MORGANTOWN — In October 2012, Mike McWhorter bought a 25,000-square-foot building in Horner, Lewis County, and McFly Outdoors was created.
According to Kate Garton, McWhorter’s daughter, different things went into the name of their business, but none came from the 1980s movie trilogy, Back to the Future.
Her dad, being a WVU alumni, with a major in forestry, founded Landmark Forestry in 1992, one of the largest forest consulting firms in the Appalachian Hardwood Region, according to Garton.
In 2002, Mountain Air Services was created as a tool, Garton said, for her father’s forest consulting work, but it grew into a charter aviation business. The air service is now operated out of the Morgantown Muncipal Airport.
Kate said her family have always been “avid” WVU fans and members of the Mountaineer Athletic Club.
The combination of part of his last name “Mc” and the family flying for the Mountaineer Athletic Club, men’s basketball coach Bob Huggins gave McWhorter the nickname “McFly.”
“It’s really my dad’s brain-child of a store, and he is a big-time hunter and fisherman, and this is something that he always wanted to get into,” Kate said.
During the time the business was opening, Kate was completing her degree at WVU in public relations.
Kate Garton and her husband, Wes, both WVU alumni, planned to open their own business in the Morgantown area. That was accomplished six years after their first store opened.
“We knew that Wes and I both went to WVU, my dad is also a WVU grad, we’re major WVU fans and proud alumni. … That was the end goal for us, getting to Morgantown, and we were really happy to get there last October,” she said.
The journey to opening McFly Outdoors in Morgantown was a longer process than anticipated but was accomplished with a few years of hard work.
In July 2015, Kate and her family opened a second store in Bridgeport, and with that expansion, they introduced more of an apparel side to their other outdoor options, including Patagonia and The North Face.
“We kind of went out on a limb and started a fly shop in Bridgeport, West Virginia, which we were a little nervous about it at the time because we didn’t know how it’d be perceived, but it did really well for us and that store, we’re really proud of, so we took it to Morgantown with the same concept,” Kate said.
Their business also offers a range of firearms but, according to Kate, they specialize in long-range artillery.
Every Wednesday, Kate said the Morgantown store hosts fly-tying events, averaging over 25 competitors. Upcoming on the schedule will be a reloading seminar hosted at the Horner location at 9 a.m. March 2.
Kate said they also offer concealed carry classes for $60 at the Horner store.
“We’re actually one of the best-priced classes in the area,” Kate said.
When the Gartons made their dream of a Morgantown store a reality, they were conscious of their audience and catered to a college town. They brought in more apparel than the Bridgeport location.
Kate enjoys being back in the area.
“We knew that we wanted to be in Morgantown and, as alumni, there’s just something really rewarding about getting that degree, being such proud students, and then turning around and being able to have a store in Morgantown,” she said.
With McFly Outdoors’ focus on fly fishing, they participate with the WVU Fly Fishing Club.
“We’re really enjoyed seeing the culture grow in Morgantown with students,” she said.
Kate said it was her husband’s idea to focus on fly fishing, and the feedback has been positive in ways they did not expect.
“Still, to this day, we both are so overwhelmingly surprised with the reaction that we’ve got with a fly shop and how we’ve really built that business and how it’s taken off for us,” she said.
They look forward to spring, when the fly fishing season should take off.
