Going out with a bang
Joe Wade’s fireworks explode in the sky over the Yaak River Tavern and Mercantile during the Yaak’s annual Fourth of July fireworks display on Saturday, June 30. (Ben Kibbey/The Western News)
With explosions all around, Joe Wade walked cooly among his fireworks, lighting the fuses during the annual Fourth of July fireworks display on Saturday, June 30. (Ben Kibbey/The Western News)
With explosions all around, Joe Wade walked cooly among his fireworks, lighting the fuses during the annual Fourth of July fireworks display on Saturday, June 30. (Ben Kibbey/The Western News)
Joe Wade is lit by fireworks during an early Fourth of July event on Saturday. (Ben Kibbey/The Western News)
One of the set of fireworks blows off as Joe Wade walks the line to light the next fuse, during the annual Fourth of July fireworks display on Saturday, June 30. (Ben Kibbey/The Western News)
Joe Wade lights the fuses by hand during the annual Fourth of July fireworks display on Saturday, June 30. (Ben Kibbey/The Western News)
Though weather kept the swimming and diving in check, children and parents still showed up in droves for the annual Fourth of July fireworks display on Saturday, June 30. (Ben Kibbey/The Western News)
Joe Wade takes a look over his set up before the annual Fourth of July fireworks display on Saturday, June 30. (Ben Kibbey/The Western News)
Joe Wade’s fireworks explode in the sky over the Yaak River Tavern and Mercantile during the Yaak’s annual Fourth of July fireworks display on Saturday, June 30. (Ben Kibbey/The Western News)
Joe Wade’s fireworks explode in the sky over the Yaak River Tavern and Mercantile during the Yaak’s annual Fourth of July fireworks display on Saturday, June 30. (Ben Kibbey/The Western News)
Joe Wade’s fireworks explode in the sky over the Yaak River Tavern and Mercantile during the Yaak’s annual Fourth of July fireworks display on Saturday, June 30. (Ben Kibbey/The Western News)
Joe Wade’s fireworks explode in the sky over the Yaak River Tavern and Mercantile during the Yaak’s annual Fourth of July fireworks display on Saturday, June 30. (Ben Kibbey/The Western News)
Joe Wade’s fireworks explode in the sky over the Yaak River Tavern and Mercantile during the Yaak’s annual Fourth of July fireworks display on Saturday, June 30. (Ben Kibbey/The Western News)
The crowd at the Yaak River Tavern and Mercantile are illuminated by the rocket’s red glare during the annual Fourth of July fireworks display on Saturday, June 30. This year’s display was the final one for Joe Wade, who has put on the show for 20 years. (Ben Kibbey/The Western News)
After over 20 years of doing the annual fireworks show at the Yaak River Tavern and Mercantile, Joe Wade lit his final fuses June 30.
These aren’t the last of his fireworks, Wade said with a smile. But at 80 years old and on oxygen due to asbestos exposure, this is his last show in the Yaak, and likely his last big show.
“It’s a good life. I’m really sad this is my last show,” Wade said.
Helping him that night were his son and daughter-in-law, Kevin and Shayla Enders.
“I love it,” Shayla Enders said. “The excitement that Joe has, It’s like his Christmas.”
Kevin Enders, who has been helping his dad put on shows for at least 30 years, said the best part is watching how happy it makes Wade.
“It’s his favorite thing to do,” he said.
Wade said he first started making fireworks when he was 11 years old, and that he’s still a kid at heart when it comes to his favorite activity.
His own father, a chief in the Navy, was very strict, he said. But the Fourth of July also coincided with Wade’s mother’s birthday.
“I got to do whatever I wanted, so I started building fireworks to show my mother,” he said.
Wade recalled being the child with 10 cents from mowing lawns, waiting at a fireworks stand.
“I’d end up buying a whole bunch of stuff, then I’d take it home, take it apart, find out how it was made, and rebuild ‘em bigger,” he said.
Wade built with metal shells, until he noted the damage on the ground from the shrapnel, and then he started waxing toilet paper rolls to make his fireworks. In school, he told a teacher he was using rat poison to add color, and found himself newly supplied with raw ingredients.
“He gave me barium and solarium and all that good stuff that you need to make the colors. And that’s how I learned,” he said.
Paint the sky
Wade went to school and became certified in pyrotechnics, he said. He has done shows all around the area.
He has even done fireworks competitions with the Pyrotechnics Guild International, though he didn’t realize how many other American fireworks enthusiasts there were until the 1980s, Wade said.
“I thought I was the only one making this stuff,” he said.
When Wade had his own stand, he said he remembered what it was like to be the kid buying fireworks.
“If you come up and you had 25 cents, you got about 50-60 cents worth of fireworks, the stuff that I knew you could use,” he said.
Now he sees the same children he once sold fireworks to grown up and running their own stands.
“And I told them, treat the kids like I treated you,” he said.
Even in his last Yaak show, a few of the larger fireworks were ones he made himself, Shayla Enders said.
When people came to him after the show thanking him for the job he did, Wade’s response was, “Well, as long as you enjoyed it, as long as you enjoyed it.”
“I’m still a kid. I’m 80, but I’m still a kid,” Wade said of his joy from lighting off fireworks.
But there’s still more to it than just loud noises and bright flashes.
“I’m an artist also, I paint,” he said. “But this is big — a big canvas up there. And that’s the way I look at it. I’ve got the color up there.”
Fired up
Crissy Kunkel, a bartender at the Mercantile for 16 years, still enjoys the shows Wade puts on.
“Oh man, it’s great. It’s the best, everyone says,” she said.
The variety, the show’s length and the comfortable feeling of community at the Mercantile all contribute to that.
Brian Scott said he has been coming to the Yaak for the Fourth of July the weekend before for about four years. It’s family friendly, and the disconnect of not having cell service is actually a bonus.
“Live bands every year, great service and decent food, kids are running around crazy all the time, fireworks are going off all the time — I mean, there’s nothing really bad about it, I think,” he said.
He said the show is the icing on that cake, beating out larger shows that use higher class fireworks.
“This is cool, because it’s right over your head,” he said.
Matt and Julie Thompson came for the first time this year. The Columbia Falls couple said they were staying in the area, and happened to come across the celebration at the Mercantile.
“We’ve been to a lot of them in the Flathead Valley, and I’d say it’s the best we’ve seen in a long time,” Julie Thompson said.
“It was a little nuts, usually you’re a lot further back,” Matt Thompson said. “It’s way much more of a personal experience, for sure.”
Shawna Hawk from Kalispell said she saw the event on Facebook and got family members to come with her to camp in the Yaak that weekend.
Hawk said she was moved almost to tears by the show.
“It’s my first time ever here,” she said. “We will be back every year after this. We decided tonight it’s going to be a family tradition.”
As the smoke cleared and the crowd left, Wade turned to his son and daughter-in-law.
“Well, Kevin, Shayla, thank yah’ much. It was a pretty good show, I think,” Wade said.
“You bet, Joe,” Kevin Enders replied.