Outdoors Outlet Becomes One-Stop Shop
Blair Garrett
Keymar Outdoors, Frederick County’s newest hunting, fishing, and outdoor supply specialty shop, has officially opened its doors.
Outdoorsmen in the Northern Frederick County area can rejoice now that they have a new hub in Keymar, housing everything from fishing rods to deer feed, and much, much more.
Those of us who have stopped by Keymar Outdoors’ former location, Craig’s Mower and Marine, will see a familiar face among the walls of boating supplies and lawn care accessories.
Craig Eichelberger, owner and operator of Keymar Outdoors, has changed things around a bit. Eichelberger’s new shop has a new look and offers plenty of equipment to keep your mowers running and the fish biting. He now sells ammo and gun accessories, too, and plans to expand his hunting section even further.
“I applied for my Federal Firearms License (FFL) back in March, so I’m waiting on that to come through now,” Eichelberger said. “Once that comes through, we’ll be adding guns and stuff into the mix.”
While the store does offer much of the gear that hunters need, Eichelberger believes adding the guns to the store will take his business to the next level.
“Right now, we do everything hunting except for the guns,” he said. “In this area, there are a lot of hunters and a lot of farmers, so I think once the FFL comes in, it’ll be a really good thing once we get everything up and running.”
Despite the shop just opening its doors back in April, Eichelberger and company have been building this business for a long, long time.
“I originally started just doing mower repair. I worked part-time just down the road around 1990, and I decided to go into it full-time in ‘92,” Eichelberger said.
An unlikely call led to an opportunity that allowed his business to expand, and he ran with it.
“Fort Ritchie got me into the boating side,” he said. “They called me when they were open as a military base, and they asked if I’d be interested in servicing some of their equipment.”
As he worked on some of their outdoor motors, locals began to take notice, and a new branch of his business was born.
“People would come in and see we had a boat motor sitting there, and they’d ask if we’d work on those,” Eichelberger said. “We really didn’t, but we’d take a look at it, and then we added that in for quite a few years.”
Keymar Outdoors no longer does the boating repairs it did at its previous location, but Eichelberger and his team have still got you covered on your boating needs.
“We added hunting, fishing, and crabbing supplies, and that’s been a real hit, but we still sell all the boating parts and the accessories.”
While he now has a well-rounded outdoors store, he may be best known for his help fixing up faulty mowers. There’s a level of dependability leaving your engine repairs to a technician with the amount of experience that Eichelberger has.
Eichelberger has been fixing things for the better part of three decades. Before he got his start in his own business, he worked as a mechanic for a small plumbing company in Germantown, repairing generators and small engines. It was the first sign of foreshadowing for a business opportunity from which he would eventually be able to create a career.
Fortunately, Eichelberger’s willingness to adapt to his consumers’ needs has historically opened up avenues for business that have kept him successfully in this line of work for 30 years.
“I still have a lot of my normal customers, but we’ve picked up a lot of new people here, too, even if it’s just to stop by and see what we have in stock.”
If you’re someone who likes to spend your time out on the water or out in the woods, or needs lawn or garden equipment, stop by Keymar Outdoors and they just might have exactly what you’re looking for.
Keymar Outdoors is located at 1067B Francis Scott Key Hwy in Keymar. Hours are Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m.; Saturday, 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.; and closed on Sundays. Call 301-271-2196 or view the advertisement on page 26 for more information.
Owner Craig Eichelberger mans the front of the store, offering patrons friendly advice on outdoor supplies.
Photo by Blair Garrett
