There's Big Game in North Park and Even Bigger Roots
This article was written by Rosemary Knerr and published in Colorado Country Life in August 2015. We would like to share it again for two reasons. 1) It's a great article about a great local business and 2) They will reopen for the 2017 Season MAY 1, 2017-TOMORROW! So Happy May Day...go get your brats!
As a little girl growing up in Brooklyn, New York, one of my fondest memories was going to Henry’s Butcher Shop with my mother to get freshly ground beef, sausage and a variety of other meats and cheeses. Oddly enough, the butcher shop was a friendly , welcoming place- maybe because Henry would give us a weiner dog for sitting so quietly while Mom shopped. I can still remember the smell of sawdust on the floor as you opened the front door. This same feeling comes over me as I enter the doors to North Park Big Game Processing.
North Park Big Game Processing owners Chad and Chrissy Carlstrom and Nick Cornelison brought back that old butcher atmosphere to North Park and the Walden community. Just recently moving their business to Walden’s Main Street next door to Family Dollar, the Carlstroms and Cornelison hope to be the center for processing wild game throughout the hunting seasons. In addition, the butcher shop carries steak, sausage and other meat varieties for local retail sales.
Now you may wonder what brings young people back to their small home town community. Chad’s family is fifth generation in North Park and Nick’s family is seventh generation. Talk about roots- these families are deeply rooted. The Cornelison’s, its told, were one of the first settlers in North Park.
Chrissy explains, “Nick and Chad grew up in North Park and have been friends since they were very young and were roommates throughout college. All of us come from entrepreneur backgrounds. Nick owned his own construction business. Chad and I owned our own financial services business. Having hunted in North Park their whole lives, the guys always knew there was a need for a wild game processing business since a licensed facility did not exist in North Park. Both Nick and Chad grew up knowing how to process the meat from their own hunts, having learned from other family members over the years.”
This young trio came from similar backgrounds. Chad and Nick’s parents were from ranching backgrounds. Chrissy’s grandparents were hardworking farmers raising 12 children. Chrissy’s business sense stems from the days when she was only 12 and working part time in her mom’s pizza restaurant. That continued through her college years. Chrissy credits her mom and dad with teaching her how to run a small business, skills that she continues to use in the business today. “Those backgrounds have contributed immensely to our efforts today as business owners in North Park and we are all grateful for the roots we came from,” she said.
Recently, relatives of Chrissy chronicled their German-Russian heritage and wrote: “It is with extreme gratitude that our parents, grandparents and great grandparents went through immense hardships to make better lives for us. In doing so, they handed down qualities we cherish today: strong and honest work ethics, the appreciation and expertise of farming and gardening, the desire to take care of what we have, the love of community, the preservation and joy of old-world recipes and the resilience and mindset to overcome adversity.” These sentiments are bred in the hearts of Chad, Chrissy and Nick- it’s what coming back to your roots is truly about.
