Sam Walker has helped shape the Eastern Sierra’s business landscape for decades. Sam owned and operated the Whiskey Creek restaurants in Mammoth and Bishop and founded Mammoth Brewing. He sold the businesses in the 2010s. He spends his time mentoring emerging leaders at Blue Heron Farm and supporting the Business Resource Center, a downtown Bishop hub for small business development, along with tending to his impressive garden--Sam is a Master Gardener. In this wide-ranging conversation, we talked about how angel investors, mentorship, and community-rooted accelerators could jumpstart Main Street vitality; the cultural assets that define the Eastern Sierra's economy; and what it’ll really take to bring new life—and new businesses—into our downtown corridors.
There's a shorter version of the interview, pull quotes, here.
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This interview was recorded on March 27, 2025 in Bishop, California by Aaron Wilcher. Contact awilcher@ucanr.edu
Aaron: How did you get involved in the Business Resource Center (BRC)?
Sam: It started with Leslie Chapman (former Inyo and Mono County Administrator). She had this idea for the BRC and needed a location. I thought, well, the county would be a solid tenant, not risky. We worked together—I bought the building, she negotiated a lease that was favorable to the county, and then I built it out.
Aaron: Did you have any vision for what the BRC could be?
Sam: Yeah, I bought into the mission 100%. I’ve said it for years—too many businesses here don’t have the tools to succeed. It doesn’t take a genius to walk down Main Street and see all the vacancies. And I've always been a kind of a real estate junky. But the one thing I had some expertise in, because I was a landlord for a long time, was in negotiating commercial leases. I was shocked at how little potential tenants, or the landlords don’t know about leases around here. And unfortunately, way too many of the landlords are absentee. They're not committed to the community.
Aaron: Let’s go back to the beginning. You’re not originally from here?
Sam: I moved to Mammoth 60 years ago. And I lived there for 53 years, and now in Bishop for eight years. Actually, I came directly from college as a ski bum to Mammoth in 1965.
Aaron: When did you start in business? Tell me about the early days.
Sam: My dad actually was a mountain guide. He was from Colorado, then lived in Southern California. But he was a backcountry skier. So we got my whole family, four boys, grew up skiing at the local mountains, and my dad used to bring me, all of us, up to Mammoth on trips. I was four years old, the first time I came to Mammoth, 1946, and you know, I developed a passion for the mountains. I moved to Mammoth, yeah, and got a job as a bell hop at the Mammoth Mountain Inn. And after four or five months that they promoted me to Night Auditor, and after about three months of that, they promoted me to Assistant Manager.
Aaron: Was Whiskey Creek your first business? That would have been around 1972?
Sam: I left the Inn and was in Burbank managing a restaurant. I was up skiing the local mountains and this guy keeps coming and cutting the lift line. I'm a young, healthy guy. So next time he came in, I took my pole and said, “You do that one more fucking time. . . .” Then I got on a chair with these two guys. They happened to be the lawyer and the realtor for the famous Jerry Buss [former owner of the LA Lakers]. They invited me to open the restaurant in Mammoth in 1965 where the Rafters ended up being.
Aaron: And that led to Whiskey Creek?
Sam: A customer at Rafters who was an Oxnard developer said "Hey, I want to build a restaurant in Mammoth. Would you help?" I said sure. A couple years later, we bought him out. Then we got a call about the Copper Kettle Restaurant, Kitty Lee Inn in Bishop—Ron Stone called. The guy who owned it for years and years and years wanted to retire. We didn’t have any money. I came down with my partner Dennis, made a lowball offer, the guy took it, and we said, “Oh shit, now what?” That became Whiskey Creek Bishop. We opened in Mammoth in 1971, and then 1974 we opened in Bishop.
Aaron: Was the Bishop location called something else then?
Sam: When we bought it, it had like four names, Copper Kettle, which was the coffee shop. Charlie's Room, which was the bar, and then The Town Crier, which was the formal dining room. And then the whole thing was the Kitty Lee Inn. It morphed into Whiskey Creek around the second or third year.
Aaron: What were the two markets like?
