For more than a century, if you needed a hunting license, a pair of ski boots or a new fly rod in western Montana, there was a good chance you bought it at Bob Ward’s. That name is now fading from the map. The Bozeman store is set to close in December so it can be remodeled and reopened under the Al’s Sporting Goods banner, the latest step in folding the chain into the Utah company that bought it four years ago.
Here is a look at where Bob Ward’s came from, how it changed hands and what the shift means for shoppers.
A Klondike detour that ended in Missoula
The company traces its start to 1917 in Missoula. Its founder, Robert C. Ward, was a Minnesota native who came to Montana in 1900, by the company’s own telling, on his way to the Klondike gold fields. He never made it to the Yukon. He stayed in Montana instead, and the sporting goods business he started grew into a family operation that would span four generations.
Ward and his wife raised six sons, and the business passed down through the family over the decades that followed. By 2022, great-grandson Chad Ward was serving as president, and the chain had grown to five stores: Missoula, Bozeman, Butte, Helena and Hamilton.
The store addresses became familiar landmarks in their towns: 3015 Paxson St. in Missoula, 3011 Max Ave. in Bozeman, 1925 Dewey Blvd. in Butte, 3323 Dredge Drive in Helena and 1120 N. First St. in Hamilton. Each carried the mix that made the chain a fixture in Montana: firearms and ammunition, fishing gear, camping equipment, ski and snowboard shops, footwear and outdoor clothing, plus the hunting and fishing licenses that brought many customers through the door every fall.
The 2022 sale
In October 2022, Al’s Sporting Goods, a family-run retailer founded in Logan, Utah, in 1921, announced it had acquired all five Bob Ward’s stores. At the time, Al’s leadership framed the purchase as a pairing of two long-running family businesses. “We have approached this deal more like a merger than an acquisition,” Al’s executive Jason Larsen said in the 2022 announcement.
For a period after the sale, the Montana stores kept the Bob Ward’s name. That has changed over the past two years. The Butte store closed in 2024 and the Helena store closed in 2025, according to local coverage of the chain’s changes.
Bozeman closes in December, then reopens as Al’s
The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported this month that the Bozeman location will close in December for remodeling and then reopen as an Al’s Sporting Goods store. In a statement to the paper, Osten Rasmussen, Al’s vice president of store operations, said the company is committed to continuing to serve Bozeman customers once the remodel is finished.
Al’s now operates eight stores along with an online store, according to the company. The Bozeman change is part of a broader move to bring the Montana locations under a single brand and store format.
For shoppers, the practical questions are fairly simple. Customers who rely on the Bozeman store for licenses, ski tuning or firearm transfers will need to plan around the closure window this winter, and should check with the store directly about gift cards, layaways and service orders before it closes. Montana hunting and fishing licenses remain available online through Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and through other license providers during the closure.
Why it matters beyond one store
Bob Ward’s was one of a dwindling number of independent, Montana-owned outdoor retailers that could compete with national chains on selection. For generations of Montanans, it was where kids bought their first fishing pole and where hunters gathered before opening day. The Missoula store on Paxson Street, near the Southgate Mall area, became a destination for shoppers from across the region.
The sale to Al’s kept the stores in the hands of a family-run, Mountain West company rather than a national chain, a point both families emphasized in 2022. But the rebranding underlines how hard it has become for regional sporting goods businesses to stay independent as online retailers and big-box stores take a larger share of the market.
The Ward family’s century in Montana retail is a reminder that many of the state’s best-known businesses began as one person’s gamble. In Robert C. Ward’s case, that gamble started with a man who set out for the gold fields of the Yukon and decided Missoula was far enough.