The Schatz story is a tale of two cities and one family with vision and grit. It began here in Minot in the early 70’s.

Danny Schatz was a young man who seemed to have it made. Handsome, charismatic, a regular sprint car driver; he and his brother (a cowboy) were nicknamed the “Marlboro men” by their admirers. As if that wasn’t enough, Danny had a job to die for with the railroad as an electrician, with great pay and even better benefits. By all accounts, at the age of 25 Danny was set for life. But Danny aspired to have more… To grow as much as he could.

Some say an entrepreneur is a juvenile delinquent who never grows up. True or not, someone with Danny’s drive without a suitable outlet will likely either get in trouble or build something big. That energy has to go somewhere, and the need for the security of a regular paycheck isn’t enough for some folk. Danny’s first entrepreneurial act was to quit his job at the railroad. His second, perhaps the more difficult of the two, was to tell his new wife Diane.