Edgewater Inn Welcomes New Owners

The new owners of the Edgewater Inn & RV Park are Challis and Laura Crismore.

The couple took over on February 10, to start running things before the official closing was taken care of on February 18.

They moved to Malta from Libby, MT. Laura was working as a quality risk manager and corporate compliance officer at the hospital. Challis was a line crew foreman for Flathead Electric Cooperative, Inc.

"We gave it all up," Laura said with a laugh. "This was something we wanted to do when we retired. Own an RV Park. The opportunity came open and we jumped on it."

"A little bit earlier than planned," added Challis.

The couple has six kids between them from previous relationships. Challis has two girls, and Laura has three boys and one girl. The youngest boy, Grant, is a junior enrolled at Malta now. The couple also has eight grandkids, all boys.

When asked what they thought of Malta so far, Laura said, "I really enjoy Malta. He (Challis) was over here hunting. He called and said the hotel is for sale. I said I don't want to go to Malta, it's cold there."

She went on to explain that Libby is the banana belt, "We don't have a lot of wind there."

"But as he was driving home, I looked the place up. I said ok, let's go check it out. We came in November and met Jim Knudsen, the real estate agent. Everywhere we went, people were waving at us. You see kids working and they were really friendly. Everyone is so nice. I call it 'Old Montana'. That's what I grew up with and I love it. So we decided to go for it."

Laura was born in California, with her dad being in the Navy. He was born in Butte, and when she was two, the family moved to Montana. Challis is a native Montanan. He was born and grew up in Plains, Montana.

The couple says they are looking to change some of the swimming rules to make it a little easier for the public to use. And they have the Facebook page up and going and will do their best to keep it current.

One last thing that Laura added about Malta was that she was happy to see a few more MSU fans here.

"I was really outnumbered in Libby. Feels good to have a few more people to back me up," she said.