Sam: Totally different markets. Bishop market was about 70% local, 30% tourists. Mammoth was just the opposite.
Aaron: Did that change over time? What were the towns like back then?
Sam: Not really. Well, actually, Bishop became more tourist centric. It was a time of tourism growth for Bishop. So we got slowly, saw more tourists and but we still had a very strong local support. Mammoth was much more . . . . I call it a California cuisine and nightclub, much more of an alcohol presence up there. The nightlife was huge in Mammoth. I used to say, they don’t come here to ski, they come here for the partying.
Aaron: Was the scene good?
Sam: It was amazing. It would blow you away. The numbers we did in the bar were astronomical. But now you go up there and nobody's out at night.
Aaron: Why do you think that is? Are they in the village?
Sam: The culture of Mammoth is not the place it was back then. It's totally different culturally. Second home owners. Higher class clientele. Not the everyday ski bum. Totally different. We had a very supportive and strong local bar community. We all worked together, you'd meet every day at the post office, it was like a social event. So everybody kind of knew everybody. There were a lot more single people in the past. Bishop, it stayed pretty much the same.
Aaron: If you think about downtown Bishop or any of the Main Streets on 395, do you see opportunities for business owners?
Sam: I do, but retail’s not what it used to be. You’ve got Amazon, you’ve got online shopping. You know, I was sitting in a window on Sunday last week, and I was just shocked at the lineup of traffic from one end of town [Bishop] to the other. And I said, how do we get those people off the road. How do we give them the attraction to get them to come walk around? You need staging. I’d put trees down the center of Main Street. I’d bring parking back. I’ve traveled and I’ve seen towns do this right—La Connor, Washington. Sisters, Oregon, for example.
Aaron: Since we're talking about Bishop, what do you think the town or property owners or other kind of supports can offer?
Sam: Vision. Right now, anyone with money who comes in to invest gets to decide. Do we need another Dollar Store? No. Do we need Marshall’s? No. We need to make it a destination shopping area that has a lot of interest that makes people want to get out of the car and walk around. And of course, we need housing. You want good businesses here, you need places for workers to live. At one point, I was looking to purchase some real estate--I looked at the Kmart property and I had a vision. Like in Hood River, Oregon, they have a whole complex of small outdoor manufacturing. Fenwick Fly Rods, Scott goggles. I said, take the old Kmart, divide it up into about three or four segments. Encourage those names to come here and operate there. Put a restaurant on the roof, put trees in the parking lot.
Aaron: Did you get a chance to look at the new housing plan for the old KMart?
Sam: Not really. But I’m all for redoing it. When I looked into buying it, the owner was too greedy—didn’t want to sell. I’m a big fan of local ownership. I’ve looked at 20 different opportunities in Bishop over the years. I'm too old for that now, but I kept running into owners who didn’t care—unreasonable, not invested. Some people in this community have resources, but the property owners they deal with aren’t cooperative. And nationally, small-scale retail is struggling—shopping centers are failing everywhere.
Aaron: When you say small-scale retail, you mean places that reflect the area? That locals and visitors connect with?
Sam: Exactly. Look what we’re good at—climbing. We’ve got multiple climbing shops. We’ve got ties to Patagonia, Chouinard. Why not lean into that more? Fishing, hiking, Mule Days, the PCT—we should emphasize what makes this place special.
Aaron: So both the kind of businesses and how we market the town.
Sam: Yeah. Take the people coming from Mammoth in winter—they don’t stop here. Except for Schat’s Bakery. He built a better mousetrap. Built a brand. I didn’t always agree with Eric Schat, but look at the traffic—whew.
Aaron: Ask someone from out of town if they know Bishop, they’ll say “That bakery… what’s it called?”
Locals might say, “Well, I prefer Great Basin.”
Sam: Oh, I’m one of them. I never go to Schat’s. But for a tourist attraction, holy shit. Yeah, you have to be blind to drive by and not see that, right?
Aaron: Is it okay if I put the four-letter words in there? People might like that.
