Hi Puzzlers,
Today I thought we would take a look how White Mountain Puzzles got started.
Now celebrating its 32th anniversary, White Mountain Puzzles was started in 1978 by owners CRONAN MINTON and TED WROBLEWSKI.
Necessity was the mother of invention. Cronan and Ted needed to support their growing families. Freelance writing (Cronan) and running a country inn (Ted) were unreliable sources of income.
At first, the partners created illustrated posters of resort areas like CAPE COD, CARMEL, SEDONA, KILLINGTON, ASPEN, and VAIL. Traveling up and down the country, they sold advertising on entertaining “birds eye view” posters to restaurants, inns, and gift shops. Their first company, named MINTOWSKI PUBLICATIONS, was eventually renamed WHITE MOUNTAIN GRAPHICS, which flourished through the 1980s.
Customers often commented that their artwork – colorful, full of information, and geographically complex – would make great jigsaw puzzles. In 1988, needing new product ideas, they added puzzles to their line. Almost overnight, their puzzles STOLE THE SHOW.
By 1990, Cronan and Ted had renamed their company WHITE MOUNTAIN PUZZLES. They bought an office building, which included the Jackson, N.H. post office. The company is still headquartered here today.
While resort puzzles still play an important role in their business, Cronan and Ted now sell over a million puzzles a year. Not bad for two entrepreneurs who moved their families to the White Mountains because they loved to ski.
Now, Cronan and Ted have a whole warehouse filled with puzzles for their grandchildren to enjoy.
Today I thought we would take a look how White Mountain Puzzles got started.
Now celebrating its 32th anniversary, White Mountain Puzzles was started in 1978 by owners CRONAN MINTON and TED WROBLEWSKI.
Necessity was the mother of invention. Cronan and Ted needed to support their growing families. Freelance writing (Cronan) and running a country inn (Ted) were unreliable sources of income.
At first, the partners created illustrated posters of resort areas like CAPE COD, CARMEL, SEDONA, KILLINGTON, ASPEN, and VAIL. Traveling up and down the country, they sold advertising on entertaining “birds eye view” posters to restaurants, inns, and gift shops. Their first company, named MINTOWSKI PUBLICATIONS, was eventually renamed WHITE MOUNTAIN GRAPHICS, which flourished through the 1980s.
Customers often commented that their artwork – colorful, full of information, and geographically complex – would make great jigsaw puzzles. In 1988, needing new product ideas, they added puzzles to their line. Almost overnight, their puzzles STOLE THE SHOW.
By 1990, Cronan and Ted had renamed their company WHITE MOUNTAIN PUZZLES. They bought an office building, which included the Jackson, N.H. post office. The company is still headquartered here today.
While resort puzzles still play an important role in their business, Cronan and Ted now sell over a million puzzles a year. Not bad for two entrepreneurs who moved their families to the White Mountains because they loved to ski.
Now, Cronan and Ted have a whole warehouse filled with puzzles for their grandchildren to enjoy.
Happy Puzzling!
What a nice history of a great company! An admirer
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