The Tamarack is Waterton’s outdoor hub. Get geared up, Hire a Guide or hop on a Hiker Shuttle. We love where we live and want you to love it too!

The Tamarack has been locally owned and operated by the Baker family since 1922 and 6 generations have called Waterton home as year round residents.

Winters were slow but a community was established in Waterton and George eked out a Winter living. The business grew and between 1932-1938 George expanded the building to it’s current size; the building still stands as the Tamarack on Mount View Road. He began working with Imperial Oil (Esso) as a proper gas station, hosted the towns AGT telephone office, and grew the company into Park Transport Company, expanding it’s operations in to the running of various water craft on Upper Waterton Lake. He hauled freight to the head of the Lakes for both Parks Canada and the National Park Service in Glacier, Montana. By this point George was also a family man with his wife Betty and two sons Rae and Alfred. In 1939 the family bid on and won the concession rights to develop the Cameron Lake area for tourism services. They would operate this for the next 25 years, including log cabin rentals and an excursion boat, the Lady Cameron. The Park Transport building was ever growing, it became a GM dealership with a complete garage set up and a retail store selling hardware and sporting goods. 

George died in 1968 and left his business legacy to his sons. Rae and Alfred ran Park Transport Company status quo through the 1960’s and 70’s but by 1977 were heavier in to sporting goods and tourism related services.  They developed the building into the Tamarack Mall, the first seeds of the legacy Tamarack brand for the family. They bought the El Cortez Motel and by the early 1980’s got out of the trucking/ transportation service. Rae and his wife Shirley stayed in Waterton and raised a family of four children, Alfred and his wife Ella did the same. Rae bought Alfred out of the business in the early 1980’s and by then Rae’s son Brian and his wife Lauren were wholeheartedly involved. Through the next twenty years the Tamarack Mall would evolve. A shuttle and guiding company was started by Brian in 1979 called Mountain Sunset Tours.

Our History:

The Baker family is now in to it’s sixth generation of family members active in Tamarack business life. Our ties to Waterton are deep and historically meaningful to the early development of the Waterton townsite and the business community.

Since 1912 when William & Elsie Baker moved their family from England to the Waterton and Twin Butte area, the family saw opportunity and adventure in the beautiful Waterton valley. By 1922 William’s son George Baker had his first business venture and homestead in Waterton. The Park Transfer Company was born out of the noticed opportunity and demand for trucking of business materials in to the rapidly expanding Park.  “I was the business manager, front end man, mechanic and truck driver combined…I started work at 4 o’clock in the morning” he used to say.

The gas pumps were pulled in 2005 and Tamarack Outdoor Outfitters was born. At over 4000 square feet, it became (and still is) one of the largest independent outdoor retailers in Western Canada. The Baker family is proud of their long history in Waterton; Brian’s daughters Aynsley and Kelley are now putting their mark on the historical Tamarack brand.

In a 1952 Lethbridge Herald interview celebrating 30 years of business in Waterton, George stated that the Baker family had ‘the oldest business in continual ownership in Waterton.’ He expressed his pride and deep affection for the mountain town he called home. This year, 2023, after 101 years, the Baker family still holds tight to those emotions uttered by George years earlier. They have pride in their deep roots and the strong sense of community and business they been a part of for so many years.