Tracy General Store

08/14/2026

07/31/2026

John Blyth was an early sheepherder in our area. He came from Scotland to work for a sheep company near Oakley in 1880 and eventually became a very wealthy sheepman with his home place in Yost. He was caught up in the Sheepmen-Cattlemen wars. We tend to think of the conflict as more centered in Oakley and the areas to the west of there, but there were a lot of skirmishes in other parts of Cassia County. John was attacked by a notorious cowboy and lived to tell about it. Here is the story from the local newspaper in 1931.

07/31/2026

Check out our history and stories at Mini Cassia Heritage Hub! Lots of fun things to see!

Facebook YouTube Blog Almo, Idaho Genealogy by Jan About Mini-Cassia The Mini-Cassia area of south central Idaho is rarely described on maps or legal documents. "Mini-Cassia" combines Southern Idaho's Minidoka and Cassia counties into a portmandeau-a phrase that combines two words into another uniqu...

07/31/2026

Sorry it has been so long since I posted. Lots going on that has had me distracted but I am ready to get going again! Life goes on much the same in Almo and at the Tracy General Store! That is good! So to begin again, it is always nice when you find your home and the valley “at the end of the rainbow”! We have been blessed with some much needed rainstorms. Two nights in a row as I was heading home from the Store I saw a rainbow in nearly the same place. It encompasses most of the valley between its two ends. So I think that says it all—-Almo is a pretty great place to be—-and to be from!

02/09/2026

Everybody wants to know what is upstairs! These photos were taken several years ago and there are lots of hidden treasures. Jonathan has found a lot of old documents and "stuff" going back to the 1890's tucked in the corners of the attic. I'll be highlighting some of them. The original staircase was on the southeast wall of the store and there are probably some of you who sneaked up there when you were kids! The access to the outside upstairs door was removed when the Tracy's built the cinder block addition. Now the only way in is through a trap door in the ceiling. They had a variety of activities in the upstairs. :) Olin Eames told me that when he was just a little boy he was standing at the foot of the stairs when they were having a dance upstairs. Some of the guys had a little too much refreshment and had gotten into a fight. They tumbled down the stairs, landing at his feet. I think it was Stan Lloyd telling me about a group of teenagers who had been drinking and got out of hand. Some of the adults cornered them into a section of the room to control them a little. A couple of them sneaked out, drove to Naf and bought more beer, and brought it back to the store where they rejoined their friends. But there were other activities there that weren't as "fun". The community enjoyed putting on plays in the upstairs. We found a backdrop of a tree that someone had painted on a long narrow canvas. I have it tucked away right now so can't share it. A visitor told me that their ancestor, Henry Dennison Durfee Jr., was always the villain in the plays because he was just so dang onery. Mr. Pettingill from Elba had a portable organ that he would bring over and play for dances and activities. The "Beecher Girls" told me that their Mom and Dad had their wedding dance there. We are hoping to do some major repairs to the upstairs so that we can use it again as a museum and library. It is a really neat spot!

02/03/2026

As much as I love the old cash register, I think I like The McCaskey even better. The patent pending date on it is 1907, so it and the cash register likely were purchased at the same time. The McCaskey is the bill holder for the monthly charges. When a customer came in to buy something or to pay on the bill, the clerk could easily find their charge slip in the filing system. The 12 "trays" are hinged so that you can easily flip through them to find one of the one hundred numbered clips that hold the bills in place. Phyllis had covered the board on the base with some butcher paper and when I went to change it because it looked so battered, I was astounded. Underneath the butcher paper was a priceless hand written list of everyone who had a charge account at the store and a number identifying the slot where their bill was stored. With the cash register and McCaskey dating to about 1910 and the fact that Kent's great grandfather, HD Durfee Sr. (Henry Dennison Durfee) had his name on the ledger, we can date the two pieces as being purchased between 1910 and 1916, when Henry Dennison died. Many of you will have ancestors on the list as well. We are using the list to help us identify the people who were living in the valley in that time period. Many of the earliest families have descendants who still live here, living on the original homesteads. They generally had the better and earlier water rights though the Almo Water Company was created to make sure everybody had some access to the water. With the depression and an accompanying drought added to news that the Raft River Reclamation Project had been canceled, many families had to move away. They sold their property to neighbors who had to expand their operations if they wanted to survive. Their family is often remembered with the locals referring to various fields by the name of the original homesteader---"The Spencer", "The Moon Field"....... We have a Homestead Map created by Alan and Richard Bruesch showing all the families who homesteaded here. It is fascinating. And many of them are listed on the bill ledger at the Tracy General Store.

