Small-Town Lantern Company Shines Despite Recession

When Americans need to stay warm or keep the lights on during freezes in the South or Northeast, or when they worry about “the big one” after events such as 9/11, Hurricane Katrina or the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, they turn to “Woody” Kirkman's business in Ramona.

W.T. Kirkman Lanterns Inc. is an importer, exporter, wholesaler, retailer and manufacturer of lanterns and is the only manufacturer of tubular oil lanterns in the United States, according to Kirkman and his website. According to one outdoors blog, Kirkman is "the acknowledged guru of lanterns."

Kirkman's online and phone orders increased after the turmoil began in Egypt in late January and increased again after Japan's 8.9 magnitude earthquake in March. He often notices spikes following disasters. Customers confirm his theories.

“People talk to us about their situations when they call in,” Kirkman said. For example, he said, “The weather seems to have gone crazy in the past couple of years. Some people have had to go without power for weeks. And orders from Florida always spike during hurricane season.”

Kirkman doesn't spend his days thinking of impending doom, though, because he's also whipping up design elements for Disney, Warner Bros., Legoland, Madame Tussaud's Museum and other entertainment enterprises to use on their sets and in their theme parks. Some of his lanterns have been used in the Pirates of the Caribbean and Indiana Jones movie series. To see the various items he has produced for the entertainment industry, click here.

Kirkman has shipped lanterns to Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Australia and Africa.

“We were contacted for a big shipment after the disaster in Haiti, but the tariffs  meant it wasn't feasible to send supplies,” Kirkman said. He heard that a lot of relief supplies in Haiti are still sitting unopened there for that reason.

Kirkman sells upward of 10,000 lanterns a year. The 43-year-old is a walking encyclopedia on the subject. Lanterns are more than a business for him or even a hobby.

"They are a way of life," he chuckled. He has started a tubular lantern collectors page on Facebook.

Kirkman became fascinated with the variety of lanterns made for various uses when he was a young man working in his grandfather's general store in Ramona. His grand-dad started the store in 1940 and closed it in 1995. By that time, Woody Kirkman had gone from sorting soda bottles at age 8 to managing the hardware section and designing props for Disney. He doesn't remember how he got connected with Disney.

“It's so long ago now,“ he said. “It could have been through Dietz.” Kirkman has had a long relationship with Dietz lanterns. On his website, he advertises that his own lantern business is “the most complete source for Dietz Hurricane kerosene lanterns, oil lamps and tubular lantern parts in the world.”

He started W.T Kirkman Lanterns in 1996 after his grandfather closed the general store. He ran his business as an online venture and had a couple of stalls in a until he prospered so much that he decided to open a 6,000-square-foot showroom and storehouse on Main Street. It is due to open at the end of March.

Ramona is similar to a lot of small American towns of about 43,000 people—it is suffering foreclosures and disappearing businesses. Mom and Pop stores are struggling to hold on, according to the local Chamber of Commerce.

When Ramona Patch asked Kirkman if he now thinks he chose the right field to go into as a young man, Kirkman chuckled again.

“It's worked out really well,” he said. “We've made a lot of friends, like lantern collectors in Germany and all over California who we'd never have met otherwise.”

Kirkman is the president of the company and his wife, Dawn, is secretary and treasurer.

He said, “It's kinda fun because our kids, Madison and Riley, are involved now.”

Madison, 12, and Riley, 7, are pondering going into the lantern business when they're older. After all, what young boy wouldn't dream about making lanterns for pirates and adventurers?