In the summer of 1947, Merton took his family, including his four-year-old son, Richard, on a trip to Montana and Yellowstone National Park.

By early 1952, Merton had decided to quit the paper industry and move his family and fly-tying business to Montana.

Merton was an outstanding sportsman, a fine fisherman, and an excellent fly tier who quickly became a good friend as well.

In early 1954, Merton moved the business to a small store on S. 2nd Street that had been relocated from the abandoned town of Cinnabar, Montana a few miles north of Gardiner.

By the early 1960s, Merton moved the business into a more permanent structure, its present location at 202 S. 2nd Street, next to the old store, sharing the building with the U.S. Forest Service offices in Gardiner.

In 1955, Merton guided his first float clients in a war surplus rubber raft, but quickly transitioned to wooden rowboats and eventually aluminum jon boats.

After college, Richard spent three years in the U.S. Army as a Landing Craft Coxswain serving in Virginia and South Vietnam.

After his military service, Richard pursued a graduate degree, but economics kept him from completing it while he ran the fly shop in Gardiner.

[11] In May 1990, Richard received the Conservation Activist Award from the Greater Yellowstone Coalition for his work on the New World Gold Mine issue.