Tri-County Mercantile — Local services in Chugwater

Legendary hospitality experience at this store. While waiting for some work to be done by another local small business, I wandered over to the mercantile while casually exploring the town. Absolutely, the friendliest vibe I have encountered in my life….and I’ve lived a fairly unusual life around the world in the middle of nowhere and big cities alike. This was one of those experiences in life where you encounter people who are content to be themselves and take pride in the life they lead, so the interactions are real and unfiltered. I feel that Wyoming in general is a real and unfiltered place, relatively untouched from the homogenizing influences of major US city culture - this place certainly holds that torch. My impression was that the store mainly supplies to the local ranching communities, so they don’t have much of an incentive to hustle those passing through for a small purchase here and there…just genuine, friendly people who really seem to take pride in their Wyoming life. I struck up a conversation with one of the owners, Josh, who is a character - a fairly accomplished artist in addition to his varied Chugwater entrepreneur and ranching activities. I told him how I was traveling around Wyoming for the next month on a work project and he took the time to share interesting stories from his own travels, history, and even gave me a custom hand written list of local towns to visit based on my interests and needs. Every one of those recommendations was on point and really helped define a pretty epic life journey that unfolded for me in Wyoming over the following weeks. Randomly stopping at this small store turned out to be better than hours of online research / Redditing and visitor center chit chats. Whoever reads this review when passing by this small town, I’d definitely recommend stopping in if you’re looking for stories or just a general vibe check for the Great Plains. Tri-County guys - thanks for everything, seriously, and hope to see you...

After stopping off for lunch at The Soda Fountain opposite, we took a look at this new store. Had a great chat with owner and bought some Arbuckles Ariosa coffee beans - Josh the owner gave me a history of this product, and we also had a long discussion about the great plans - making it into a true authentic looking general store and also for other historical properties in Chugwater such as the old disused hotel and gas station. Good luck and I hope to re-visit this place...

My husband and I stopped in to the mercantile after having lunch at the soda fountain (also great!) across the street.

What a lovely shop this is and Josh, the owner, is such a friendly guy with a great story of how he came to settle in Chugwater, WY, which we found fascinating after discovering he was from our home state of PA.

We bought some local coffee and a few postcards which were photographs taken by Josh. Do stop in should you find yourself in Chugwater- you’ll be...