Sam: [Laughs] Sure. How do we get tourists to stop on Main Street? When I had Whiskey Creek, we worked with tour companies—cross-marketing. We’d promote Bishop restaurants in Mammoth. “Stop for lunch in Bishop, here’s a gift certificate.” And it worked. Tour buses stopped, and we were successful.
Aaron: A big theme I’ve heard from talking with people is this tension between the traditional and the new. It’s more complex than that, but it’s there—maybe folks who were born here versus newcomers?
Sam: I call it the Bubbas and the New Arrivals. It’s about a 50/50 mix. Some of the good ol’ boys are just resistant to change.
Aaron: When I’m at Whiskey Creek, there’s this mix—tourists, OHV people, climbers, skiers, families. You mentioned Mule Days and ranching, but also climbing. Can those coexist?
Sam: Look at the brewery [Mountain Rambler]—climbers love it. He gave them a place to meet, and that worked. People want a gathering place.
Aaron: So is there value in blending the old and new? Can a town or business do both?
Sam: Yeah, I think so. At Blue Heron, we’ve got young, healthy, sustainability-focused people. But we’ve also got the the good ‘ol cowboys who love farming and ranching. That’s not a bad mix.
We don’t need to reinvent the wheel—just open our eyes. Look at communities that have done it well. But there’s a caveat: a lot of those places have become gentrified. Mammoth. Bozeman. People get priced out. Bishop is protected—kind of—because of LADWP. Good news can't have much development. Bad news can't have much development. So that has kept us somewhat resistant to the gentrification. I worry about gentrification, because I've seen the negative impacts on small communities. You price out the regulars. Mammoth did that. Am I Right? I don't know how you walk that line.
Aaron: Do you see that the pressure for revitalization, the pressure is, is it more than it has been here? In other words, do you see that there are different sort of people hanging around?
Sam: It’s the same problem: no vision. What do we want this place to look like? I once wanted to get a university planning department involved—have students do a design contest.
Aaron: There is a downtown plan. Elaine Kabala [of the Eastern Sierra Council of Governments] worked on it. Planning’s one thing, keeping the conversation alive in the community also hard.
Sam: Yeah. I’ve seen so many plans that never went anywhere. Whitney Alley. The Bypass. Employee housing. I’m a doer, not a planner. Let’s just get it done.
Aaron: Could the Chamber play a role? Bringing business owners and the community together?
Sam: The Business Resource Center could be a focal point. Allan Pietrasanta and I are aligned—entrepreneurial, and we both love seeing energy from people like you or Meaghan [McCamman, Inyo County Deputy Administrator]. There’s an amazing group of young people here, but it’s not coordinated.
Aaron: So how do we work on that?
Sam: Back in the day, you had Junior Chambers of Commerce. But Chambers are kind of old school now.
Aaron: There’s an economic development theory called the pizza and beer method—get young people and entrepreneurs together, offer food and drinks, and get out of the way.
Sam: That’s not wrong. My management team and I used to have scoping sessions. A few beers always made us more creative.
Aaron: So your advice would be?
Sam: You need a passionate leader—someone who brings people together. There are amazing young people here, but they’re working on their own projects. Not engaged in the community.
Aaron: Can you name some of those folks—or at least the kind of people you’re thinking of?
Sam: Elaine [Kabala] is one. Government can be challenging. And you can’t make mistakes. But you can’t succeed without making a lot of mistakes.
Aaron: We've got a lot of people who I've met, sort of second and third generation ranchers, young people who have ideas. Young people in our 4H program who are exciting people. Then we have people living in their Sprinter vans who are engineers and everything in between, right? Photographers.
Sam: We have talent here that people don't even realize. It’s just not moving in the same direction.
Aaron: I also hear concern that we’re not doing enough to engage youth—especially teens and people in their early twenties.
Sam: Some folks—like the Sprinter van people—just aren’t interested. They’re not poor, they just want to live on their own terms. They’re not part of the entrepreneurial society.
Aaron: But some might be open to engagement—they just don’t know how.
Sam: Exactly.
Aaron: Let’s talk about your philanthropy—Blue Heron, the Business Resource Center, anything else I might not know about.
