told you so?

Ed Marquand [00:36:55]:

He didn’t have to. Okay. I’m I’m pretty good at admitting when I’m totally wrong because he’s almost always right. Okay. But then we fixed it up and then thought, well, you know, wouldn’t it be nice to have a little shop here? We stumbled into, Craig Singer, who is a chef, but he also grew up in a family that had a fly fishing store. So he grew up in that little little world and he’s very involved in recreational equipment and camping and things. And so he ended up opening the little restaurant we have Mhmm. And taking it over.

Ed Marquand [00:37:44]:

And then he also, decided that he his merchandise what he would really like to do is start this little shop. So we started it. He started it. He’s the one who’s made all the connections with Filson and Topo Design and Smartwool and all these companies. And, he that part of the store, that half of the store with all the cool cool, recreational equipment, that’s his deal. The other half is mine where we have some of the the merchandise that we make here, and we buy some merchandise in here. But it it really, was another light on in the square. Mhmm.

Ed Marquand [00:38:28]:

I think the the locals, certainly the people from Yakima, and the visitors we get from, out of town are kind of surprised and delighted when they come in the store. Because it’s it’s pretty quality,

Scott Cowan [00:38:42]:

you know,

Ed Marquand [00:38:43]:

it’s good stuff.

Scott Cowan [00:38:43]:

I didn’t know what to expect, you know, and and I walked in, I was like, wow, this isn’t what I expected.

Ed Marquand [00:38:49]:

Well, and if it’s if it’s any, of any interest, it consistently outperforms the Downtown Seattle shop.

Scott Cowan [00:39:00]:

Really?

Ed Marquand [00:39:00]:

Yep. Wow. That says as much about the condition of Downtown Seattle right now, but it it is, remarkable given that it’s only now open three days a week, that it does as well as it does. But at the same time, you know, we don’t have nearly the overhead here that we have in Seattle. And my partner and I work at the shop on weekends. Mhmm. I give tours from there and, you know, there’s a fair amount of interest in the region, about Titan. And this gives us a good platform to start from.

Ed Marquand [00:39:41]:

Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:39:44]:

I’m sorry. I’m my eyes are doing this really weird, like, prism prismatic stuff, and I’m just, like, trying to rub him here for a second.

Ed Marquand [00:39:51]:

You don’t get, migraines?

Scott Cowan [00:39:53]:

No. I don’t have a headache at all. It’s just

Ed Marquand [00:39:55]:

Yeah. I I know. It’ll go away in a minute or two.

Scott Cowan [00:39:58]:

Well, it’s been a few minutes of it. It’s like, this is weird. Okay. Sorry. Okay. Todd, cut that out. Please don’t let that go. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:40:05]:

This is the episode where Ed had no. Well, I wanna go back to your book binding. What would and so we’ve got the mosaics. We’ve got the mercantile. You’ve got your book binding. There’s Boxx Gallery in town. Mhmm. There’s another artist space where they rent artist space to studio or studio space to artists, not artist space to studios.

Scott Cowan [00:40:27]:

You’ve got the the converted Apple warehouse. Just out of curiosity, just to back that up for a second, that must have been a super smooth process to convert an old fruit warehouse into livable spaces. I mean, that no no problems there at all.

Ed Marquand [00:40:40]:

Well, it was actually easier than than, easier than you would think the architect Philip Christopheles had a very clear vision. It was not a fruit storage warehouse, it was a fruit transit warehouse.

Scott Cowan [00:40:58]:

Okay.

Ed Marquand [00:40:59]:

So it was two floors, 28,000 square feet, big big beams and timber masonry. Oh. And it was very easy the way the space was was divided up to imagine two story loft spaces, each one with about 1,400 square feet of space. Wow. The upstairs ceilings are 18 feet tall. The downstairs, ceilings are seven are 11 feet. But it that part was very easy to see. It was a very clean building.

Scott Cowan [00:41:35]:

Mhmm.

Ed Marquand [00:41:36]:

So the construction took a year. It, we used all local contractors, of course, because we want the jobs to stay in

Scott Cowan [00:41:47]:

Mhmm.

