Wyoming’s old-timey general stores function as working portals to an earlier era. Life unwinds in the least-populated state in the country, where these one-stop community shops still hold a real place in town life beyond nostalgia. Dirty Sally’s in Ten Sleep looks much as it did a century ago and retains most of its original architecture. Croghan’s Hall above Dayton Mercantile still serves as a gathering point for a sparsely populated piece of the state. The J.C. Penney Mother Store in Kemmerer opened in 1902 and is the original location of what became the national chain. The eight stores ahead each offer a different chapter of Wyoming’s pioneer past in working retail form.
Aladdin General Store (Aladdin)
Exterior of Aladdin General Store in Aladdin, Wyoming.
Aladdin General Store was first established in 1896. Built by Amos Robinson, the store served the local mining community that developed in the area. The building remains one of the best-preserved 19th-century mercantiles in the state, with much of its original architecture including woodwork, cabinets, and windows still intact after more than a century of service.
In true general store fashion, shoppers find an eclectic inventory including groceries, drinks, art, hardware, and fishing supplies. Upstairs, antiques are on display in “Aladdin’s Antique Attic,” adding further character to the store. Aladdin’s also issues fishing licenses and operates a bar and RV park on the same property. It functions as more than just a store. It serves as a pillar of the surrounding community.
Welty’s General Store (Dubois)
Welty’s General Store in Dubois, Wyoming. Via Wikimedia Commons by 25or6to4, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Welty’s General Store has stood the test of time. The current location opened in 1903, though the business operated out of a log cabin starting in 1889, before Wyoming’s statehood. The store continued to evolve, and its current building was constructed in 1956. One notable customer through the years was Butch Cassidy, the western outlaw.
The store operates seasonally to serve summer crowds, with a focus on western wear and outdoor gear. It remains on the National Register of Historic Places and continues as both a local landmark and a historic destination. Across the street sits what could be mistaken for a cave but is actually a cold-storage locker. Welty’s continues to offer a window into the past, with a real sense of what life looked like in an earlier piece of Wyoming history.
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Dayton Mercantile (Dayton)
Croghan’s Hall, a historic building in Dayton, Wyoming. Image credit: melissamn via Shutterstock.com.
Visitors to Dayton have the chance to see one of the oldest stores in the state. Dayton Mercantile was established in 1882 and functioned mostly as a general store. By 1886, a dance hall opened on the second floor. Known as Croghan’s Hall, the dance hall ranks as the oldest in the state, making the building a central point for the community for generations.
Today, the store remains a popular lunch stop. Known locally as the “Merc,” it draws diners in search of deli sandwiches, pies, and craft drinks. Locals particularly enjoy the “Rustler Reuben” but can also pick up gifts for neighbors or antiques to liven up their home. During summer, the homemade ice cream served at the soda counter ranks among the better treats in this corner of the state.
Farson Mercantile (Farson)
Ice cream from Farson Mercantile, Farson, Wyoming. Via Flickr user Jimmy Emerson, DVM.
If you head to Farson, make sure you stop in at Farson Mercantile, first opened in 1908. A fire destroyed the original building, forcing the store to relocate in the 1940s. Throughout its lifetime, Farson Mercantile served as the center of the community, providing groceries and operating as a post office, boarding house, and souvenir shop along the way.
Today, the store is known throughout Wyoming as the “Home of the Big Cone.” These oversized ice creams come in massive waffle cones and rank among the strongest dessert stops in the state. There’s also plenty of food for the whole family including pizzas and deli subs. Family road trippers can stop by the well-stocked toy section to find games for the rest of the drive, assuming the kids are not in a sugar coma by then.
J.C. Penney Mother Store (Kemmerer)
J.C. Penney Mother Store, Kemmerer, Wyoming. Via Flickr / Jimmy Emerson, DVM.
