The origins of country stores and general stores stem from Trading Posts where folks would come to exchange goods. While in Fairbanks we visited a replica of a native village which featured a Trading Post.
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| Sign Next to Door Reads “Trading Post” |
Inside the Trading Post were shelves full of all sorts of goods.
And of course there was a counter on which to conduct business. I couldn’t resist spoiling the scene by having Linda take this photo of me doing my best Buzzy impersonation of “Pay me!”
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| Photo by Linda Lepper |
The following explanation of how Trading Posts came to be was also displayed on one of the cabin’s walls. (If it’s too difficult to read, do that Ctrl+ thing and it’ll show up better.) The line that caught my eye reads: “The trading post often became a community gathering center where folks would come to share news and plan their day.”
With the discovery of gold, Trading Posts took on even more importance as miners would stock up on the supplies and necessities they needed to do their prospecting. Thus, “mining the miners” became a cottage industry along with the many bars and brothels that also benefitted from this phenomena.
During the Klondike Gold Rush prospectors, known as Stampeders, were required by Canadian authorities to lug a year’s supply of provisions with them. The supplies totaled over a couple thousand pounds in weight as they had to make several trips to and from the Trading Posts to stock up.
One enterprising prospector E.T. Barnette arrived in the Klondike area with his provisions only to have someone offer him double of what he had paid for his stash. E.T. did the math, sold his goods and eventually opened his own trading post known as Barnette’s Cache. E.T.’s trading post launched the city of Fairbanks:
The band The Stampeders had the following hit in 1971. They are still out there touring: