By Carol Mowdy Bond
Contributing Writer
Currently working magic out of his Canadian County workshop, Mike Koontz’s Town & Country Sign is more than a sign company. So much more! With his motto “I Sign Anything,” the sky’s the limit. His claims to fame are all over the universe.
Koontz does custom vinyl graphics, hand-lettering, pinstriping, signs, magnetics, recreational, and more on anything you can think up from a business sign for your store front, to a vehicle, to a mail box or a tool box, a toilet seat, or whatever you need. Koontz made the signage for Eric Brown’s store Relic Revival at 320 Elm Avenue in Yukon’s Old Mill Plaza.
Koontz said, “My items are custom-made. Ask me and I might be able to do it. I’ve even done lettering on satellites.”
Along with his wife, Koontz is a Minnesota transplant who just recently brought his skills and imagination into Canadian County. His dad founded the business Town & Country Sign in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1956. Mike was born that same year. In 1978, the shop landed in the hands of Mike and his brother. Then it became Mike’s shop.
“I started by helping my dad in his shop,” Koontz said. “But I’ve been doing this full-time since 1974. This is what I’ve done my whole life. I’ve been self-employed my whole life. I like detail, and to do something right, and on scale, and a good design and layout.”
“I still do sign work in Minnesota,” Koontz said. “I still have a couple dozen customers there. I make the signs here and ship them. I also do striping and vinyl graphics on all kinds of cars, especially classic cars.”
Quite fascinating are Koontz’s mail boxes. He’ll make a mail box look like a horse trailer. School bus. Volkswagen van. European double-decker bus. Hippie van. Snoopy as the Red Baron atop his plane (or rather, mailbox). You dream up something and he’ll make it into a mailbox, or anything else you want.
“My first mail box was Snoopy as the Red Baron,” Koontz said.
“I was selling the VW mailboxes on Facebook Marketplace. Someone contacted me and asked if I could do a horse trailer, so I made horse trailers. The Oklahoma City Volkswagen Facebook site has some of my mailboxes on there.”
For the mailboxes, “I paint the background color of the mailboxes,” Koontz said. “I do all the graphics by hand using all vinyl. It’s very time consuming.”
Koontz primarily sells retail. Connect with him by phone (651) 633-5853, or by email townsign@gmail.com.