Although J.C. Penney is known as a national department store, the chain began at the original J.C. Penney Mother Store in 1902. James Cash Penney opened his first location in Kemmerer, which he originally called the “Golden Rule Store.” During its initial years, Penney actually lived in the attic above the business, and the store ran on a strict cash-only model. The suitably named Penney was particularly focused on offering fair service to the mining community where the store was based.
Today, the store still operates as a working J.C. Penney but also functions as a museum, with antiquated features like an overhead pulley system that originally moved cash from the sales counter to the central office. Customers find much of the same clothing and merchandise as in any J.C. Penney location, with the option to read up on the chain’s history while shopping.
Old Faithful General Store (Yellowstone National Park)
The Old Faithful General Store at Yellowstone National Park. Via NPS / Jacob W. Frank.
Where better to find an authentic general store than Yellowstone National Park? The Old Faithful Lower General Store, originally known as the Klamer Store, was the first store to operate in the Old Faithful area. Established in 1897 before the National Park Service even existed, the store was purchased in 1915 by Charles Hamilton, who also established Yellowstone’s concession services. The original timber roofline remains visible near the chimney, and the store retains the rustic front porch that Hamilton added later.
The interior runs heavy on woodbeam scents and an imposing stone fireplace. Visitors come for the step-back-in-time atmosphere as much as for the merchandise. There are souvenirs to buy and a sit-down restaurant with burgers and sandwiches. A water-bottle filling station serves visitors heading out into the park, and the adjacent Old Faithful Inn handles overnight lodging.
Mammoth General Store (Yellowstone National Park)
Mammoth General Store in Yellowstone, Wyoming. Via Shutterstock user GemStocksy.
A second popular draw in Yellowstone is the Mammoth General Store, established in 1895. The store sits near the Fort Yellowstone Army Parade Grounds and historically supported the soldiers who managed the park before the development of the ranger service. In the early days of Yellowstone, the store’s military-provision background made it the natural spot to supply early tourists as well.
Now, visitors find unique offerings like huckleberry cheesecake popcorn and locally brewed drinks. There are also souvenirs covering candles, throw pillows, and blankets. Anyone heading deeper into the park can pick up last-minute outdoor gear or fill water bottles at the on-site station, a nod to the store’s roots as a rugged outpost.
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Dirty Sally’s General Store (Ten Sleep)
Dirty Sally’s General Store in Ten Sleep, Wyoming.
Dirty Sally’s ranks among the most traditional old-timey general stores in Wyoming, with an exterior dating back to the earliest days of Ten Sleep itself. The building originally operated as a bank before reopening as a grocery store. Since then, Dirty Sally’s has become a working haven of ice cream and old-fashioned sodas.
Guests can stock up on treats along with coffee, groceries, and a range of souvenirs including postcards and handmade crafts. Dirty Sally’s also works as the right last stop before heading out to explore Ten Sleep Canyon, where limestone and dolomite cliffs make for popular rock climbing, plus extensive hiking and trout fishing options on the access roads.
Old Time Destinations In Wyoming
Wyoming’s pioneer history shows up in the very structure of its buildings and Main Streets. These general stores rank among the best examples of an earlier era still serving real working purposes in their communities. Stop in for lunch or stock up before a camping trip at any of the eight, where creaking floorboards and rustic architecture provide a link to a past that gets harder to find every year.
Oil City News publishes letters, cartoons and opinions as a public service. The content does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Oil City News or its employees. Letters to the editor can be submitted by following the link at our opinion section.
When ‘Republican values’ trump the rule of law
Dear Casper,
I have lived in Wyoming my entire life. I come from a multi-generational, historically rooted Wyoming family. And yet, as I watch the decisions being made for our beautiful state, I find it harder and harder to find a reason to stay.
Our leadership, and the parties they affiliate with, seem to consistently forget that laws are not mere suggestions to be ignored when they become inconvenient. Following them should be black and white.
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For decades, Wyo. Stat. § 22-4-105 has ensured that the parties remain neutral vessels for the people’s will until we, the voters, choose our nominee. The recent move by the State Republican GOP to vet and endorse candidates before the primary isn’t just a change in strategy; it’s a dismissal of not only the state statute but also of the voters who live, work and vote here.
