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MARQUETTE — In 1984 Ray Nurmi officially opened Snowbound Books in downtown Marquette. For the past 35 years, people have found their favorite books on Snowbound’s shelves.
“When Ray first started the business, the summer that he opened, Third Street was dug up,” explains Dana Welshans, Owner of Snowbound Books. ”They decided they had to replace the water main. So, he had an open pit in front of the store for the first several months of the business and people still came. It was still important to them to go around all that orange tape and come to a bookstore.”
Even after 3 decades of business, Snowbound continues to thrive in downtown Marquette.
“We’ve survived when other people haven’t and that’s solely because people find us important and have supported us so wonderfully,” says Welshans.
With over 25,000 books in the store, each one hand-picked by a member of the staff, it’s no wonder that tourists and locals continue to come back.
“We have some tourists that come through once a year, every year. So we’ve gotten to see the families grow up. One thing that we find really touching is that they walk in, and they’re still grateful to be able to walk into an independent bookstore because their cities have lost their local bookstores, and once you lose them…they’re hard to get back,” says Welshans.
To celebrate 35 years of business, Snowbound Books is holding an all-day party at their store. Welshans says there will be prizes and gifts along with some author signed copies of first edition books. Dia de los Tacos food truck will also be parked out front selling food.
For more information on the event, click here.
