Respect for history, community key to Canyon Creek Store's future

The first thing Myrna Crawford wants to make clear is that the Canyon Creek Country Store is not closing.

With the historic store quietly for sale, Myrna and her husband Ron prepared for a living estate sale last Friday. The goal was simply to help clear out some of the antiques and collectibles in the store that they've amassed over the years. But rumors, they do like to fly.

As she had explained repeatedly on Facebook posts, Myrna said they were having the sale, so they won't have to deal with it all when they finally sell the store.

The fact that the Canyon Creek Country Story is for sale isn't a secret. A "For sale by owner" sign has been in the window for the past few months to let locals know. And Myrna hasn't listed it with a real estate agent for a reason: she is "absolutely" looking for someone who will respect the 135-plus year history of the business.

"In this market, I could probably have someone from California come, but they might doze it down and put a big old house out here. I don't think anybody wants that to happen. There's a lot of history here," she said.

The little store, a well-known landmark for anyone who drives Highway 279 between Helena and the Upper Blackfoot Valley, is home to the longest continuously operating post office in the state, Crawford said. According to Southwest Montana Tourism, William Negus - who opened the Negus Toll Road to Lincoln over Flesher Pass around 1868 - received the first postal contract in 1871 for the area. Known at the time as Georgetown, Negus opened the post office at what is now the Weingartner Ranch and changed the name to Canyon Creek. Negus' son-in-law Moses Root is believed to have built the Canyon Creek Store around 1882 or 1887 (reports vary) and it became home to the post office. Myrna said when the post office became a contract station in the 1990's, postal records indicate it had closed, but she said it remained in operation as it had throughout its history, even at times when the store itself was closed.

"People would come to the back door and get their mail," she said.

Myrna bought the business in 2005, back before she met Ron, and began making improvements.

"I planted all those trees. Probably the first year, I was here most of the time, out in the headlights of my pickup after dark, after I closed and mowed and did all my other chores, I'd be out planting trees in the park area."

She met Ron, a retired machinist/welder, around 2009 and they were married in 2011. He's helped her with renovations and landscaping around the property. "I wouldn't have been able to make it without him," she said. "He's been a huge, huge part of what you see when you drive up to Canyon Creek."

As the only store on the road between Helena and Lincoln, the Canyon Creek Country Store has provided basic supplies, groceries and fuel to travelers and to the residents of the surrounding Little Prickly Pear Valley. It has weathered a lot in its long history including both the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918 and COVID-19, when its role as a post office helped keep the doors open in 2020, "non-essential" businesses had to shut down.

Though the impact of COVID-19 has led to the closure of many small businesses around the country in the last year, Myrna said the pandemic has nothing to do with her decision to sell the business.

"I'm old," she joked. "I want to retire now."

On a more serious note, she said she wants to spend more time with her mother, who lives in eastern Washington and is now 91, and wants to have time to play with her grandkids and to have fun.

"I can only go so long. I don't want to be an old white-haired lady on the front porch in a rocking chair with my shotgun," she said. "I've got family to go visit and things to do before I leave this earth, and I'm gonna go do it."

The Crawfords hope to remain living in the area once they do sell the business but are concerned about finding a new place given the current market.

Myrna said they have had a lot of interest in the business, and even have a couple people who are working on business plans. Other people have expressed interest in the last month, although she said at least one managed to make it clear they wouldn't be a good fit.

"We are hoping to find someone local who will continue on with the traditions and bring in some fresh new ideas. There's room for expansion. There's a lot of things people can do."

For the time being, Myrna and Ron will leave their sign in the window and wait for the right person to come along, keeping in mind their responsibility to both history and the surrounding community.

"I'll miss it a lot," Myrna said, choking up a bit at the thought of leaving the business behind. "It's been ...the community's been good to me."