Pioneer Store Museum: The exterior of the Pioneer Store looks much like it did during the bustling days during the mining era. The building was built in 1880 and still retains the look of the old west. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Merchandise: To walk through the doors of the Pioneer Store Museum is like traveling in a time machine. Virtually everything in the store is 100 years old. Shown is a display case with various items. The shelves behind are well organized by products with the first section being food products, the center contained kitchen utincils and supplies, and the last section contains tobacco and drug products. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
By GARY WARREN
Photographer
Formerly of Los Alamos
Chloride, N.M. has had its boom days and some bust days but the small almost completely ghost town had a very lucky day in 1977 when Don and Dona Edmund made a wrong turn and accidently found Chloride. Don was employed at White Sands at the time and the Edmund’s enjoyed exploring the area on weekends.
The Edmund’s made a wrong turn while exploring in the Black Mountain Range and found their future home. They found a valley with several buildings left from the mining days in the area that were in varying stages of decay and ruin. They found one of the handful of residents who lived in Chloride and began learning all that they could about the town’s history.
It wasn’t long before they were buying their first cabin in Chloride, a dirty cabin that need a lot of cleaning and renovation work. When the Edmunds retired in the mid-1980s, they made the move Chloride as full time residents. For a couple originally from New York who had worked and lived in several locations from coast to coast during Don’s career, retiring in a near ghost town about 40 miles off of the Interstate in a remote canyon in southern New Mexico suited them just fine.
Over the years the Edmunds began purchasing and renovating some other old buildings in the little ghost town in the Black Mountain Range.
In 1989, the Edmunds made a significant purchase when they purchased the Pioneer Store in Chloride.
The Pioneer Store, built in 1880, was a thriving business in Chloride for many years, even after the boom years and the decline in silver prices and silver mining in the 1890s. The town’s newspaper was even published from the second floor above the store for a few years. However, by 1923, the owners could not continue to operate any longer and they boarded up the building and left town.
The Pioneer Store sat boarded up just like the previous owners left it for over seven decades. That is when Don and Dona Edmund made the leap and bought the store.
As it turned out, all of the store’s 1923 merchandise still sat on shelves and in cabinets, counters or displays exactly as they were left when the previous owner boarded up the building in 1923. Many official town documents were also found stored in the building.
However, there was a lot of clean up and restoration to restore the Pioneer Store for the public to enter. Bats, rats, and probably other varmints had made a home in the building over the decades and it would take years to clean and restore.
Before cleaning and restoration work began, the Edmunds carefully took photos and documented every shelf, cabinet display and placement of everything on the walls before it was all moved into storage for the cleaning and restoration work.
During restoration, all products had to be examined and most disposed of after sitting for over 70 years. Some products were retained and all of the packaging containers, etc. were cleaned and put back on the shelves, cabinets, counters and displays exactly as the Edmunds found them when they purchased the property.
After years of work, the Pioneer Store Museum opened in 1998. The building has since been added to the State Register of Cultural Properties.
It is a beautiful museum which tells many stories about Chloride during the mining years.
To enter the Pioneer Store Museum today is like stepping into a time capsule. Almost everything in the place is 100 years old. There are a few current items such as local books that are also included in the inventory today. There are photos, newspaper articles, and other artifacts from the community included with the inventory of merchandise as well.
What a treat it was to visit this museum. The Edmund’s daughter, Linda Turner, gave us the tour and was a wealth of knowledge about almost everything having to do with the town and its history, Turner joined her parents a few years ago to help with operating the museum and a gallery co-op of local artists in the building next door.
Don and Dona and their daughter have restored and renovated 16 structures in this small “almost a ghost town” in southern New Mexico. The most amazing fact is all of the work has been done with private funds or donations from visitors.
Chloride really was lucky when Don and Dona Edmund made that wrong turn back in 1977 and found the town. They have worked almost four decades to save the town and its history for future generations to visit and enjoy.
Editor’s note: Longtime Los Alamos photographer Gary Warren and his wife Marilyn are traveling around the country, and he shares his photographs, which appear in the “Posts from the Road” series published in the Sunday edition of the Los Alamos Daily Post.
Hardware and Household: The shelves and display cases on the opposite wall contain hardware and household merchandise. The store carried a little bit of everything. Also included are some Chloride artifacts such as the school’s dictionary shown in front right, the case shows the store’s first ledger and other historical documents from the town. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Pioneer Store Interior: The interior of the Pioneer Store includes a wood stove for heating as well as clothing and other items displayed in the background. On the right side of the photo is one of two scales used to weigh products that were sold in bulk by weight. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Inventory and Memorabilia:A stove displaying cookware a kitchen items were just a part of the household inventory of larger items that would not fit on a shelf. At right in the photo are tools and supplies used in many construction or mechanical tasks. On the left side of the photo is a display showing historical photos and other documents from the store as well as the town during the mining era. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Tools and Supplies: One corner of the Pioneer Store Museum contains a wide assortment of tools, saddles, parts to repair wagons used in the day and many other items. The items are displayed just as they were 100 years ago when the store was boarded up. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Supplies: An assortment of supplies and tools used for various tasks are seen in the back of the store. Also seen are the stairs leading to the second floor where the town newspaper was printed and published. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
