Carin and Frank Meyer own and operate Clearwater Wells, located in Palmer, Alaska. The company offers water well drilling for residential and commercial customers almost anywhere on Alaska’s road system. Frank does the field work while Carin manages the office and marketing side of the business.

The husband-and-wife team considers themselves a very Alaskan company with a very Alaskan story. 

Frank grew up in a rural area north of Palmer as one of 14 children in an Inupiaq family. He and his brothers have built off-road hunting rigs and taken them far into remote Alaska on hunting expeditions since 2001. After working as a mechanic and in directional drilling, Frank started and ran a successful heavy equipment repair business in the Mat-Su Valley for many years. Then in 2017, he began working on water well drilling rigs and started drilling with a local well driller.

Carin grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, but spent many summers on the Clearwater River in Delta Junction, Alaska, where her great-grandparents homesteaded nearly 80 years ago. She attended college on the East Coast, as well as in Anchorage. She was a public relations and marketing professional for 13 years before venturing into water well drilling with Frank. Clearwater Wells is named after the river where Carin spent much of her childhood.

They launched the business in May of 2019. “So we had only a half year that first year and then 2020 was COVID year. So we really didn’t know what to expect, but we’ve had exponential growth, which has been incredible,” Carin said.

Clearwater Wells recently expanded into remote cabin well drilling after Frank built a remote drill rig mounted on a Ford F-150 on tracks that is meant to travel through deep snow and is lightweight enough to drive across frozen lakes and rivers.

This episode covers:

• Clearwater Wells’ expansion to remote well drilling
• Leveraging social media advertising to attract new customers
• Repurposing rigs and support equipment with tracks and skis 
• Accessing and completing a water well project 80 miles off the road system
• The important role of mentorship in the launch and early success of the business

Check out today’s episode to hear more. Watch the video here or listen to the audio version of our conversation at www.thedriller.com/boring-podcast. You can also find our show on Apple Podcasts. Search for Boring Conversations, then hit Subscribe.

Resources

Clearwater Wells on the web: www.alaskaclearwaterwells.com

Contact Carin and Frank Meyer at carin@akclearwaterwells.com