Home of: Delbert Bontrager

In a time that many economic experts are calling the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, some Lake County residents know that they can always count on one place to stay affordable.

Old-fashioned bicycles line the walls of The Mission General Store in St. Ignatius. Many of the store’s employees ride the bicycles to and from work. A black, horse- drawn buggy is tied to a metal post in the parking lot, away from the automobiles.

The owners, Delbert and Ruth Ann Bontrager are part of the Mission Valley Amish community. They were inspired by friends to start a country store that offered quality foods at discount prices.

Most of their employees are Amish and they desire to someday have a family-run store.

Delbert and his wife were both raised in Northern Indiana. They moved to the Mission Valley in 1988.

“I had a friend living in Montana, and he told me they had snowball fights in May,” Delbert recalls. “That always stuck in my mind. I wanted to find out why there were snowballs in May.”

Once Delbert made his way to Montana, he was instantly drawn to the mountains. He is an outdoorsman who enjoys hiking and fishing.

The Mission General Store started out as a discount grocery store, but has grown over the years.

“We offer food that we as Amish people grew up with and that we want to introduce to people out here in the West,” Delbert said.

The store’s new deli filled with more than 40 different types of meats and cheeses offers the opportunity to experience the old-style Amish foods. The deli offers many traditional meats not available in many stores. The Virginia ham and Lebanon bologna are cooked in a way that is seldom done anymore.

Cheeses offered include garden vegetable, Gueten sharp habanero cheddar and smoked cheddar. Many of the meats and cheeses come from Holmes County, Ohio, which is in the northeastern part of the state and has a large Amish population.

Though Delbert said the unique new deli is doing well, most customers visit the Mission General Store for its discount groceries.

 This might be one reason this general store hasn’t been hit as hard as others in the recent years of economic trouble.

Delbert said that as stores around him suffered dropping profits, his business steadily grew.

The Mission General store  offers more than 100 different bulk food items, including flour, sugar and spices.