Secretary of State Chuck Gray has built a brand on “election integrity,” yet boasts that his actions — including those his critics have heavily questioned — are simply him upholding “Republican values.” But here lies a disturbing question: How can one claim to be the champion of election integrity while simultaneously supporting a party apparatus that treats the Wyoming Supreme Court’s rulings as optional?
For those who may think, “It’s just one candidate, what could the harm be?” let’s look at how Wyoming’s voting power is already so lopsided. Our party structure is built on a “one county, one vote” system. This means those in our least populated counties carry the same voting weight as the thousands of voters in Laramie or Natrona counties.
By allowing the Republican party to vet and endorse candidates before the public even sees the ballot, the GOP is effectively gerrymandering the primary. They are narrowing the field to only those who pass their “test,” stopping the average hardworking Wyomingite from ever truly weighing in.
This leads us to a fundamental question all voters in this state need to ask: Who does the Wyoming Republican Party think their boss is?
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Is it the figureheads in Washington? A small circle of party elites in Douglas? Or is it us, their constituents — the ranchers, the miners, the teachers, the parents — who actually cast the votes and have to live with the consequences of the policies made for our state?
Jessica Mantell Cheyenne
Homeowners associations do not align with Wyoming values
Dear Casper,
To start, having any HOA in Wyoming outside of Jackson seems wild to me. We are the most conservative, anti-big government state in the union. We as a collective are vehemently against taxation and governmental control.
So why then do we willingly allow and join HOA programs? These organizations are liberal government at its finest. You don’t actually own your properties that reside in an HOA as one rule infraction can cause you to lose everything you worked so hard for and already paid for.
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Even AI understands this and I am putting an AI analysis of HOA’s below:
An overreaching liberal government and an HOA often function like the same creature wearing different uniforms. One calls it taxation, the other calls it fees, assessments, or compliance penalties, but the playbook stays suspiciously familiar: create layers of rules, attach financial punishment to violations, then claim it’s all for “community standards” or “public good.” In both systems, property owners are sold the idea of ownership, only to learn that missing a payment, painting a fence the wrong shade of beige, or cutting grass wrong. can trigger liens, legal threats, or attempts to seize what they already paid for. It stops looking like governance and starts looking like legalized extortion with meeting minutes.
As a people, we need to castrate all HOAs’ abilities to steal our homes, livelihoods and properties.
In my opinion, any person that joins an HOA board and enforces rules that can steal someone’s home or levy fines that would create a financial hardship over an RV parked on the property, wrong paint color or cutting grass is no longer a freedom-loving Wyomingite and is instead no better then the socialist governments of places like California or New York.
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A Colorado man is dead after a crash near Cheyenne, on South Greeley Highway/U.S. Highway 85 by milepost 2.5.
A preliminary report by the Wyoming Highway Patrol says that 48-year-old Shaun Hafley was driving a Ford truck north on U.S. 85 while a Kia Soul was traveling south.
The two vehicles collided in a glancing head-on manner. After the collision, the Kia left the road to the right, entering the right-side borrow ditch and coming to an uncontrolled rest facing northwest. The Ford came to an uncontrolled rest in the southbound lane, facing northwest.
There were no possible contributing factors listed in the report, though it was noted that while weather conditions were clear, road conditions featured ice/frost and slush.
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Hafley was not using a seat belt, the report states.
The driver of the other vehicle was injured in the crash. The status of their injuries was not reported.
This story contains preliminary information as provided by the Wyoming Highway Patrol via the Wyoming Department of Transportation Fatal Crash Summary map. The agency advises that information may be subject to change.
Wyoming wildlife managers plan to reduce how many wolves can be hunted by 50% following a canine distemper outbreak that has cut the state’s wolf numbers to the lowest level in two decades.
