About Us

Duane and Margot Lottig started their life together operating a small dairy farm in Wisconsin. Always going against the flow, they farmed with draft horses. But it was hard to compete with the increased trend toward industrial size farming. So, they sold their dairy farm, bought a canoe and moved to NW Wisconsin with their three young sons in 1992.

Margot returned to her career as a public school teacher and Duane was a stay-at-home dad. The family loves the outdoors. They spent summers canoe-camping in Canada and winters hot-tent camping all over northern Wisconsin, Minnesota and Canada. But Duane could never find a canvas tent for winter camping he was happy with. The solution? Buy a commercial sewing machine and make his own. From that, Empire Canvas Works (ECW) was born.

Twelve years later, ECW (except for the canvas tents) was sold to Kevin and Beth Kinney. Duane and Margot went forward with Snowtrekker® Tents, focusing solely on the tents that were Duane’s vision when he started ECW. The rest is history. Duane and Margot continue as a husband and wife team. Today, Snowtrekker® Tents help thousands of people enjoy paradise below zero (or at least below freezing!) in the safety and comfort of the heat-able canvas tents they call "hot tents."

Connect with the Snowtrekker® team on Instagram and Facebook. Or send them a message at [email protected]