Ed Marquand [00:41:48]:

In town here. And, we’d hire any of them again. They did such a good job and I think they were really, they’d never worked on anything like it before, but they were very proud when it was when it was all done. The big warehouse was a cold storage warehouse. So there was, there were ammonia tanks and refrigeration equipment that needed to be got gotten out of there. There was old packing equipment that needed to be, gotten out. But it was a pretty clean building as well. In that space, we started having events, either community events like the the Holiday Crafts Bazaar.

Scott Cowan [00:42:32]:

Mhmm.

Ed Marquand [00:42:32]:

We had a couple of antique shows, but we also started having Day of the Dead events, the, annual open house. And then we realized that, we could really generate some money by renting it out for weddings, Quinceañera Mhmm. Corporate events, retreats, that sort of thing. Right. That has been, that was a very important source of revenue. COVID put, the kibosh on that, but we’re opening back up and, you know, that’s that business is coming coming back. But there’s a real need in the Yakima area for interesting flexible spaces. I think it’s a popular venue because every couple who comes in for a wedding can decorate it the way they want.

Ed Marquand [00:43:26]:

They’re not limited by, you know, either hotel convention rooms or whatever. They’re it’s a really it is a warehouse. So, they can pretty

Scott Cowan [00:43:40]:

much do what they need. It’s a blank slate.

Ed Marquand [00:43:41]:

Yeah. Yeah. But it’s been a a pretty popular venue, and, we’re definitely going to keep that going and, continue to ramp up that business.

Scott Cowan [00:43:55]:

What, if any, involvement do you have in the Grand Prix?

Ed Marquand [00:44:01]:

The Grand Prix, the the cycle carts, is, coming back next year Excellent. After a two year hiatus. But the Tieton Grand the Tieton Grand Prix consists of, handmade cycle carts that have, six horsepower pressure washer motors. And they’re they’re all handmade. They’re all hand machined. They bring in the group is based in Seattle, but we have drivers who fly in from New Zealand and Great Britain and Canada and all over the country, and ship their cars here. And Tieton was the first town to to give this group permission to race on city streets. So, it’s it’s a super fun, great activity.

Scott Cowan [00:45:05]:

Well, how did were you involved in bringing it here?

Ed Marquand [00:45:08]:

I mean A friend of mine.

Scott Cowan [00:45:09]:

A friend

Ed Marquand [00:45:09]:

of yours. He was,

Scott Cowan [00:45:13]:

Yep. I can’t lay you off the hook that easy. I I need to know more about it because I I was when I was over at the the Mercantile, I love the posters.

Ed Marquand [00:45:19]:

Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:45:20]:

I ended up buying a couple of the posters because I thought they were so awesome. So these are six horsepower pressure washer motors. Everything’s handmade. Yeah. And they race around the square?

Ed Marquand [00:45:31]:

They race around town with the square being the the primary circuit. That’s where they start. That’s where they finish. And these cars are pretty powerful. They can go up to, on a straightaway, 45, 50 miles an hour. The thing that I like about this group is that they are very very, conscious of safety. They’re a very funny group of guys and women, and some of the women have actually won more of the trophies than the the guys. But there is one trophy you don’t wanna win, and that’s the jerk trophy.

Scott Cowan [00:46:19]:

The jerk trophy.

Ed Marquand [00:46:20]:

And if you are unsafe in anything you do Oh. You are a candidate for winning that trophy. And if you do, you’re not allowed back and you’re not allowed to continue to race.

Scott Cowan [00:46:33]:

So do they issue that trophy every year or is it as warranted? As warranted. Okay. I’ll just take it.

Ed Marquand [00:46:39]:

Yep. But if your if your wheels, say on a bank turn, if your wheels lift off the ground

Scott Cowan [00:46:44]:

Wait wait a second. There’s bank turns?

Ed Marquand [00:46:46]:

Well, if if you are banking around

Scott Cowan [00:46:48]:

a

Ed Marquand [00:46:48]:

turn a turn and you’re going too fast and your your two wheel wheels lift off the ground, busted. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Not okay.

Scott Cowan [00:47:00]:

So another thing so this intrigues me. I can’t wait to come and watch this in person because it just sounds so cool.

Ed Marquand [00:47:05]:

Well, in June. I think it’s the last I think it’s the last Saturday

Scott Cowan [00:47:08]:

in June. Yeah. But a local orchard, was there a race in a local orchard as well? Is that correct?

