Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen introduces the latest installment of the Montana Business Spotlight series recognizing and highlighting local businesses across the Treasure State. This feature introduces Montanans to Berg Garage in White Sulphur Springs. Click the play button on the featured image above to watch the Berg Garage Montana Business Spotlight.
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, Mont. — The Berg Family knows a thing or two about providing great customer service.
For more than a century, Berg Garage has been in the business of serving Montanans in a variety of ways, including automotive services, propane and oxygen sales, wrecker services, and a even car dealership.
“Berg Garage was originally started in Martinsdale, Montana,” explained Jack Berg. “My grandfather, after World War I, came back and started working in that garage and then expanded up here to White Sulphur Springs. We actually had the garage in Martinsdale where the bar is now, that was also a Berg Garage. My grandfather was a very, very smart man, and he knew you had to have a broad range of things to make it all work together.
“Some of the pictures we’ve got here show him hauling telephone poles for the first electrification, coming up the Musselshell River into Martinsdale. He hauled elk to the Spring Creek Ranch up there for the elk exhibition that they did up there. And of course, being a railroad head in Martinsdale there, all that freight was coming in and he would haul freight, but he also had the garage and then the Chevrolet dealership from 1929 until 2010.”
A lot has changed in 100 years, although the tradition of friendly faces and hard-working employees has remained the same.
“We do propane and we do liquid fuels and mechanical repairs and wrecker service and oxygen sales. In our spare time we might find one or two other things to do,” laughed Berg.
“One of the cool things is grandpa’s diploma – he went to Inland Auto School in Spokane to learn the automotive trade – and in his diploma, it says he’s certified in the repair, construction, and driving of automobile cars,” continued Berg, “because, of course, the first people that were coming in (to Montana) were coming in a horse and buggy and he was having to show them the first driver’s education program in Montana to teach them how to drive cars. You think about the history of 100 years and that’s the kind of stuff that really does stand out – a lot of changes in a century.”
Berg says the garage has around nine or 10 people on staff to keep up with “all of the endeavors we’re doing.” Berg Garage opens its doors to folks in White Sulphur Springs and Meagher County right away in the morning and stays open until dinner time, offering the kind of service locals have grown accustomed to over the past 10 decades.
“We still pump gas for people when they pull up to the pumps, and then of course (our) wrecker service and that type of stuff calls you out in the middle of the night more often than not, too. So, it’s a very busy, busy place for sure,” said Berg. “It’s humbling, it really is. We know the customer is so important and the customer has to be taken care of. … We’re just trying to meet the needs of the community and I guess we’ve been fairly successful at it over a few years here.”
The not-so-secretive secret to Berg Garage’s success?
“Take care of the people. That’s, I think, ultimately how it works is if you’re going to take care of the people, they’re going to stay with you, and we’re so appreciative of that,” said Berg.
