Rural shop specializes in rare books

If you’re looking for a 1833 edition of “Introduction to Geology” with hand-colored illustrations, Parkland Books has a copy.

The out-of-the-way book nook also has more than 12,000 other used, rare and out-of-print books, plus an unusual array of old collectibles and art.

Marge and Ed Rothfuss own and operate Parkland Books at 850 Lake Blaine Road as a part-time retirement business. They’re open just a few hours a week, from noon to 6 p.m. Friday through Sunday,

They don’t want to be tied down in the summer when there’s hiking and camping they could be doing instead, Marge explained as she tied up loose ends last week before the couple headed to Two Medicine in Glacier National Park.

While the Rothfusses’ collection is wide-ranging, there’s an obvious emphasis on national park books and publications that reflects Ed’s 34-year career with the National Park Service. He was superintendent of Death Valley National Monument when he retired in 1994.

Marge, who was once a librarian in Death Valley — “it was a really tiny library,” she said — started the bookstore in Las Vegas in 1992.

“I thought about what to do in retirement and took a course through the University of Colorado for potential book dealers,” she said.

The idea stuck and two years before Ed’s retirement, she moved to Las Vegas to get the business running. Ed joined her on the weekends.

When Ed retired, she hired him.

“He complains he gets no annual leave,” she said with a laugh.

Almost immediately they began specializing in national park publications using Ed’s knowledge and connections to search out collectibles. They bought the inventory from a used bookstore as their starter collection.

The couple had lived in the Flathead Valley through the 1970s when Ed was chief interpreter in Glacier National Park. They bought their farm near Creston — the old Reimer place — in 1976.

When they returned to the Kalispell area in 1998, they set up Parkland Books as a summer business.

“It’s a fun hobby,” Ed said about their part-time endeavor. “The store in Las Vegas, that got to be work.”

The Rothfusses return to Las Vegas for the winter months.

Parkland Books’ inventory is as varied as it is interesting. Subject matter runs the gamut, from rare books about the Civil War and railroads to old medical publications and vintage cookbooks. Collectible children’s books, old classics, art books and a smattering of books on religion, dance and music fill the shelves.

During the winter, they scour auctions and estate sales in the Las Vegas area. Ed buys a few things on eBay.

Among his prized collectibles is an assortment of National Park Service vintage window decals, each featuring an animal, that were given out at a dozen national parks.

Glacier Park’s sticker pictured a mountain goat; Yellowstone Park’s was a bison. The decals were used from 1918 to 1940 to alert rangers which visitors had paid their entrance fees.

Park visitors plastered the decals on their windshields as a source of pride, to the point where they became a safety hazard because they covered window space. Finding the decals in good condition is a rarity.

The Rothfusses do buy a few new books to sell, such as recently published “Alone with the Past: The life and photographic art of Roland W. Reed.” Reed, who lived from 1864 to 1934, was a professional photographer who lived with and photographed several American Indian tribes.

“It’s a wonderful profession,” Ed said. “We get to see some neat books.”

Parkland Books gets a variety of customers. Every year a caravan of Oregon State geology students makes the journey specifically to delve into the rare books.

“They have a ball,” Marge said. “They know how to shop, and they buy a lot of Glacier books.”

Canadians living on nearby Lake Blaine come calling from time to time, and neighbors from next-door newly built subdivisions also find their way across the field to the bookstore housed in a refurbished garage.

“It’s a nice, low-key operation,” Ed said. “It’s feast or famine it seems.”

Those who treasure rare and out-of-print books seem to find them.

The couple wonders how the upcoming closure of the Borders bookstore in Kalispell will affect their business. They often got customer referrals from Borders.

“We love the feel and smell of an old book,” Marge said. “There will always be people interested in those.”

Outside of the 18 or so hours the store is open each week — they’re open by appointment, too — the couple tends to their six burros and two horses, several of which are rescue animals. Ed was heavily involved in an effort to rescue and put up for adoption more than 6,000 burros in the Death Valley area.

At the moment, the Rothfusses are consumed with the last-minute preparations for their son Mark’s wedding, which will be held at their farm. They’ve been nurturing a special flower garden, planted to include an aisle, that will be used for the ceremony. The burros in the adjacent corral will have a ringside seat.

Parkland books is located at 850 Lake Blaine Road, one mile east of the junction of Montana 35 and Montana 206. Call 752-4464 or emailparklandbk@aol.com.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.