Let's be friends - Boone Store
In the boomtowns of the American West, it was often not the gold diggers but the traders who became rich. The general store was the real hub of activity. Flour, sugar, coffee, tobacco, tinned goods, tools, soap, candles and staple foods in large barrels on the floor, measured out as required.
The Boone Store wasn’t the only shop in Bodie, but it was the longest-lasting. Harvey Boone had founded the business in 1879 together with his partner J.W. Wright. In July 1884, a fire consumed almost the entire block on Green Street — the shop survived. In the front window, there are still products from that era that are recognisable today. You step inside and find yourself in 1890, or perhaps 1940, or somewhere in between.
Credit was the problem for all shops of this kind. Shoppers without cash ran up a tab; the shopkeepers noted it down by hand in leather-bound ledgers. In a mining town, where a man might be paid today and move on tomorrow, that was bad business. The sign on the shelf puts it bluntly.
