By Bill Pumford, Image from Bill Pumford
TITLE: MUSEUM OPENS WITH NEW EXHIBITS: The Mountain History Museum operated by the Rim of the World Historical Society has opened for the season. Many new exhibits have been created for the enjoyment and education of visitors. One of the major new exhibits in the Museum centers around the old-time stores and was created by Marilyn Mays. It features a faithful recreation of a period general store, with a counter and authentic examples of various goods that were sold, and products that were commonly used more than 100 years ago. This week’s image shows the inside of the exhibit, spotlighting a portion of the general store as well as the some of the photos and descriptions of the many stores that were on the mountain. During the early tourist history of the mountains people visited during the spring and summer and stayed in camps such as Pioneer, Lincoln, and Rogers. They brought their own food, entertainment, and transportation. Up until the early 1900s transportation consisted of horses, wagons, and buggies which severely restricted distances that could be traveled. With the advent of the automobile greater distances could be reached. The general stores provided an important service in supplying basic necessities for camping or staying in cabins. Early on the supplies available for purchase did not generally including perishables, since refrigerators were not there and only a few stores had access to blocks of ice. Many of the early post offices were located in general stores primarily because there were people readily available to operate both the post office and the store, and the general store offered a building to house the post office. An additional portion of this exhibit features an authentic section of an early general store post office. Be sure to visit the Museum and get better acquainted with the variety of general stores, markets, and grocery stores that existed during the early history of our mountains.