Ed Marquand [00:47:15]:

Yeah. They do that. That’s a private event on Sundays. And, yeah, the Campbell Orchards Yeah. Lets them just bang around out there. And that’s on Sunday because it is so hard on the cars.

Scott Cowan [00:47:34]:

They’re probably not gonna

Ed Marquand [00:47:35]:

Many of them are just wrecked by the end of the end of the day, and need a lot of rebuilding. But, yeah, cycle carts is a big event for us. We’ve also started Tour de Tieton, which is the weekend before, and it’s a 25 and a 50 mile, bike ride. And this year we’re adding gravel. So the gravel rides will be on some of the the great trails around here.

Scott Cowan [00:48:04]:

Goatheads included?

Ed Marquand [00:48:06]:

For some reason the the gravel well, yeah. We haven’t had any we if you stay away from the shoulders, the goat heads are manageable. Yeah. The thing that got me with that initial, the initial punctures, was that I rode into an abandoned parking lot.

Scott Cowan [00:48:29]:

Oh.

Ed Marquand [00:48:30]:

And the goat heads had really been allowed to take over and I’d never encountered a goat head before.

Scott Cowan [00:48:35]:

Have you ever stepped on them?

Ed Marquand [00:48:36]:

Yeah. Yeah. Lots turns out. Yeah. It turns out lots of times. Yeah. And they’re not Very

Scott Cowan [00:48:41]:

unpleasant.

Ed Marquand [00:48:41]:

They’re very unpleasant. Very unpleasant. And you see dogs occasionally that have stepped on one and they just freeze My lift their lift their paw.

Scott Cowan [00:48:50]:

Our our driveway would have some of them on there, and our dog would I’d be out walking the dog, and he’d just stop, pull the paw up, and be like

Ed Marquand [00:48:57]:

Yep. You

Scott Cowan [00:48:58]:

know, and then off, you know. But, yeah, he would he would just and stop. Yeah. Yeah.

Ed Marquand [00:49:03]:

They are diabolical. Yes.

Scott Cowan [00:49:07]:

What else is the town? So you’ve got you’ve got the Tour de Titan, you’ve got the the Grand Prix. What else what else goes on here?

Ed Marquand [00:49:14]:

Dia de los Muertos is is really a wonderful, event. That’s at the October. And that event just keeps getting bigger and bigger every year. We have a huge community altar, and people can bring photographs and little remembrances of of relatives or pets or friends who have died. We have Aztec dancers, we have dancing horses, we have lots of music. Valencia Lazo from Seattle, does a big sand painting. We have we have had, not with COVID, but we have had kids getting all made up as as skulls and, lots of costumes. That’s really a fun fun event.

Ed Marquand [00:50:07]:

The one in the first weekend in December is the Holiday Craft Bazaar and we have about 50 local craftspeople, small business people, and that’s a very very popular event with the with the community. LitFuse now, I think, is 13 years old. It’s a it’s an annual poetry workshop, and that happens at the September. But we’ve had, you know, MacArthur prize winning, poets teaching here. And, that’s really been a, that was a a pretty foundational event for us.

Scott Cowan [00:50:52]:

And how’d that get started?

Ed Marquand [00:50:55]:

An attorney, Mike works with he was a poet, and he just when we started talking about Tieton, he said, I’ve always wanted to do a a poetry festival. And here we are. And it’s Here

Scott Cowan [00:51:07]:

we are. Thirteen nights. Yeah.

Ed Marquand [00:51:08]:

Got real bragging rights there. And then, we also were able to attract, the artist Trimpin. And he has one of the old core cold storage rooms in the warehouse. And he’s filled it with his sculpture that makes music. Trimpin’s well known in the Seattle area for, having done a number of sound pieces, but the huge roots and branches piece at the Experience Music Project is is, the biggest piece. But he’s now living here. He too is a McArthur winner. And he now has a studio and a performance space where he can just realize many many of the ambitions he’s wanted to over the course of his career.

Ed Marquand [00:52:02]:

He’s also, starting to make connections with music programs in the area to help kids think a little little more broadly about music and composition and performance. So, he’ll bring a lot to the community.

