This place! What an interesting visit we had there. More later in this post, but first, back to our journey I've been writing about the past couple days.
Our road out of the Smoke Holes canyon brought us out onto US Highway 220. We headed south towards Franklin where we would pick up Route 33, the highway that travels all the way across the state--and the one that our road, Joe's Run, turns off of about 4 hours west of Franklin.
Now we were in a wide, wide valley, a rich river bottom that told of many years of hard working families to build and maintain the beautiful farms along the way. This area has a strong German culture, and I can only imagine how their hearts must have filled with joy at the sight of such land when they made their way over the first ranges of the high, rugged Allegheny mountains.
We stopped on top of North Mountain to take in the spectacular view over Germany Valley, one of the very best views in the state, I think.
Then we were northbound again...but had to stop here:
The owner told us that when his grandfather built the store, there were already 5 busy stores in Riverton. I believe this would have been in the heyda of logging in this area, when the virgin timber was being cut.
A little of everything here, certainly.
The owner, a Vietnam vet, had a lot of war memorabilia and he and Larry had quite a chat. Larry told me that the lights in the store were like the ones he grew up with, one bulb hanging on a cord from the ceiling.
In the process of being loaded.
Out on the porch. I didn't ask about the price on this little stove. We had no room in the van for it anyway!
What a place, a step back in time for sure. Outside were these buildings. The store used to face the opposite direction, so these were in back then. But then the road was moved and the back of the store suddenly was the front.
Probably a blacksmith shop and livery stable at one time. The owner said his Dad had a horse named Pat that salesmen (drummers, he called them) would borrow Pat and ride on to the next town, then slap the horse on the rump and tell him to go home--which Pat always did.
I bought a couple pretty plates before we took our leave of the two men who seemed to run the store. The potbelly stove had gone out so they were busy getting it going again on this chilly November day when we left. But we did a quick drive-through of the little community of Riverton first.
Finally, back to the familiar route past Seneca Rocks, and then homeward.
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I especially love that first photo, Sue, though I'm a little bit worried about finding cured hams in an antique shop - just how old are they?!! Super photos of an interesting area.
ReplyDeleteGood point, John! Might be a little chewy. I think that back when this was a main route for tourists, he did a pretty heavy trade. The trend now is so different; back in the 50's-70's there were a lot of weekend visitors who liked to cruise the country and stay in little motels and cabins. Today's tourists are more activity-driven. They hike, fish, bike, backpack. There are not as many tourists as there once were in this area either. I guess other attractions draw them now--people travel further, to beaches especially and not so much to our mountains. Good and bad I suppose.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful. I've never seen German valley but I've always wanted to.
ReplyDeleteWe used to have the light bulbs hanging on a wire like that at our house too. And so did my grandmother in Beckley & my husband's grandmother in Arkansas.