Family run cherry stand a St. Regis institution

What started as a cooler of cherries and a bucket of ice over two decades ago has now blossomed into a prosperous family run business and a town institution.

Almost as synonymous as the tamaracks fading from green to gold in the fall, so too is the arrival of the St. Regis Cherry Stand ushering in the season of summer and tourism.

For the Lopez family from Wapato, Washington, an arid cherry growing mecca just south of Yakima, their other home is the small town tucked away in the Montana mountains. Twenty-four years ago, Victor Lopez told his sister to come and try selling cherries in the little town at the junction of Interstate 90.

Victor recalled, “I told her you should come to St. Regis, every time I pass through there and get gas, there are always a whole bunch of people that stop. Go there to sell, cherries. It’s far enough away from the Flathead.”

But as luck would have it, she never listened to him.

Picking and selling cherries at a stand in Polson, Victor wasn’t generating enough income for him and his family. He said, “I told my boss, only selling 13 to 14 boxes, I’m not gonna survive here. Only two or three hours of selling a day. If this is going to be like this, I’ll just head out.”

Victor offered to his boss, “Why not pick 50 boxes, and then I’ll get a motor home, make some signs, get a cooler, and a table and some chairs. If we do good, then you can sell cherries to me?”

So, Victor and his wife Maria picked 40-50 boxes and set out for St. Regis. They chose the southwest corner of the four-way stop and crafted a makeshift stand on a Friday night. Selling went well through the weekend, but on Monday Victor said, “A state guy came over and said we needed to move our stand, or they’d call the sheriff. We only had a few boxes left, but we got scared and figured we’d just leave those cherries and not sell no more.”

The state department worker explained the boundary lines of where the highway property ended and the parking lot of the Super 8 began, just behind a fence line. He suggested that the couple go ask Pat Jasper, the owner of the motel is she’d mind letting them sell on the edge of her lot.

Victor remembered, “So I sent my wife. Go and ask these guys if we can sell here. She was like ‘no, no, no!’ She was scared.” He laughed, “You go, you’re a woman, they’ll probably let you. But not me if I ask.”

Jasper kindly obliged, and from that day the Lopez family not only cultivated a profitable business in town but also a multitude of friendships. Over the years they began renting the space from the start of June through Labor Day most summers. Their selling period dictated by the cherry crops is influenced by the weather. 1997 was their first whole summer season spent in the tiny tourist crossing.

The Lopez family has five children, Victor, 28, twins Vanessa, and Yesenia, 25, Miguel, 21, and Adrian, 10. This summer their 13-year-old cousin is helping at the stand, Oscar Lopez.

Vanessa is one of the few remaining siblings that continues to work the stand along with her father. She shared, “We started out really small, and year by year it’s really changed. Our whole setup is different and so much better. We’ve gotten a lot of friendships here, so many people who have helped us. We love it here.”

But to provide locals and travelers with the cherries they love, the Lopez family puts in long hours and very hard work. Victor will return to Washington to harvest one to two times a week, picking the cherries himself, and driving six hours each direction.

Victor explained, “I’ll get here at three in the morning, I have to unload the van, and get the cherries refrigerated. With cherries it takes longer cause I’ve got to be careful, got to take my time because it’s bumpy, got to take care of the cherries. The load is heavy, and it won’t stop quickly. I’ve been doing a good job for many years, no accidents.”

Vanessa said, “He’s got so much work put into him, he looks older than he is, at 53. He is the one who does everything, he buys the containers, he brings them here. On Thursday he picked cherries early in the morning packaged them all up and then he starts sorting.”

With the Lopez family’s dedication and longevity, they have reaped a bounty of loyal followers. Vanessa described, “We have customers that come every single year to our stand. They’re like our grandparents watching us grow up. They’re the ones on family trips, going back and forth to summer homes, and visiting Glacier.”

Over the past two decades patrons of the stand have watched the Lopez children grow up, and the Lopez family has watched the town of St. Regis gradually change. The property at the four-way stop has evolved into a manicured landscape, which has been a front yard of sorts to the Lopez children. Little swimming pools, bicycles, baseball bats, and Boston terriers adorn the cherry stand lawn.

This has often been a signal to tourists that they were at the right cherry stand. Vanessa shared, “We’ve gotten competition at other exits now, and when they stop, they’ll ask where are the dogs, and the kids running around? Then they’ll jump back on the freeway until they find our exit. Usually they are looking for us.”

Vanessa and her siblings grew up participating in every aspect of the cherry stand business. Around eight years old they started selling to customers. She said, “We used to give out change and they wouldn’t trust us, they’d be looking for our parents. They didn’t think we’d be able to count it back to them; they were super impressed.”

But now Vanessa works as a dental assistant in Seattle after graduating from University of Washington. Her other siblings have all went their separate ways joining the workforce as well. She came this summer to once more help out her father. She shared, “Dad always said go to school, get a degree and not have to work as hard as I did. Get a good degree and get paid for something decent. I may not be around many more summers.”

Victor and Maria Lopez were unable to complete their education, but their grit and determination has grown them a lifetime of success. Vanessa expressed, “It’s so impressive, both my parents didn’t finish high school and for them to know as much as they do, and learn the business side of everything, it makes us very proud.”

Victor is originally from a small town outside of Puerta Vallarta, Mexico. He said, “My parents took me out of school cause they saw good money in me. Since I was 10, I was a hard worker. My mom used to fry tacos and she’d have me go sell them in the street. Go from house to house, and go to the bars, I’m a good salesman, that’s how I got it here.”

Now every December the Lopez’s return to Puerta Vallarta for a month to spend time with family and rest after their grueling summer pace. This year has been especially hard on Victor as he struggles through the cherry season with a serious shoulder injury, he anticipates needing surgery sometime in the fall to repair his rotator cuff.

This summer with the pandemic the Lopez family only lost about a week of the selling season, since the quarantine restrictions ended on June 1. For the most part things feel normal for the Lopez family, the stand opens every morning at 8:30 a.m. and closes at dark. They work 14-hour days or sometimes longer.

Vanessa said, “Some people knock on the camper door in the middle of the night, ‘just passing by can I get some cherries?’ We tell a lot of people too that we are really flexible, if you are driving through just knock, we live here. We don’t mind waking up.”

For 23 years now they have not been closed one day during the summer. But Victor has relaxed a bit, in the past few seasons he’s allowed the family to close early one day a week to explore this part of the state that they call their other home. Just last August the Lopez family went to Glacier for the first time.

With summer in full swing, the cherry stand’s busiest day is the third of July, almost like Christmas Eve. Victor laughed, “It’s totally crazy! Everyone is getting ready for family gatherings, get their cherries, ready for BBQs. We don’t even have time to eat that day!”

It’s uncertain how much longer the stand will make its annual appearance at the one red light corner in St. Regis.

Vanessa noted, “No generation coming up in a few years, everyone is going their own way. When Papa is done, things are going to shut down completely.”

But Victor reassured, “As long as I’m alive, if not Vanessa, somebody else can help me out.”