Store History
Originally founded as the Keystone Trading Company in the late 1880’s by a wagon peddler with a ventriloquist act known as “Cheap John” (Albert McDonald), the store has been in operation ever since.
The store has changed little from its early days, the maple shelves running the length of the main room, the old ladder accessing the shelves in the center, and many of the fixtures, are original throughout the building.
By 1899 inventory included 52 different lines of clothing; 79 different household products and 105 categories of hardware items; plus coal and coal oil, feeds and seeds and harnesses, and blacksmithing supplies.
With the discovery of gold at the Holy Terror Mine, inventory grew to include blasting powder, dynamite caps, fuses, picks, shovels, and gold pans. A small, cut-out, trap door along the center roof line looking down from the attic was used as a vantage point for an employee with a shotgun to keep an eye on would be thieves!
View from the trap door
Around World War I, James Halley III, bought the Keystone Trading Company, keeping it alive through the Great Depression. When construction began on Mount Rushmore National Memorial, sculptor Gutzon Borglum and his group purchased their supplies here. The store grew to include a meat locker and storage facility. Jack Mentele married one of the Halley daughters and ran the butcher shop (original butcher block located at the front of the store). The store even operated as the Post office after others burned down.
Driller honeycombing Mt. Rushmore
When James Halley III retired, his son James Halley IV couldn’t bear the thought of the old building closing, so he upgraded the store once more to suit the needs of the forties and fifties. Known as “Junior” he was a venerable and thrifty businessman. Stories of him rigging a booby trap using a shotgun to prevent break-ins, setting a CB radio base station in the store and offering tourists local information, and using the store as a commodities distribution point during the 1972 flood, and other stories populate local lore.
In 1980 Junior Halley decided to sell and retire. A three-day auction brought customers and antique dealers from hundreds of miles away. for the next few years an author and her family leased and ran the store before Junior and his wife Lois sold the store to Bob Nelson who has operated it with his family ever since. Bob has become an icon in the town, locals and tourists alike stop to visit with him and explore the ever-changing inventory. Together with his family, the store promises to operate for generations to come, and give visitors a glimpse into the past.
