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My Gander Man

ONALASKA - The big new Gander Mountain Co. store that opened last Sunday in Onalaska's Crossing Meadows Shopping Center is attracting customers with its expanded staff and merchandise selection, and the chain's soon-to-open second firearms academy.

The new 57,120-square-foot store, built at the former Walmart store site, replaced a 33,000-square-foot store that opened in 1995 along Hwy. 16 in Onalaska. The Walmart building was demolished in 2006, two years after Walmart moved to a larger building in the Market Place shopping center in Onalaska.

The new Gander Mountain will celebrate its grand opening next weekend. Some highlights will include appearances Saturday by fishing celebrities Dean Rojas, Brian "Bro" Brosdahl, Tom Neustrom, Tony Roach and Tommy Skarlis, and the Landry family, stars of The History Channel's "Swamp People" documentary series.

The store's Gander Mtn. Academy firearms academy will open by the end of this week. It will be the first in the Midwest for the St. Paul-based chain, which has 116 stores in 23 states. The chain's first firearms academy opened in February in Lake Mary, Fla., and more are planned.

The firearms academy is expected to attract area law enforcement agencies, as well as the public. It will offer a variety of classes, for beginners to advanced enthusiasts. Classes include basic firearms ownership and safety, concealed-carry fundamentals and permit requirements, marksmanship, self-defense for women and family firearms safety.

The academy also has a live range where gun owners will use real bullets, as well as a virtual range where participants will use actual firearms that use laser technology and realistic recoil but no bullets. And there are two interactive high-definition simulators, featuring scenarios that range from hunting to self-defense.

Extended hours will be available for law enforcement agencies that want to send personnel to the academy.

The academy will feature highly trained instructors in a safe environment, store manager Bryan Cavanaugh said. It occupies about 5,000 square feet of space.

The Onalaska store features the chain's latest store prototype, said Joe Herter, district manager. The Onalaska store it replaced was the chain's standard size, when it opened.

"It's all about the customer," Herter said of the reason for building a much larger store in Onalaska.

Customers had been asking for a wider variety of products, Cavanaugh said.

The new store features a much broader selection of merchandise. For one thing, Herter said, "You'll see a lot more name brands in apparel" than at the old store. "And our firearms assortment is much broader." So is the selection of merchandise for camping.

The new store has a full-service firearms department, as well as a full-service footwear department.

The new Gander Mountain had a staff of about 85 employees early last week, and Cavanaugh said that number soon will increase to about 90. About 50 to 55 employees worked at the smaller Gander Mountain on Hwy. 16, he said.

Cavanaugh, who became local store manager in late August, said the old Onalaska store closed March 21 in preparation for the move to the new, larger location. TCI Architects/Engineers/Contractor of La Crosse was general contractor for the new store.

Onalaska Mayor Mike Giese said he is pleased by Gander Mountain's decision to build a larger store, and in Onalaska. "It certainly helps to invigorate the whole area," he said.

The new store is very visible from Interstate 90 and should help attract more visitors to the area, Giese said.

"I don't think it will sit vacant for terribly long," he said of the former Gander Mountain location, north of Woodman's Food Market.