(2019 Grand Teton Ep 16)
Having toured the Tetons and Yellowstone we faced a decision:
Head north to the Dakotas and Theodore Roosevelt National Park, then to International Falls and Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota, continue across the north shore of Lake Superior to Pukaskwa National Park in Canada and finally to Sault Ste. Marie in Michigan on the way home.
Or head south to Capitol Reef, Arches and Canyonlands National Parks in Utah, followed by Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado.
We chose the southern route. I had to find a place for treatment of my dislocated finger and the weather forecast for a major first storm of the winter was expected to hit Montana and the Dakotas . The northern route would have to wait for a future trip.
Our choice was good! To the north it was cold and snowy (see news), definitely not suitable for camping and outdoor activities – not for thin-blooded Floridians and most other people. In addition, we found a hand therapist in Cortez, Colorado (near Mesa Verde) to look at my finger.
We made plans to spend the night in Evanston, a town in southwestern Wyoming (map point 12). Crossing rolling rangelands with mountains in the distance, we came to the town of Kemmerer, Wyoming. In the center of town, we noticed a sign on a building:
The first JC Penney store was in a small town in remote southwest Wyoming! We stopped to learn how the massive department store chain started in Kemmerer.
James Cash Penney was born in 1875 on a small farm in Missouri. After high school, he held several jobs, including that of clerk at a dry goods store where he began his training as a merchant. He moved to Colorado where he owned a butcher shop, and at age 23 he went to work for Golden Rule Stores based in Colorado and Wyoming.
The store owners offered him an opportunity to join them as a partner and to open a new store in Kemmerer, Wyoming. The store opened on April 14, 1902 and was an instant success, based on two then revolutionary ideas – cash only transactions and the golden rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Additional stores were opened, and when the owners gave Penney an opportunity to buy their interest in the Wyoming stores, he jumped at the chance. By 1912, there were 34 Golden Rule Stores headquartered in Salt Lake City.
In 1913 the chain was incorporated in Utah as the JC Penney Company. The company headquarters was moved to New York City a year later to be closer to their major suppliers of merchandise.
The JC Penney Company was remarkably successful – by the beginning of the 1920s, there were 197 stores from coast to coast with sales of nearly $43 million.
See JC Penney for more fascinating information about this man and the department store chain that help shape America. For example, in 1940 he helped train a young Sam Walton at a JC Penney store in Des Moines, Iowa.
Penney lived the tenets of the company’s mission statement “Honor, Confidence, Service and Cooperation” and underlying Christian principles throughout his 95-year-life.
Before continuing to Capitol Reef National Park, we will pause next week to share several interesting sights encountered thus far during our Grand Teton travels.
Take the LONG Road... 