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Entrepreneur sells a 'piece of Alaska'

by Rhonda McBride
Monday, Jan. 8, 2007

Palmer, Alaska - A Palmer entrepreneur says he got the idea of using moose droppings from a motivational speech called "Acres of Diamonds," written by Russell Conwell. The speech is about a farmer who sells his land to go off in search of diamonds, only to find out that he left a backyard full of diamonds.

Avoiding that mistake is Roger Zack's bottom line.

Zack, the owner and proprietor of The Unlimited, has a briefcase and it's not quite like a box of chocolates, but it's hard to say what you'll find here.

He has a "Keeper," as in a fish, that he invented to hold a flashlight and tackle while out fishing. Despite all "Keeper's" creativity, the fish was a flop as a marketable invention. But not every tail ends in failure. There's many a nugget of wisdom to pass on.

A little more than a decade ago, Roger Zack bought a business from a friend and began making products from what he calls one of Alaska's most underappreciated natural resources: moose droppings.

Zack has three "grades" of moose droppings. One is used to make lip chap, while another is large enough to be drilled.

"Most all other nuggets are what we call ‘jewelry class,' or ‘gems of the north,'" he said.

It's a gem of an idea that Zack keeps mining for laughs.

"It won't heal your lips, but it keeps you from licking them," Zack said of the lip chap.

The raw materials for the lip chap are both cheap and plentiful. The gimmick is made from recycled gun shells and, of course, a well-placed nugget and a label that's as tacky as the glue.

Zack once drilled for oil on the North Slope, but this kind of drilling has promise, too.

"With tourism in Alaska, there is gold to be made," he said.

In a time when most souvenirs are made in China, tourists are looking for something authentically Alaskan.

"They're a very soft substance and they'll crush very easily," said Zack as he handled some of his money-making moose droppings.

That's why the nuggets are washed and treated.

"The nuggets, after they've been cured, can be dropped into a ‘Poopon' bottle," Zack said.

And there you have it. Please pass the "Poopon."

This is definitely a value-added industry, where the labor is the biggest cost and coming up with the ideas that blossom are often germinated during an evening of fun with friends.

"I'm sure there are probably 100,000 people that have laughed over that one evening," Zack said.

The more laughter, the more cash. And the selling point is always fun.

"The first one I ever thought of was a floater," he said.

Not all the ideas float to the top.

"The worst experience I've had was with ‘gold nuggets,'" Zack said.

The golden nuggets are not so golden and neither was the "moose-quito," which was too labor intensive. It's a good thing Roger Zack has no shortage of ideas.

"With product development, 24 out of 25 ideas never make it out of test market. I had a friend say that I have so many ideas in my head, some day you'll find me laying somewhere with my head burst open," he said.

When that day comes, his tombstone will probably read, "One good idea is worth 20 years of hard labor."

One more nugget of wisdom to leave you with: "We may not have an acre of diamonds, but we all have a gold mine that's right between our ears. So keep on thinking," Zack said.

And when it comes to thinking caps, Roger Zack has plenty.

Zack says he is working on a line of clothing products called Alaska Gear. The slogan: "Hot stuff for cool people."

Zack insists his best ideas are yet to come, including a Mason jar cocktail glass set with moose nugget swizzle sticks.

Zack says he has help making all of his products from friends and neighbors.

In 1994, he put out an ad looking for people to harvest the nuggets at $10 per grocery bag. He said one girl used the money to buy a prom dress.

At that time, more than 600,000 moose nuggets were collected and his stash is about gone.