Big Lake Chamber of Commerce

Member Spotlight: Fisher’s Fuel

Fisher’s Y takes its name from a family, and the family is still here. Bob and Barb Fisher were homesteading near Big Lake in 1968 when they bought a small store at the fork in Big Lake Road. Locals called the corner Fisher’s Y early on. The name never left. What began as a corner store grew into a heating oil operation that covers much of the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, and the fuel stop out front sees heavy Parks Highway traffic in every season.

This spotlight opens a series on Big Lake chamber members. Each installment covers one local company and what it brings to the community. A fuel supplier felt like the right place to begin, since almost every household in the area deals with one.

The first truck

Deliveries of heating oil began in 1969. Tesoro reached Alaska the following year, and Fisher’s Fuel became its first distributor in the state. The whole operation consisted of a single truck. The Fishers’ oldest son drove it to school in Wasilla, filled it in Anchorage after class, and brought it home in time for dinner. Bob and Barb made the evening deliveries themselves and often had coffee with customers along the way. A gallon of heating oil sold for 23.9 cents in those years.

The company incorporated in 1972. Prices changed. The coffee habit didn’t. Drivers today are still expected to know the customer at each address, and the company treats that personal contact as part of the job description rather than a nicety.

The company today

Bradley Fisher, the company’s president, now oversees more than 60 employees and a delivery list of over 3,000 customers, many of them in rural sections of the Valley where a long driveway and an early freeze are normal conditions. The travel center faces the Parks Highway at Mile 52, where traffic turns for Big Lake Road.

Travel center: convenience store, RV gasoline and parking, fuel lanes open 24 hours, 907-892-6706

Heating oil: residential delivery throughout rural Mat-Su

Big Lake Rent-All: equipment rental for contractors and homeowners

Bulk plants and stations: Glennallen and Healy bulk plants, plus Tesoro stations in Palmer and at Hilltop

Shop: repair and maintenance for heavy equipment

The company holds an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau after more than fifty years of deliveries. Since the original store opened, three generations of Fishers have worked the trucks and the counter. Few local businesses in Big Lake go back further.

The Y itself

The fork where Big Lake Road splits into its north and south branches has been a reference point for decades. Locals still give directions relative to the Y. The post office operated here in the early 1980s, and the community’s first fire engine was housed underneath it after the new fire service area took delivery in 1982. Travelers bound for Denali use the 24-hour travel center as a fuel and coffee stop before the quieter stretch of the Parks Highway north of Willow.

A fuel company’s place in town

At 20 below, a missed oil delivery can freeze pipes within a day. A dispatcher who recognizes the address, knows the tank location, and remembers which driveway drifts shut will prevent that outcome more often than a call center three time zones away. Reliability of that kind rarely shows up in a price comparison, but longtime customers around the lake mention it first.

The economic side is simpler. Money spent on heat with a Big Lake company pays Big Lake wages, and those wages get spent at other counters in town. Chamber membership rests on the same idea. Businesses that trade with one another and refer customers to one another keep more of the Valley’s money working in the Valley.

Contact and accounts

New delivery customers can call the main office to open an account before the first hard freeze, since autumn is the heaviest stretch on the delivery calendar. Rental questions for Big Lake Rent-All go through the same number. The travel center at Mile 52 answers at 907-892-6706 at any hour.

Suggestions for future spotlights in this series can go to the chamber office at 3261 Big Lake Road, 907-892-6109.