The Brown Elephant Pawn Shop opened in early April on Round Butte Road in Ronan.

Local ranchers Kale Gardner and Ernie Moran are co-owners of the shop. An associate, Aram Wright, who Gardner grew up with and considers a little brother, will also be working in the store.

“What we’re going for is to have quality stuff here,” Gardner said. “We’ll buy, sell and trade, and loan money.”

They want their shop goods to be accessible, and plan to keep the display areas open and not congested.

Gardner said he and Moran thought the big sellers would be power tools and chainsaws, but that hasn’t turned out to be the case. Beadwork, which they’ve got “a pile of” according to Gardner, and pocketknives, fishing poles, and blankets have all been selling well. They sell at least two pairs of beaded earrings daily, he noted.

Also the clientele is different than Gardner imagined.

“There’s been way more women in here than I thought there would be,” he said. “It’s about 50/50 women and men.”

Moran didn’t think vinyl records would sell, but people have purchased a lot of them and seem to be drawn to the album cover art. The Brown Elephant also bought a record player to test out the vinyls.

Moran and Gardner bought the building intending to use it as a rental, but they decided being a landlord was too complicated so they decided to try a pawn shop. Since the inside of the building was coated with concrete dust, scraps of wood and chunks of concrete, it took about two months to get the interior in the shape it’s in today.

In addition to the large main shop, there is a furniture room where they have vintage and antique items and the jewel of their collection, a celadon green 1940s dentist’s cabinet. There’s also a kitchen and storage rooms.
 The duo applied for a federal firearms license, and they are completing the paperwork which will allow them to sell guns in about a month.

“The goal for us is to have Aram getting comfortable and fully running the place so we can go buy our treasures,” Gardner said. He and Moran both have “an addiction to auctions and buying stuff.”

Moran said he’s especially drawn to vintage goods. “I love old stuff; I have ideas for old things.”

Gardner is a firearms man, but he also has an eye for vinyl records and one-of-a-kind items to display, like vintage signage from the old Aces High Bar in Missoula. The partners plan to buy and sell for reasonable prices and may venture into estate sales to fatten up their inventory.

Since the television series “American Pickers” came along, more people are interested in vintage items.

The Brown Elephant is located at 39358 Round Butte Road in Ronan. It’s open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.