This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Guthrie County Historical Village and Museum (GCHV) in Panora. There are about a dozen buildings and several other exhibits for the public to enjoy. One of them is the Monteith General Store.

The store is not the original store in Monteith, but was a store that replaced the original building after it burned down in 1929. The building was moved to the village in 1998 and is set up to include items from when the store was in place. GCHV Board Member Rod Stanley tells Raccoon Valley Radio the store was the center of activity in the county during the early 1900s.

While you could buy and trade several items at these stores, Stanley says they weren’t only used for exchanges of goods. “These kind of became the places where these rural families, they hung out at. Like I said it was the center of activity. There was a lot of things that went on at these places. I know that they sometimes set up a barbershop there. They had card games there. They had racing, where people raced each other.”

The museum is open Tuesday-Friday from 10am-4:30pm, and on Saturdays from 1-4:30pm. Admission is $2 for adults, $1 for children ages 6-17, and free for those five and under.