Scott Cowan [00:52:20]:

That’s that’s awesome. Also, over in the cold storage, so you have a gallery. Right? Uh-huh. Yep. What’s what’s what’s the story there?

Ed Marquand [00:52:28]:

Well, the gallery, has been there from the beginning. Early on, we, started this this exhibition called 10 by 10 by 10. And, we put out a call. We get submissions from all over the country and and a few international submissions every year. It can be any medium, any any, any form. It can be sculpture. It can be two dimensional. But none of the dimensions can be over 10 inches.

Scott Cowan [00:52:59]:

So what was the inspiration for 10 by 10 by 10?

Ed Marquand [00:53:01]:

Well, it was 2010, and we just thought, well, it’s expensive to ship artwork generally. But if it’s only 10 inches it’s going to be affordable. We, have had great curators from museums around the country making the selection. This year, I think we had 890 submissions, and it was, juried down to about a 80. That’s pretty that’s pretty typical.

Scott Cowan [00:53:29]:

Look. Yeah. Because they’re small. You guys that sounds like a lot. It is, but they’re small.

Ed Marquand [00:53:34]:

They’re small. Yeah. Yeah. But, in terms of galleries, there’s another gallery right across from Tieton Made and Nomad Mercantile on the corner that, Michelle Wiles started, and it’s called Boxx Gallery. It’s a a community gallery. We we have a whole bunch of artists in the Yakima Valley and in the general in Ellensburg and general area. And they put on, shows that change, I think, 10 times a year. Mhmm.

Ed Marquand [00:54:07]:

It’s a volunteer gallery, but, percentage of their proceeds go to support the food bank, and the food bank shares the building

Scott Cowan [00:54:19]:

Mhmm.

Ed Marquand [00:54:19]:

With the gallery. So, you know, people like the idea of buying artwork that will help the food food bank, and the artists certainly like the idea of, of doing the same, but also having a venue to show their

Scott Cowan [00:54:33]:

I asked Michelle when I when I have it recorded with her, I asked her how to box with two x’s. I mean, and she get told me because they two x’s is a hundred, and they give approximately a hundred boxes of food a week. Ah. And I thought that was a really interest I I just like all of you around here seem to have these interesting, you know, tie ins on things, and I just think that’s really kind of

Ed Marquand [00:54:55]:

kind of kind

Scott Cowan [00:54:56]:

of cool. See. So I maybe I taught you something on this. I

Ed Marquand [00:55:00]:

there we go. To me. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:55:01]:

There we go.

Ed Marquand [00:55:02]:

News to me. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:55:04]:

We’re sitting in a restaurant. Closed. What’s the story here?

Ed Marquand [00:55:10]:

Well, Craig Singer is a trained chef and he just started toying with the idea of opening a restaurant, small restaurant that he could manage with a little bit of help, and present food of the type and quality that he didn’t think really existed in the Yakima Valley.

Scott Cowan [00:55:37]:

Okay.

Ed Marquand [00:55:38]:

It’s a small place. It seats maybe 20. Yeah. But it’s the food is locally sourced, it’s fresh, it’s very high quality, and he also has many connections in the wine industry from from Yakima. So, he’s always trying new wines and new offerings. And it’s it’s open generally three days a week. But one thing that has happened, good news bad news, his food is so good that he has a lot of jobs doing catering. And when he takes on catering events, he can’t be open in the restaurant.

Scott Cowan [00:56:22]:

Gotcha.

Ed Marquand [00:56:23]:

Catering events make a predictable amount of money. Running a restaurant, not

Scott Cowan [00:56:28]:

so much.

Ed Marquand [00:56:30]:

But it’s, it’s proved to be very popular with the with the locals and it’s, kind of nice again. One of the one of the, real part of the story with Tieton is if you create things that are unexpected discoveries

Scott Cowan [00:56:49]:

Mhmm.

Ed Marquand [00:56:50]:

In a town as small as this, the word gets out and the marketing happens pretty much on its own.

Scott Cowan [00:56:57]:

Very organic.

Ed Marquand [00:56:58]:

Very organic. Yeah. Yeah. But, stepping back a bit, there’s this whole idea of community and small agricultural towns surviving. And how do how do you think about what’s happening here to benefit the people who live here now, the kids who live here now? What what can happen here that couldn’t happen in other places that will actually allow the kids either to stay with their families and do something at a professional level, or that will attract them back if they go away to college and and wanna return. So there’s a big need in the area for coding for the agriculture industry. Turns out Yakima Ag has to farm out a lot of the coding it does to India. Well, that’s a huge huge opportunity.

