Our Story
Dale Pack Station started in 1966 as a saddle and leather repair shop in the basement of our ranch home just north of Yakima, Washington. This shoe string business slowly migrated to horse and mule pack equipment with our Deckers as the anchor. The leather work was done in the basement while our living room held large rolls of canvas because our living room floor was the only space large enough to roll out the heavy canvas duck. Around 1975 we had our first mail order catalog of pack equipment printed and started selling nationwide. Business picked up quickly to the point that we had no room to function. About 1977 we had a 3,000 sq. ft. shop built on the ranch for building the pack equipment. We were tickled with all the room which quickly evaporated as we purchased more machinery and built up a large inventory of raw materials. All the while the business was growing.
Now, you’re saying to yourself, holy smokes, this is the American dream. I forgot to mention that I had shod horses since I was 17 years old and during this business building period, I operated a shoeing shop at our ranch (this was before they got fancy and started calling them farrier shops). Basically during this period, I shod horses during the day and built horse and mule pack equipment by night. So, when did I sleep? Didn’t. The joke was that we built and sold pack equipment in the six figures each year but I shod horses so we could eat. That American dream don’t come easy, pardner. Eventually Dale Pack Station became a sustainable business and one Sunday afternoon after coming in from the shoeing shop, I said to my wife, Cheryl, “I shoe horses all day, I build pack equipment all night, I’ve shod 56 head this week, next person that calls for shoeing, I’ve retired”.
Well, that was the beginning. For about the next 25 years we built pack equipment big time via mail order with several paper catalogs and never saw the bottom of the stack of orders.
In the winter of 05-06 we decided it was time to cut back and notified past customers that we would be building only Decker pack saddles effective March 15, 2006. We were flooded with orders prior to the deadline and it took us until October of that year to fill them all.
We started young and have grown older building horse and mule pack equipment. It’s been good to us and we expect to continue building Decker pack saddles til we can’t do it any longer. Simple as that.
Well friend, that’s our story, thanks for your ear. If you’re in the need of a quality Decker saddle…….we’ve been building them for a good many years now, we know what we are doing, we do a good job of it, and when we complete a Decker pack saddle and ship it, our reputation goes along with it. And to us, that means everything.
Some time back a gentleman visited our shop and introduced himself as Stan Loewen. As we spoke he showed me a picture of himself and ten well dressed mules crossing the North Fork going to the “Bob” in Northwestern Montana. Stan was working for Paws Up Outfitters out of Greenough, Mt. at the time. I was so impressed by the picture, I asked if he would mind if I used it in a new catalog. He said sure. Well, we went with a web site instead. One nice picture, one nice feller. Thanks Stan.