A 22-wolf cap is the fewest number of wolves available to licensed Wyoming hunters since the state began allowing wolf hunting after Endangered Species Act protections were lifted in 2012. The limit also marks a significant decrease from last fall’s wolf hunting season.
“As far as the overall mortality limit, it’s exactly half,” Wyoming Game and Fish Department wolf biologist Ken Mills told WyoFile.
Last year, hunters could target a maximum of 44 wolves in the area around the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, where Wyoming classifies wolves as trophy game during the Sept. 15-Dec. 31 season. Hunters bound to Wyoming’s relatively tight regulations in that zone managed to kill 31 wolves.
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It wasn’t hunting, however, that resulted in the lowest population since wolves were still being established after the 1995-96 Yellowstone National Park reintroduction. Biologists say a canine distemper outbreak is the primary culprit in the decline. The measles-like disease is especially deadly for puppies, and it was detected in 64% of the animals that Wyoming biologists handled during routine capture work last year.
As the calendar turned to 2026, Mills and federal biologists tallied 253 wolves and 14 breeding pairs statewide. Those are decreases, respectively, of 23% and 42% from the 330 wolves and 24 breeding pairs estimated at the end of 2024.
Wyoming’s proposed hunt for 2026 is designed to increase the wolf population in the trophy game area, located in the state’s mountainous northwest corner. The population in that zone decreased 19% to 132 wolves in 2025 — a figure that’s well below the state’s 160-animal objective.
“We want to grow the population by 28 wolves,” Mills said.
Driving Wyoming’s desire to increase numbers of the controversial native canine is the 160-wolf objective designed to ensure that the state meets its obligations with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. When the state first gained jurisdiction over wolves 14 years ago, Wyoming’s delisting agreement called for maintaining at least 10 breeding pairs in the trophy game area. In 2025, there were exactly 10 breeding pairs, which shows that the margin for error is thin at the current lower population.
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The reductions to Wyoming’s wolf hunting quotas aren’t uniform.
“The wolf numbers in the Cody, Lander and Pinedale regions were relatively stable in 2025,” Mills said. “The largest reduction was in the Jackson region.”
As a result, Game and Fish is proposing to reduce the limit, from 19 to six, for wolves that can be killed in four conjoined hunt areas (units 8, 9, 10 and 11) spanning from Jackson Hole into the Green River basin. The state’s draft regulations also call for relaxing the limit on wolves that can be hunted along the west slope of the Tetons and in the Teton Wilderness (units 6 and 7) from five animals to no more than two.
There are major differences in how the three northern Rocky Mountain states hunt wolves, and it’s unclear if Montana and Idaho will follow suit and decrease hunting pressure near Yellowstone National Park. Wyoming’s distemper outbreak was regionwide and also hit Yellowstone packs, which only managed to produce 17 surviving pups — the lowest count in 30 years of careful monitoring.
In Montana, where hunters and trappers can kill 15 wolves apiece, wildlife managers do use a quota system near the Yellowstone boundary to ease impacts on wolves that leave the park. Idaho, meanwhile, allows largely unfettered wolf hunting on the western side of the ecosystem.
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Wyoming manages wolves similarly, with few regulations, on the outskirts of the Yellowstone region. Where the species is classified as a “predator” — in 85% of the state — wolves can be killed by almost any means and there are no hunting limits to be altered as a result of the population decline.
Game and Fish will host several northwestern Wyoming public meetings about its wolf hunting proposals. They’ll take place at 6 p.m. May 26 in Jackson; 6 p.m. May 28 in Cody; 6 p.m. June 2 in Pinedale; and 6 p.m. June 3 in Lander.
Public comments can be submitted at WGFD.wyo.gov/get-involved/public-input through June 10.
The state agency’s commission must also OK the draft hunting regulations. Commissioners plan to take up the issue at their July 14-15 meeting in Sheridan.
Mills anticipates hearing from detractors on both sides of the wolf hunting issue.
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“There will be people frustrated that the mortality limit is lower,” he said, “and members of the public that probably think we shouldn’t hunt wolves at all.”