Ed Marquand [00:58:09]:

For many of the families here with kids, if they have if the kids have a year or two years of basic coding experience under their belt, they can get hired immediately

Scott Cowan [00:58:22]:

Mhmm.

Ed Marquand [00:58:23]:

At much much higher wages than they could if they were doing some of the traditional labor in the area. So that presents some really interesting opportunities. I see the Mosaic studio blowing up. I think that that we could really be a pretty big industry here in this in this town in a matter of a few years once word gets out. I think recreation in this area is so robust and so high quality. We need some more hospitality. With a little more hospitality, we can keep the restaurant and the shop open seven days a week instead of three days a a week. Attracting people in the beverage industry to put a brewery in here.

Ed Marquand [00:59:10]:

Mhmm. A winery. What what does it look like if, we we really kind of build these, co op markets with with small businesses that people in town and in this area, can do with a little more support? But the thing that I see happening and the thing that concerns me so much nationally, politically, is this isolation and this insular attitude. They don’t want they they’re very protective. They want, their community to be their own little fiefdom. They want the political control. They want the school boards. It’s it’s blowing up with school boards right now.

Ed Marquand [01:00:02]:

They want local control. But in fact, the only way to really be successful is to be really good at connecting with needs from outside the area that can be fulfilled locally. And those relationships, I think, are essential to the long term success of small towns all across the country.

Scott Cowan [01:00:27]:

Well, you started with the connecting across the Cascades. Yeah. And that seems completely logical. Yep. Yep. Seems like a no brainer.

Ed Marquand [01:00:37]:

There’s a fear in small towns that people from outside the area wanna take over. In fact, they like I think that it’s kind of ingrained in the American ethos. They want small towns to survive and be successful. Mhmm. The people who feel that way don’t usually need to be there. They just can’t imagine America being America without small towns succeeding. And those resources are are very very real. And they’re being done for good reasons.

Ed Marquand [01:01:22]:

They want to be helpful. And once that message is communicated, and once the people in the town in these towns start benefiting from those connections, everybody wins. Everybody everybody, you know, everybody, everybody wins. Well,

Scott Cowan [01:01:54]:

absolutely. You wouldn’t have a a mosaic shop here if you were just doing mosaics in the Yakima Valley. No. It wouldn’t there’s not there’s not enough market for that. Right. So the jobs, the people you’re able to employ here be for the mosaic shop would be working somewhere else. Yeah. Maybe you have to leave the area if they, you know, but they wouldn’t be here with a trade.

Scott Cowan [01:02:18]:

Right. And I think craft and trade, I think that’s awesome. This little restaurant they were sitting in, which is not something I would imagine to be seeing in Tieton. I mean, this doesn’t look like, you know, the live edge tables and and all that wouldn’t be here. So I think what’s being done here is kudos. I really I really you know? And like like I said to you before, we hit the recording button. This is my third conversation now with people in Tieton. And it’s like I keep sharing it with my my friends that I’m like, you know, have you been there? And the answer, honestly, the answer’s, like, no.

Scott Cowan [01:02:54]:

Where’s Tieton?

Ed Marquand [01:02:55]:

Yeah.

Scott Cowan [01:02:55]:

It’s not like no one so far has gone, oh, yeah. I was up there. But they’re all like, no. Where’s Tieton? So it’s it’s kinda becoming my little mission to, like, go, okay. I gotta I’m gonna, like, let’s just get this out here to people that I know Yeah. When they come here, they’ll be very pleasantly surprised and pleased by the the whole nature of the the neighborhood.

Ed Marquand [01:03:17]:

Well, to to to that point, you know, I want people to know about Tieton. I like the idea of them coming and spending money and supporting, and there are people who say, well maybe I should move to Tieton. Maybe that’s a good good idea. And the the people I am particularly interested in attracting are the ones who are going to create jobs for the people who live here today. It’s that sort of thing. It shouldn’t be it should be how can I realize some creative commercial ambitions

Scott Cowan [01:03:57]:

Mhmm?

