For more than 100 years, Dokken-Nelson Funeral Service has been serving the Gallatin Valley. And if walls could talk, the history would come pouring out. There are death records dating back to the late 1800s, and records of families who lost multiple loved ones to the Spanish Flu in the early 1900s.
Throughout Dokken-Nelson’s history, there have been a variety of business names, owners and locations. But the name Dokken-Nelson Funeral Service has been in place since 1954, and it has been located at 113 S. Willson in Bozeman since 1936 — with the building being added to the Montana National Register of Historic Places on Dec. 21, 1987. Dokken-Nelson is a pillar of our community and has a legacy of serving multiple generations of families.
In the early 2000s, Dokken-Nelson attempted to have a presence in Belgrade. But the residents of Belgrade were accustomed to traveling to Bozeman for many of their necessities. And even though there was a Dokken-Nelson Belgrade location to serve families, many of them still insisted on making funeral arrangements in Bozeman. As such, the Belgrade doors were closed a few years later, and Dokken-Nelson returned to running all of their operations out of Bozeman.
As the years went by, the idea of having a Belgrade location was always in our minds. We saw the explosive growth in Belgrade and the west Gallatin Valley and knew it was only a matter of time before it would make sense to have a second location in Belgrade to better serve this area of our community. Discussions of a Belgrade location began to percolate again several years back, but then came the pandemic.
Fast forward to January of 2025. One of our goals in the new year was to figure out where and what a Belgrade branch could look like. We talked about the importance of easy access for families, the location and traffic patterns for getting to various cemeteries, and having a facility we could be proud of that embodies the Dokken-Nelson brand.
We started researching which properties may be available to lease, if there were options to consider for purchase, and what would make the most sense as we sought to check the boxes for what we would need to accomplish our goal. We literally drove up and down the streets of Belgrade looking for available real estate and made multiple phone calls.
And then came that fate-filled day. We met with a commercial real estate agent and discussed potential opportunities — some were worth considering, but none that met all of our criteria. As we were wrapping up the conversation, we asked one last question, “Are there ANY other properties available?” He mentioned there was a place that had just come on the market a week prior, and he gave us the address to go look at it.
Within a few days, we scheduled a tour and we saw the potential for how it would fit our needs. The location was amazing (it’s in downtown Belgrade, south of the railroad tracks), and we submitted an offer shortly after. In full transparency, the hardest part about the potential opportunity was the fact that four small businesses were located in the building. We knew if the transaction went through, they would have to be rehomed.
After much prayer and due diligence, we signed on the dotted line. The same day we closed on the building, we notified each business in person that we were the new owners and that our plan was to occupy the building. We shared with them that we are both Montana kids and small business owners in Bozeman, and that we had been providing our services to the Belgrade community and beyond for decades — but we now wanted to be able to do so in their backyard. They were all extremely gracious and understanding, for which we are truly grateful. As an olive branch for the difficult news, we provided them each with a month of free rent to help with moving costs, gave them more than the required 90-day notification, and researched potential locations for some of the tenants.
So why are we telling you all of this? Because we don’t believe our business was more important or deserved to be there more than the businesses that were relocated. It truly was a hardship and one of the most difficult decisions we’ve made as a business. But each of them understood, and most had had some interaction with Dokken-Nelson and knew the reputation of the business. We truly believe the legacy of Dokken-Nelson helped ease the transition.
As such … we are excited to announce that we are opening a Dokken-Nelson Funeral Service branch location at 107 S. Broadway in Belgrade just after the new year. Construction is full steam ahead on the remodel, and we have obtained both our Belgrade business license and a temporary State of Montana Mortuary Branch License (pending inspection).
We wholeheartedly believe it is the right next step for both Dokken-Nelson and our community. And we are committed to providing the same exceptional care in Belgrade while making our services more accessible throughout the Gallatin Valley.
If you’re in the area after the first of the year, please stop by either location and share a cup of coffee with us. And a big thank you to many of you who have been friends, mentors and supporters of Dokken-Nelson Funeral Service through the years. We appreciate you!
