A grave rave: celebrating Beaver Dam’s successful casket company

Jonas Zahn started Northwoods Casket Company after crafting a casket for his grandfather who died in 2004.

Jonas Zahn's grandfather liked westerns. The old man liked John Wayne movies; appreciated the cold steely Clint Eastwood galloping across the sage, guns ready. Jonas Zahn's grandfather liked watching them on the silver screen, those men in hats avenging death.

When Jonas Zahn's grandfather died in the winter of 2004, Zahn wanted to memorialize the man — a larger-than-life cowboy in his own life — with something personal; something meaningful. Zahn would make his grandfather's casket.

So, he watched the movie "Unforgiven." He froze the action on the character Ned, dead and displayed in a coffin. Zahn froze the action and made some measurements. To the Beaver Dam native's surprise, there wasn't much online about how to build your own coffin and so he had to make due with watching Clint Eastwood movies with a tape measure.

He built his grandfather's coffin. He buried his grandfather in it, not quite realizing at the time that his own life's trajectory was just then blossoming into something else. Zahn, employed by IBM, would start a casket company. By 2006 he was in business, working alone out of his garage. His business has been in Beaver Dam since 2010.

Now, Northwoods Casket Company makes around 600 caskets a year and supplies caskets to movies. His caskets have been in the TV show, "Yellowstone." "Kevin Costner personally picked out the casket," Zahn said. Zahn's caskets have been in the new "Perry Mason," in "Chicago Fire," and in "Reservation Dogs." His handiwork will be seen in a coming Martin Scorcese movie.

He's proud of the work. His caskets are all made of various woods, including pine, oak, cherry, walnut, maple, and cedar. Since the beginning, he's been very much into sustainability. From the outset, Zahn has been conscious of the carbon footprint of caskets and taking steps to minimize it.

For every casket Northwoods Casket Company sells, they plant 100 trees. For every urn, they plant 10 trees. They've, thus far, planted tens of thousands of trees.

He uses no toxins. He uses local lumber. He uses domestic hardware. Made in Wisconsin matters to him as does keeping Wisconsin a natural wonderland. For every casket Northwoods Casket Company produces, they plant 100 trees. For every urn they create, 10 trees are planted.

Working with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Zahn has planted thousands upon thousands of trees in parks and forests throughout the state. His next big planting will take place in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest that covers more than 1.5 million acres not far from Lake Superior and the Minnesota border. From his caskets, Zahn knows, can come life.

Life, and his business, have been good for Zahn.

"Our roots are here in Beaver Dam," he said. "And we want to keep growing."

The company works with funeral homes across the state in supplying them with their caskets. Any funeral home can order their caskets and, Zahn noted, anyone wanting a Northwoods Casket for their loved ones, can order one through the funeral home.

According to Zahn there are approximately 600 funeral service firms in the state. He said he currently works, in some capacity, with around 500 of them.

"We’re happy here," he said. "We’re staying in Beaver Dam. We’re growing every year." From toiling away solo in his garage not long ago, he now has 30-some employees and sales grow year to year.

"Probably a plain pine box," he said, asked about what sort of casket he, himself, will want to be buried in. Into the earth he would return, like his grandfather, while, in a forest somewhere in Wisconsin, a tree would be planted, reaching toward the sky and life.

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