Sam: Almost everything I’ve done in business started with relationships. Talking to people, hearing something at coffee. When I got sick and couldn’t garden anymore, I reached out through the Master Gardeners. Rachel Kulchin came over. She needed garden plots for her CSA. We clicked. I’d been looking for a small farm to support her for a while. Then my physical therapists—Dray Dillon and Tory Orlowski from Shift Physical Therapy—connected me with Kate Rutherford from Farm to Crag. That led us to Apple Hill. I’ve known the seller, Rick DeVore, for 60 years. We made a deal. I bought it, and Rachel’s leasing it at a very favorable rate, with the option to buy later. She checks all the boxes—hardworking, creative, full of ideas. I’ve been trying to mentor her.
Aaron: And this is meeting a community need. Their website looks great—I almost signed up for the CSA.
Sam: She will have a farm stand. And for me, mentorship isn’t about income. It’s the only tool I have left. I I'm such a dreamer, I come up with a million ideas for her, real estate know-how, my network. I’m an entrepreneur.
Aaron: That’s real mentorship—support, strategy, and connections.
Sam: I have the benefit and the thing of having an amazing large network of friends and business relationships that I can call on for expertise.
Aaron: And you’d encourage other veteran business owners to do the same? Not just out of generosity, but opportunity?
Sam: Yes—but not financial opportunity. My kids said, “Why buy a farm? It’s not a great business deal.” I told them: you’ve been telling me to spend money on what makes me happy. This makes me happy. Gardening, farming, food, community.
Aaron: So what advice would you give to other experienced business owners in terms of mentorship?
Sam: Hopefully the Business Resource Center can be a hub. There are smart people here with deep industry knowledge. Let’s bring them together, let them decide how to invest in or mentor folks.
Aaron: Like angel investor networks.
Sam: Right. And I don’t just want to focus on new businesses. What about the ones that are already here, just kind of waffling along? How do we walk in and say, “We’d like to help—what kind of advice or support would make a difference?” Because the biggest shortcoming I see in most of the small businesses around here it’s financial expertise. And marketing. I see businesses with real potential, but they’re invisible—no outreach, no branding. I’m a guerrilla marketing devotee. Why aren’t they on social media? Why aren’t they building a following? I mentored Pinot Pies—and they’ve done a great job. They're active online, building a brand, making connections.
Aaron: Do you think there could be more support for people like you—mentors or even part-time locals—so they can learn how to be angel investors or get involved in supporting local businesses?
Sam: I’ve recently connected with people like Larry Pace, Stephen Peck, and Kristine Kidd [of Eastern Sierra Farm Fresh] through [Blue Heron]. They’ve got resources, and they’re starting to get more engaged. They held a workshop at Starlight and had a huge turnout. But here’s the thing—some young people come to you for advice, but they don’t really want advice. They want affirmation. That’s hard for me.
Aaron: Can you elaborate? What do you mean?
Sam: Some people can’t pivot. They are focused on their idea. All they really want is for me to tell them they’re doing a great job. I was talking yesterday about a couple of retail businesses I really like in town. But they're just kind of limping along. I'd love to go in there and say, how can I encourage you to have us come in and consult with you to boost your business up to a higher level?
Aaron: There’s lots of ways to do that—one-on-one advice like SCORE, or more structured programs. Some places run bootcamps. Businesses apply, submit their financials, their plan, get coached, get pushed, and maybe even compete for funding at the end.
Sam: I love that idea. Right away I thought of two Main Street businesses that could benefit. [One store] never advertised, no events, no planning, no marketing. I'm not sure the owners, are all that interested. The big question is: do the owners want it?
Aaron: You can build the best program in the world, but if there are no applicants.
Sam: Exactly. Some businesses are more like hobbies, they’ve got income elsewhere. But I walk by and go—this could be so much more. There’s no foot traffic. I always tell people: you’ve got to have something unique. In the restaurant business, we worked hard to have menu items that stood out. Something people talked about. You need that hook. Not just the same old stuff.