Ed Marquand [01:03:57]:

I’ve always wanted to do. How can I do them in Tieton? I was never able to do them in Seattle or Tacoma or

Scott Cowan [01:04:06]:

Portland. Wherever.

Ed Marquand [01:04:07]:

Portland. Wherever. Right. Yeah. And, you know, it’s it’s it’s been a lot of work. It’s been a lot of money that has come out of our own pockets. We don’t have kids, so I don’t have to put kids through college.

Scott Cowan [01:04:29]:

You’re not you’re not spending their inheritance? I’m not no.

Ed Marquand [01:04:32]:

No. Absolutely not. But, you know, it’s it’s, really been deeply creatively rewarding for us, and it’s it’s great to think about some of the ideas that will be coming up and coming online in the next couple of years.

Scott Cowan [01:04:54]:

Well, let me ask you this. What would you which what would you like to see? You know, set my fingers. We’re five years in the future now. We’re we’re re we’re coming back. We’re having another conversation. What would Tieton look like to you in five years if it was on that path? What more more businesses creating jobs for the locals.

Ed Marquand [01:05:13]:

Right.

Scott Cowan [01:05:14]:

What what else here though? I mean, what you know, you don’t I don’t as I’ve talked to you, I don’t get the the impression that, you know, well, let’s put a 12 story building here. That’s not, you know, it’s not the thing at all. It’s you wanna keep it kind of I I feel my interpretation. You wanna keep it around the town center, the the park, and all that. Keep this feel. Mhmm. But what is five years from now? What is it kind of, you know, forecasting out? What would you see?

Ed Marquand [01:05:39]:

Well, people often say that Tieton reminds them of Marfa, Texas. Marfa, Texas is definitely an art town that was the vision of Donald Judd, a sculptor who Okay. Had a very clear vision of how he wanted to transform an old army base into a world class installation contemporary art venue.

Scott Cowan [01:06:02]:

Never heard of this town.

Ed Marquand [01:06:05]:

In the art world it is Mecca. Okay. And jets fly in from Switzerland and all over the world to experience this. The difference between Marfa and, and Tieton is that it was very much the vision of one man in the art world, and he had a very clear idea of what he wanted to accomplish. He’s no longer alive, but as one of the guides on one of the tours I went on said, he micromanages from beyond the grave. But he had a very clear vision.

Scott Cowan [01:06:40]:

Okay.

Ed Marquand [01:06:41]:

With me, it’s much more organic. It’s other people’s ideas.

Scott Cowan [01:06:45]:

Mhmm.

Ed Marquand [01:06:45]:

I I I really very much would like other people’s ideas to be realized. Sure. The big big insanely ambitious project that we, have obligated ourselves, involves a an enormous warehouse that we bought at an estate sale. It’s a 67,000 square feet. It’s, it needs a lot of love and, even more money. But keeping that part of the heritage of the town alive, keeping that that history and emotional attachment, but also keeping these spaces that when you go inside are so grand and so audacious, it’s hard to imagine you wouldn’t wanna try to preserve these things. These are amazing spaces. So, you know, what are some of the ideas? Well, the double barrel vault ceiling space will be great for weddings and for Quinceañera and trade shows and exhibits.

Ed Marquand [01:08:02]:

Downstairs, I could see having classrooms where we’re offering workshops, destination workshops in bookbinding, or letterpress printing, or or mosaic work, or cycle cart, fabrication construction. We also talk about, we’re going to need so much help with the renovation of that building, putting in a small trade school so that so that young people who are interested in going into the trades Right. Can actually work on the building as they’re learning real world experience

Scott Cowan [01:08:38]:

I love

Ed Marquand [01:08:38]:

that. Masonry and carpentry and so on. You know, the the, in the center part of the building, I badly wanna have a really good brewery and put on the Third Floor roof a beer garden. Be the nicest place it’d be the nicest place in the state, you know, to have a beer at the end of the day. So those are the sorts of ideas, you know, we we need, we need people coming in, we need investment, we need people who kind of share this general approach, and spirit. And, you know, if you can get your money back out, great, but if you’re realizing things that you’re really passionate about, there’s, there’s a lot of compensation in realizing your dreams.

