We saw the Mothership!

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J. C. Penney's Golden Rule Store, boaded up, in Kemmerer, Wyoming 
Above, next to the Opera House Store, is J. C. Penney's Golden Rule Store. It is boarded up, but we were told had it had recently been sold, so perhaps it will re-open in some manner in the near future.

We had leftover Molcajetes for breakfast, which were surprisingly good cold. We checked out of the motel and drove down to the Kemmerer triangle. The town “square” is three sided. We walked around the triangle, which didn't take but a few minutes, and stopped and looked at the closed-up Golden Rule store. 

J. C. Penney had worked in Colorado in a couple of stores called the Golden Rule and which operated under that philosophy. He got approval to start his own Golden Rule store in Kemmerer in 1902. The store was so successful that he moved to a larger store (the closed-up store shown above). Later he opened additional stores that became J. C. Penney’s. 

 We also visited the J. C. Penney House Museum, which is just off the triangle. This little house was owned by Penney and has a few exhibits about him and his business. The rooms are furnished with period pieces, but we were told the only piece(s) owned by Penney was a high chair in the dining room. 

 

J. C. Penney House Museum in Kemmerer, Wyoming 
J. C. Penney House Museum

The original J. C. Penney store is on the Kemmerer triangle, and is still in business, but it didn’t open for another hour, so we decided to head home. 

Original J. C. Penney store in Kemmerer, Wyoming 
The Mothership- the original J. C. Penney Store.

 On the way back to SPC, we saw36 pronghorn antelope, about half of which were on an irrigated field (looked like alfalfa) in Farson. 

We decided to bypass SPC and headed to Lander for groceries. Once we got back to the trailer and put things away, I began dicing and sauteing bacon, onions, and jalapenos, well, because they will prove useful. I fired up the smoker to make frittatas for breakfasts this weekend and then smoked six ears of corn. Before dinner, I took out leg of lamb I smoked Mondatand trimmed the meat off the bone and then it and a few scraps out by the truck for the neighborhood dogs- they didn't last long. We had the leg of lamb, corn, and cole slaw.

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