How Worland's grocery stores have changed
Share
Tweet
I’ve noticed how Worland’s grocery stores have changed during my lifetime, but only recently have I looked more closely at this change and realized how extensive it has been. Today, the great majority of the grocery needs of our town are met by two large stores, IGA and Blair’s, although there are three or four convenience stores. But during the 1950s, there were grocery stores of all sizes all over the town.
The only large grocery store I remember from the 1950s was the Safeway store, which was located in the building now occupied by Ace Hardware (Eighth and Big Horn). There were several stores that competed with Safeway, however, including Simon’s Market (Second and Culbertson), Foodland (Bonine and 10th), A&R Supermarket (12th and Charles), the Washakie Trading Company (10th and Big Horn), and Van’s (due west of what is now the Outdoorsman). I base this assessment on a perusal of the issues of the Northern Wyoming Daily News published during June 1957, Dub Maxwell’s memory, and my memory.
After looking at the old newspapers, though, I realized that my memory was incomplete and sometimes inaccurate. For one thing, I hadn’t realized that Washakie Trading was still actively involved in the grocery trade in 1957 (this store apparently closed in 1958). When Washakie Trading was first founded, I believe in early 1912, it advertised aggressively for grocery customers [the first mention of the Washakie Trading Company in the Worland Grit was in the May 2, 1912 edition of the Grit, logical because not until 1911 did our area become linked to the great chief of the Shoshone]. By the time I started high school, however, I thought of Washakie Trading as just an old-fashioned general store which traded in such exotic items as furs obtained by local trappers. But in 1957 the company was still actively seeking grocery customers.
I also had it in my head that Jon’s IGA had already begun when I entered high school, but that was apparently not so. Instead, there was a medium-sized grocery store named “Van’s,” owned by the Van Buskirk family, but in which John Maxwell had an ownership interest. In 1958, this store moved to the Washakie Trading Company building, and was re-named “Jon’s IGA.” Dub Maxwell told me that “Jon’s” was a misspelling of his father’s name, but his dad thought it was a good name anyway. Mr. Maxwell was an interesting and ambitious character. He grew up in Gebo; I believe he graduated from Gebo High School. I especially remember Mr. Maxwell as one of the broadcasters of Worland Indian baseball games. He built a large and modern building to which he moved Jon’s IGA, and it is still the site of the current IGA.
I remember a number of other smaller grocery stores in Worland, including Sawyer’s (where the Chinese restaurant is now located), the Big Horn Grocery (at 12th and Big Horn, to which a house was attached), the Log Cabin Grocery (in the middle of the south side of Big Horn Avenue between 11th and 12th Streets), and Cottage Groceries, a grocery located south of Obie Sue on 7th Street, later to become the offices of Roger Runge. One I don’t remember, but which advertised in the Daily News in 1957, was Mac and Aggies, located north of Worland on U. S. Highway 20.
Then, there was still another category of small groceries, some of which only provided a limited inventory. That included Cook’s Fruit Stand, a mile north of Worland, outlets that sold only dairy products (such as Cream of the Valley, due south of the courthouse), and a Warehouse Market not far from the old bowling alley on Tenth Street. Finally, I remember a couple of very small stores. One was a grocery owned by a man named Packer, who lived at the end of Big Horn Avenue before the new bridge was built (Second and Big Horn?). Another was called “Riley’s,” and was a little store due west of the courthouse, on 10th Street.
As you all can tell from some of my earlier comments, I consulted with Dub Maxwell about Worland’s early groceries, and I especially want to thank Dub for his splendid memory of the old Worland grocery stores. Any errors I may have made in this column are despite Dub’s much appreciated assistance.
John Davis was raised in Worland, graduating from W. H. S. in 1961. John began practicing law here in 1973 and is mostly retired. He is the author of several books. John and his wife, Celia, were married in 1967, have two adult sons, and several grandchildren.
