America’s rural byways and backroads are worth traversing for their historical treasures. Far off the beaten path in unincorporated Valle Crucis, North Carolina, population just over 100, is the Mast General Store. In this pastoral setting of farms and livestock fields, set against the Appalachian mountains of Watauga County, not much has changed in 142 years.
The road in front of the old store was once dirt instead of asphalt, but the store’s aged charm still radiates in the off-kilter way the clapboard structure has settled, the rusted screen doors, and the old Esso red gas pump near the front entrance. Rural communities relied heavily on such small retail stores, which sold everything for families from “the cradle to caskets.”
Mast General Store was originally called Taylor and Moore Company Store. Henry Taylor purchased land in Valle Crucis and built a small store before the Civil War. However, increased demand after the war ended dictated that Taylor build a larger store in 1882.
Let’s Head Inside
The wood floor creaks and the scent of smoke from the cast iron wood stove fills the air. One section is a working post office: Part of a wall includes old metal post office combination boxes, a U.S. Post Office sign, and a metal-bar customer service window.Near the wood stove, which on cold days draws locals and visitors to sip hot apple cider or hot chocolate and play a game of checkers, is a turn-style wooden apparatus that includes dozens of drawers holding various-sized nails.
Jams, jellies, pickled vegetables, sauces, cornbread mixes, and jars of local honey crowd shelves; old books and signs decorate top ledges. An original hand-cranked cash register, with keys labeled by type such as “dry goods” and “clothing,” sits on a counter. A creaky narrow staircase leads to a second story, and a sign above the narrow passageway cautions: “Low overhang. Watch your head.”
A coffee station boasts historically low prices on a cup of coffee: “5 cents coffee. Yes, it’s true. Self-serve honor system. Put a nickel in the jar.”
One section of the store displays barrels full of old-fashioned candies—Bit-O-Honey, Mary Jane, and Atkinson Peanut Butter Bar—all purchasable by weight. Customers can buy ice-cold sodas out of an old-fashioned cooler. There are plenty of the Moon Pies, with graham cracker cookies, marshmallow, and a chocolate coating—first manufactured in 1917.
Today, Mast General Store sells more gift items than necessities, but patrons can still purchase clothing, shoes, hats, gloves, scarves, as well as cast-iron cookware, quilts, metal buckets, old-fashioned toys and puzzles, and other staples of the late-19th to early-20th century.
Outside is an old tractor, old Royal Crown soda signs, and plenty of rocking chairs. Whether travelers stumble in or plan a visit to Mast General Store, they'll want to sit a spell and savor the sensory, back-to-simpler-times experience that the store offers.
To get there, jump off Interstate 40 at Hickory, North Carolina, take U.S. Route 321 for about 45 miles to Boone, and plug in Valle Crucis into a GPS; Mast General Store is another eight miles from Boone. The scenic drive through the foothills toward the mountains is worth the hour detour off the interstate.
