Tree Ring Co. Crafts Pens for Ten Western Governors

Tree Ring Co. founder, Dave Wager, with Governor Steve Bullock after he was awarded a Tree Ring custom wood watch.  Photo by David Swift.

Montana Governor Steve Bullock, chair of the Western Governors’ Association (WGA), selected Tree Ring Co. to make gifts for the governors attending the 2017 Annual Meeting in Whitefish, Montana, June 26-28. Custom wood pens were engraved with the year of statehood for each governor.  Governors attending included:

Gov. Bill Walker, Alaska (1959)

Gov. John Hickenlooper, Colorado (1876)

Gov. David Ige, Hawaii (1959)

Gov. Butch Otter, Idaho (1890)

Gov. Brian Sandoval, Nevada (1865)

Gov. Doug Burgum, North Dakota (1889)

Gov. Ralph Deleon Guerrero Torres, Northern Mariana Islands (1975)

Gov. Dennis Daugaard, South Dakota (1889)

Gov. Gary Herbert, Utah (1896)

Gov. Matt Mead, Wyoming (1890)

Since Bullock already had a Tree Ring pen, which was awarded to him by the Montana Wood Products Association, WGA selected a Tree Ring custom wood watch as a thank you gift for completing his term as chair. The watch highlights Montana’s premier rivers, which Tree Ring Co. engraved into the wood of a 51-year-old Douglas-fir tree and filled with a crushed lapis lazuli inlay. Governor Dennis Daugaard, incoming WGA Chair, presented the watch to Bullock at the close of the meeting. Bullock was thrilled with how the pens turned out and sported a big smile upon receiving the watch.