Scott Cowan [01:09:38]:

I love that. I do. I think that’s a phenomenal philosophy to operate under.

Ed Marquand [01:09:46]:

It’s gotten me through this far.

Scott Cowan [01:09:50]:

Well, as we wrap this up, I feel like I’ve I’ve been asking this question a lot at the end. Well, I wait. Before we go there, I’m gonna ask you a couple of things. So what do you do in town when you’re not when you’re not working at your your studio? What what do you are you still riding your bike a lot?

Ed Marquand [01:10:07]:

Not a lot. I do it occasionally. I just recently I’ve just been taking, you know, long walks. It’s so beautiful around here and you can go through the orchards and it’s, you know, it’s such a handsome, quiet kind of place. But truth be told, I have enough balls in the air between the Seattle business and the businesses here. It’s seven days a week, you know. It’s, but again, these are all things I’ve cooked up, I’ve dreamt up, and, it’s all work, but I can’t blame it on anybody else but But

Scott Cowan [01:10:44]:

you’re enjoying it for the most. Oh, I mean, there’s moments in given day, there’s a moment where you’re like, well, what have I done?

Ed Marquand [01:10:49]:

But Yeah. Okay. But everybody has those moments. Right.

Scott Cowan [01:10:53]:

So then to to to wrap this up, what didn’t we cover?

Ed Marquand [01:10:57]:

Well, you know, the thing that, I’m really proud of is how people in the area and people in the town in particular, were very puzzled when we started buying these buildings. The rumor was we were Microsoft millionaires and we were gonna, you know, who knows we were gonna bulldoze everything and do this and do that. And, but mostly, they weren’t they weren’t hostile. They were just puzzled. They didn’t quite

Scott Cowan [01:11:36]:

Well, you’d said they’ve been vacant for a decade. Yeah. So why now? After a you know, after a decade, you’re like, what?

Ed Marquand [01:11:43]:

And they they they thought, well, you know, we couldn’t think of how to get the bowling alley back. If there are some other ideas that can at least turn the lights on again Mhmm. Then great, you know? So they’re curious and, of course, small town rumors and all that stuff. But, nobody was ever belligerent, and for the most part people were really very supportive and encouraging. But when things started to look better, when it seemed like the town wasn’t headed downhill

Scott Cowan [01:12:21]:

Mhmm.

Ed Marquand [01:12:21]:

And it was starting to really feel like there was a future, they started doing things to improve the town or their yards

Scott Cowan [01:12:34]:

Okay.

Ed Marquand [01:12:34]:

Or the the the involvement, a little bit themselves. I really like it when old timers here, old orchardists, or people who have been here for a couple of generations come and say, you know, we just wanna thank you. You know, it’s nice to know that the town has a future.

Scott Cowan [01:13:00]:

Yeah. K. Well, I I know I’ll be back. Good. And so I thank you.

Ed Marquand [01:13:07]:

For cycle carts if you think

Scott Cowan [01:13:08]:

I god. I can’t I that’s just that looks so just from the posters, I’m like, that just looks like such a cool idea.

Ed Marquand [01:13:18]:

Yeah. It’s it’s really fun.

Scott Cowan [01:13:19]:

And so I’m looking forward to to seeing that. And I just yeah. I just I’m really I’m this this little community speaks to me. I don’t know how else to say it. I I can’t come up with another another term, but I I have been talking about this town to pretty much anybody that listened to me, for the last two or three months. And, yeah, I’m excited to see see how it continues.

Ed Marquand [01:13:46]:

Well, it’s it is, the work of many, many, many people, and I am all often pushed out there as the front man, and I’m happy to perform that role. But without that initial group of people Right. Small business owners, without the city of Tieton, without the the our our business neighbors here in the area

Scott Cowan [01:14:08]:

Mhmm.

Ed Marquand [01:14:09]:

Without the support of of people like Rob and Michelle and the other or the Campbells Mhmm. Other orchardists in the area, there’s no way we could have done any of this. So it really, I think if if anything, perhaps I’ve provided some creative leadership, and some vision. But people will respond if the idea is good, if it if it makes sense, you know, people will respond in a in a positive way. And I appreciate every single bit of help they’ve offered along the years.

Scott Cowan [01:14:48]:

Okay. Well, thank you for making this happen.