Historic Trading Post, Authentic Native Crafts, Moccasins, Mukluks, Genuine Cowichan Knitwear.It was T.J. Eldson, known to all as Jack, who started a trucking business and store to serve the area as early as 1932. Though not the first store by any means, it has outlasted the other by many decades.
The building which houses the Bragg Creek Trading Post is located beside the historic Stoney Trail which winds its way through the foothills. This was a well-travelled north-south route used by the Stoney Indians from the Morley area. Many a camp was made on the river bank upstream from the store as they traded their furs and buckskins from items such as bacon, flour, baking powder, moccasin rubbers, yard goods, beads, and ammunition. This trade along with providing the local ranchers with groceries, gasoline, and hardware was the lifeline of the store. Even today a good portion of the Post’s activities come from these two groups of people, with the additional business of the commuters and the ever-increasing tourist trade.
Business as usual at the Trading Post means a truly unique shopping experience. Where else can you gas up from a 1920’s visual hand pump while you buy your bread and milk, local vine-ripened tomatoes or a juicy T-bone steak; outfit yourself in a new shirt, Cowichan Sweater, or gumboots; purchase a fishing license or a chain saw file or chalk for your chalk-line; or best of all try on a pair of genuine Native moccasins or mukluks? Where else can one conduct all this sort of business around the warmth of a trusty wood heater, admist the aroma of freshly tanned hides while joining other locals present in the lively discussion of the latest issues?
Truly a unique shopping experience with a subtle mingling of the old and the new. That is the essence of the Trading Post to this day.
Located at 117 White Ave in Bragg Creek. Phone:(403)949-3737