02/02/2026

Most of you are familiar with the old National cash register that has been sitting in the same spot since before 1916. Many of you haven’t had a good look at it closeup! Depictions of most cash registers show a much smaller version. This is a Cadillac of cash registers. I have always wondered how such a small rural store could have afforded to buy such a beautiful and detailed piece of equipment. My bet is that a traveling salesman came out west to get ride of overstocked merchandise. An internet search of the serial number indicates that it was built around 1910. The beautiful ornate casting of the case itself is a work of art. The cash register boasts a time clock though the store owner didn’t have an hourly employee. There is a place to write down the list of things to buy. A customer told me the other day that the marble slab on the front was not just for looks. It was to help the clerk check for counterfeit coins. Apparently during the Civil War and times after, coins were circulated that were not made of silver. By striking the edge of the coin on the marble, you could tell by the sound if the coin was legitimate. He had me tap one of our copper/nickel quarters on the marble and then he tapped his silver ring. The sound difference was obvious. The wood base is quarter sawn oak—except for the drawer. I heard Phyllis say that in the 1970’s, someone pried the drawer open and stole the little bit of cash she had. So she had someone fix it with a different piece of wood. You can see the pry marks on both sides of the drawer. I'll have to ask her again about the story! The cash register is a pretty amazing piece of craftsmanship and an important part of our history!

01/31/2026

I can't find the photo I was looking for so this will have to do for now. Years ago, Stan Lloyd took me, Jim Sheridan, Olen Eames and Jim Lloyd on jaunts around the area. Stan was in his 70's then and the others were into their 90's. I have some great stories recorded as they remembered people and places of long ago. In the last post, I mentioned that the Moon family owned the land that had been the City of Rocks stage station. Jim Lloyd had a very quick dry wit, a slow drawl and always had a story. Very often it would take me several minutes before I got his joke. He had known the Moon family when he was a little boy and was out herding his family sheep. In his characteristic way, he remembered the Moons in a story. "Once I saw a half Moon (a stepson), Once I saw a Harvest Moon (bringing in the crop), And once I saw a Full Moon (had a little too much to drink)." The Moon family raised a huge flock of turkeys and they would butcher them and stuff the carcasses in the snow until they could get them to town to sell them at Thanksgiving. He remembered seeing the family bringing Mr. Moon's casket to the cemetery (I think at Moulton). We don't understand how hard the realities of life were back then. Another trip prompted him to tell about the Indians coming back from the Fort Hall Reservation in the fall to hunt and to gather pine nuts. Again, he was herding sheep, a little boy out alone for weeks. The Indian family invited him to eat supper with them. Jim said that they were roasting a porcupine over the coals and he ate it with them. "When my folks asked me how the porcupine tasted, I told them it was a little sharp." It was quite a while before I started to chuckle. I did enjoy his sense of humor and can still hear his slow drawl. I will be posting some of the audio recordings of those trips and others on you tube and will alert you here. There are recordings there already at Mini Cassia Heritage Hub with the trip to Kelton and some of our monthly Heritage Hub meetings.

01/31/2026

A couple of months ago, I decided that I wanted to be able to tell "our story" better---the story of the area---the pioneers, the early settlers, the generations that raised us. So we moved the groceries closer together on the shelves, replaced metal shelving with the old wooden glass cases which are original to the store--and are in the process of making a little museum/history area in the store. It is a work in progress and many of the photos and histories will have to be online at www.minicassiaheritagehub.com. Here are some photos of my helpers (my patient and long suffering family!) who moved everything around for me and a teaser as to how great it will be when I get things put together. I am slowly bringing up my antique treasures to put in the glass cases and we will mount a lot more photographs on the wall. I plan to create qr codes that will tell the story of the valley through the heirlooms and photos.

01/26/2026

The sun is shining! The birds are singing! After several days of thick fog, we finally have a beautiful sunny day. We are, however, praying for snow to come, especially in the mountains! If you have cabin fever, the roads are clear and a drive to Almo and the City of Rocks would be a good break. I'm making salted caramel cookie dough this morning, and baking other favorite cookies fresh as well. My Mom's oatmeal chocolate chip recipe has turned out to be a hit! It doesn't work to freeze the dough with that recipe, so I am playing with the best way to make sure her cookies turn out good. They are Jonathan and Kent's favorites, so I am having to work to keep up with them snitching cookies! With the bad weather that has hit much of the country, we hope that you are all doing well and safe!

The first photo was taken on Friday and the picture of Mount Independence and the birds was this morning!