Our Story
A Bozeman Institution since 1968
Poor Richard’s, founded in 1968, is an institution of Downtown Bozeman. Like a cigar itself, it has traded many hands to become what it is today. We didn’t go looking for him. We inherited him.
The Newsstand
Originating as Ellen News in 1962, supplying newspapers and magazines to downtown Bozeman was a staple of Poor Richard’s business for generations. That lineage of leisure, ritual, and curiosity informs who we are today. Though the news stand belongs to another era, its spirit remains in how we purvey tobacco.
Etymology
Our name comes from Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac. Richard Saunders (also known as Poor Richard) became the pseudonym that served as an exhaust pipe for Franklin’s creativity and wit. The annual books offered a mixture of seasonal weather forecasts, practical household hints, puzzles, and other amusements.
