In eighteen forty-two, a traveling priest named the place Valle Crucis, Latin for “Valley of the Cross,” after three creeks converged there in the form of a cross, and a new western Episcopal mission was founded. With rough roads making travel difficult and farms isolated and largely self-sufficient, general stores became community centers where people picked up mail, heard the latest news, gathered for music and storytelling, and traded local products for goods they could not make themselves. Eggs and butter were exchanged for coffee and sugar, ginseng and goldenseal roots for shoes and bolts of cloth, and hand-stitched quilts for schoolbooks and horseshoes, while the storekeeper sold local items to other areas and restocked what neighbors needed. As the national economy shifted from agriculture to manufacturing and transportation improved, most old general stores disappeared, but this one endured. By the late eighteen nineties little had changed except the paint, and by about nineteen ten through nineteen sixteen the store had expanded to its present size. It has witnessed many changes over the years while remaining basically unchanged, and it continues as a welcoming place for live music, local and regional fare, conversation by the potbellied stove, and even mail service through the corner post office for Valle Crucis delivery addresses.

Photo: Duane and Tracy Marsteller

Photo: Duane and Tracy Marsteller

Photo: Duane and Tracy Marsteller

Valle Crucis, North Carolina · USA