Aaron: A lot of what we've covered today are elements of what you could call an ecosystem. I'm a I'm a regional economics guy. What is it that makes a place comes alive? Enthusiasm, vitality. Community identity and branding. Learning from other communities as reference points where something happened. What are we good at? Then you get communities that figure out what they’re good at, and that cascades into the kinds of businesses they attract and the energy they create. Something that gets people to stop and notice—and want to stay.
Sam: I wish I were younger and healthier. Because if I were 70 instead of 80, I would love to try to put that all together. I’d call planners from places like Sisters, Oregon or LaConner, Washington and say, “how do you do it? What can we do?” I’d bring them here—put them on a plane, show them around. And what makes us unique? Those make us unique.
Aaron: You're literally pointing to the mountains. Like—how could we forget? Go outside and look in any direction.
Sam: Exactly. Why don't we have some rooftop restaurants where you can view that right? The ideas are all here, but I can't implement them anymore.
Aaron: Well, whether you realize it or not, you’ve been mentoring in our conversation. And I really appreciate it. A lot of what I’m trying to work on feels abstract—community, vitality, regional identity—it’s all conceptual until you start grounding it in people and projects.
Sam: I started working on a business development center up in Mammoth years ago. It’s long since gone. It was a bunch of thinkers trying to attract the right kinds of businesses. What businesses do we need? And we wanted to become a lot more groups of people that were high tech people that lived there and worked there, but they were doing work somewhere else. You can get enthusiasm and energy and a lot of input right in the beginning. Sustainability of those kinds of organizations were very difficult. People go so far and they move on.
Aaron: Who was involved? What did it look like?
Sam: It lasted about two years. We’d meet, brainstorm, even get specific—like, “What could go here?”
We imagined a regional marketing hub with designers and implementers all working in one building.
I’m good at vision. Not so great at follow-through. I’ve got a short attention span—I’m on to the next idea. That’s why Rachel is so good.
Aaron: We haven’t talked about the brewing company yet. You started that during your time at the restaurant, right?
Sam: Yeah, it really came out of looking at this big open space in the middle of the lobby at the Mammoth restaurant. I thought—what am I going to do with that? And the idea hit me: why not put a brewing tank there? So I started researching. Went to some conferences. And I fell in love with the culture—not even the beer so much, but the people. Young, energetic, creative. It just drew me in.
Aaron: Was it a good business move?
Sam: Well, that, and especially the restaurant business, you better reinvent yourself frequently, because what you did gets old, and so you better come up with new menu ideas. I remodeled both restaurants completely. You need to reinvest in the business to make it new and fresh again, because the concept doesn't last forever, and the brewery was part of that.
Aaron: Is there anything you’d want to add—your hopes for this place? We’ve covered a lot of ground.
Sam: It’s frustrating to have so much talent in this community that’s unrecognized or under-connected.
You said it yourself— How do we capitalize on that? How do we get those people in the same room? How do we get that energy going in a direction? And you can’t just push the good old boys aside. You’ve got to invite them to the party. And the best way to invite anybody to a party is to say, “Will you tell me how do we make this better?” Once someone gives you an idea, they’re invested.
Aaron: Help them realize that vision and but they have to have ownership as well.
Sam: Exactly. Now—what’s your story?
Aaron: I grew up in San Jose. I’ve always been into the outdoors. I raced mountain bikes competitively for a long time, then got into backpacking and skiing. Later I studied planning and economic development and tried to figure out how to merge my work and my passions. There’s this idea out there that outdoor recreation is a pathway for rural communities to stabilize or grow their economies. That stuck with me. So I looked for a place where I could work on that intersection. That’s how I ended up here.
Sam: I could tell you bike stories all day. I helped start a race in Mammoth. Fell in love with the sport. We had a criterium one year, and I watched it from the roof of Whiskey Creek. Thought—this is cool.
You remember [the National Off Road Bicycling Association]?
Aaron: Of course. My first big races were around here in the ’90s. The Kamikaze. Bill Cockroft.
Sam: We partnered on that. We ran the Whiskey Creek Stage Race—had a crit that looped around Minaret. It was huge for marketing. I never raced competitively myself, but I loved the energy.