Opechee Trading Post

"It's not about the money," said Jim Makris, who recently remodeled and reopened the Opechee Trading Post. "It's about the community and the tradition."

When Makris acquired the historic little property and business on the shore of Lake Opechee last August, he needed no reminder of the legacy he had purchased, but found them all around him just the same. "When I went to register the trade name," he recalled, "the girl at the Secretary of State's office said 'that's one of the oldest trade names in New Hampshire.'" While cleaning out the basement, Makris found a bunch of newspaper clippings, among them a photograph from 1972 of two anglers outside the store with a string of trout and salmon. "That's me," he remarked, "at 25."

For 60 years, the Opechee Trading Post was a monument to the Cottons, Mert and Barbara, who opened the store in 1945. Mert ran the business while Barbara ran the Gale Memorial Library. Both were avid — and accomplished — fly fishermen. The shop was a magnet to neighborhood kids. "We used to catch crawfish and Mert would buy them, and he always paid us more than they were worth," remembered Alan MacRae, as he photographed the shop and owner. "He bought bait from every kid in the neighborhood," Makris chimed in. "If a fish would eat it, he would buy it."

An enthusiastic fisherman, Makris met the Cottons shortly after moving to Laconia in 1970. "Mr. Cotton let me fish off his dock," he said. "They had a sign that said keep off the dock," recalled MacRae, "but, if you asked, Mert always said 'yes.'"

When Mert passed away in 1985, Barbara, whose proficiency with a fly rod earned her a salmon streamer bearing her name, took over the store until her death last September at 96.

Makris, who called himself a "semi-retired safety engineer," began talking with Barbara and her son John about buying the store in 2004. "There were others who wanted the property," he commented, "but they wanted to knock down the store and build a house. I wanted to reopen the business. I'm lucky and privileged to be the one who ended up with it," Makris said.

Last winter Makris remodeled the store, which retains its age-old character while reflecting the taste and skill of carpenter Jack Iby. The dropped ceiling was removed and the entire interior paneled in tongue-and-grooved pine. The original flooring and cabinetry remain.

Makris, who has collected antique fishing tackle and hunting gear for 25 years, has put some of his collection on display and on sale, lending the shop a vintage ambiance. Minnow buckets, creels, reels, snowshoes, and decoys line one wall. There are lures, used by ice fishermen on the Great Lakes to attract pike, muskies and lake trout within range of their spears along with the heavy iron tridents they hurled at them. "They outlawed it," Makris remarked, "because they wounded too many fish." A wooden canoe hangs above the front door.

Makris said that he will feature fly fishing and fly tying as well as offer canoes and kayaks for sale. He purchased the Cotton's inventory, which included dozens of flies and streamers by Jim Warner of Wolfeboro, whose work has been prized for half-a-century, and 1,500 dozen hooks of various sizes and weights. "I'm selling the inventory for the original price," Makris said. "That $2 tag is Barbara's handwriting." He also intends work with certified instructors in the area to offer lessons in both typing and casting flies.

In two ways, the store will change. "The Cottons were the oldest Orvis dealers in the country," Makris said. "But, Barbara gave it up. Freshwater Boats and Outfitters took it on, but they went out of business." Makris said that representatives from Orvis have indicated the company wants its dealers to carry the entire line of Orvis products, including clothing. "I haven't got room for all that," he remarked, glancing around the small shop.

"And no bait," Makris said. "Everybody who ever fished bought bait here, but I don't want to be here at four in the morning selling bait. Nightcrawlers!" he declared. "That's all!"

The Opechee Trading Post is located on Opechee Street, just off the intersection with Messer Street.