Sep 24, 2007

Toys and Honey Mix For Sweet SuccessBy Art LimannTheIntelligencer.net

Proctor—Wooden folk toys and honey may not seem like a logical combination, but Steve and Ellie Conlon of Thistle Dew Farm and Mountain Craft Shop have made the combination work very well.

“Everything is based on produce,” Steve Conlon said of the operation. “From the bee hives and bees wax to the wood.”

The business has expanded through Internet sales, participation in fairs and festivals and wholesale orders.

The business supplies toys and honey to businesses ranging from “little gift shops, to state parks, to the National Aeronautical and Space Administration,” he noted.

“Our climbing bear toy was taken on the first trip to the moon,” he said.

In addition, Conlon noted his business is the largest toy supplier to Tamarack.

The Thistle Dew Farm business started in the late 1970s and was incorporated in the mid 1980s. The Mountain Craft Shop Co. was started in 1963 by Dick Schnacke, making just a few wooden toys. It was purchased by the Conlons in 2002.

The combined businesses operate out of the former Grandview Elementary School, just “a scenic drive” 8 miles east of W.Va. 2 in Proctor on W.Va. 89. The school was built in 1958 for 60 students and closed in the early 1980s. The Conlons purchased the building in 1989.

Read complete article.