Business Spotlight: Yellowstone Station

With support from RTC Networks, two brothers are putting Cartwright, ND on the map.

Five minutes from North Dakota’s western border, just off of Highway 200, there is a gas station. And a post office. And a conference center. And a liquor store. And a tactical shop. 

And they all live under one roof. 

Locally owned and family-operated, Yellowstone Station is a one-stop-shop for travelers and locals alike. It’s the brainchild of brothers Will and Luke Berry, who sought to revitalize their hometown of Cartwright, ND.

“There was nothing here. Our post office closed three years ago,” Will said. “Our population is 12, if you count the neighbor’s dog.”

His head count may be a bit exaggerated–Cartwright’s population actually hovers slightly higher, around 30–but Will’s description of the community is accurate. Before Yellowstone Station, residents had to travel nearly 30 minutes in any direction–to Williston, Watford City, or Sidney–to grab some ammo or a bite to eat.

“Since we’ve built this, I’ve actually gotten to see more of my neighbors because there is somewhere for everyone to go,” Will said. “We may be a small town, but now we have a little bit of everything.”

While Yellowstone Station may have a bit of everything now, they started in 2011 as just a fuel station for trucks passing through to the oil fields. After securing a contract with the United States government to reopen a post office in Cartwright, the Berry brothers put their entrepreneurial brains together to determine what else the community could use–and on April 1, 2022, Yellowstone Station opened its doors.

From that very first day, Yellowstone Station has been a true family affair. Will and Luke oversee operations; their mother, Mavis, is in charge of accounting; their father, Ron, helps out in the store; and Will’s wife, Emily, is in charge of ordering inventory and maintaining the business’s online presence.

“Anything that saves me time, they are willing to help with,” Will said.

RTC Networks is proud to be an honorary member of the Yellowstone Station family, providing fiber internet to keep the business up and running. Will understands the importance of a high-speed, reliable internet connection. Before settling back in his hometown, Will spent years traveling the world. Over the course of his travels, he saw the best and the worst that the internet had to offer. 

“Before RTC Networks came to Cartwright, I used to have better luck at an internet cafe in Bolivia than I did in my own hometown,” he said.

Now, with fiber from RTC Networks, Yellowstone Station has reliable connectivity at every corner of their property. The credit card reader at each fuel pump connects to the till in the store, and transactions are authorized in seconds. A monitor with a static IP address on each tank allows Will to monitor fuel levels remotely and automatically sends a notification to providers when they need more fuel.

“Everything down to the smoothie machine has to connect to the internet,” Will said.

The internet also allows Yellowstone Station to connect their business to the world, even from Cartwright. The tactical arm of the business, Yellowstone Tactical, has its own online store that automatically syncs with the inventory of the physical store. 

The Berry brothers’ next venture, Yellowstone Rifle Company, is set to open this spring. From a separate building on the same property, Yellowstone Rifle will manufacture custom rifles right here in North Dakota with stock from a provider in Norway.

“I was just on a video call with our stock maker the other day,” Will said. “It’s amazing because the internet was flawless enough that there was zero delay from here to Norway.”

Will and Luke Berry have built an incredible business out of nothing. With internet from RTC Networks, they can ensure that their business is protected from weather, theft, and other threats. All of Yellowstone Station’s security cameras are streamed over the internet, so Will can access the footage from anywhere, at any time–whether it’s at his farm a few miles away or halfway across the world.

“I moonlight as a professional pilot,” he said. “When I do that I take my laptop with me, and I can still monitor all sales and make sure everything is running smoothly from wherever I am. I can see if there is anything fishy going on.”

A t-shirt that can be purchased from Yellowstone Station’s online shop asks a question that Will has been asked his entire life: “Where the hell is Cartwright?” It’s a question he often heard when calling Yellowstone Station’s former telephone provider, a large national company, for support. 

Not with RTC Networks. 

“It’s a delight to have a local provider,” Will said. “Everybody you talk to is in North Dakota. They actually know where Cartwright is.”

RTC Networks is proud to support local businesses like Yellowstone Station. Learn more about the business and its two subsidiaries, Yellowstone Tactical and Yellowstone Rifle Company, at yellowstonestation.us.