Melstone, Montana drug, hardware store hopes to survive with help from the community

On a miserably cold October morning, Barney Richter dropped by Lazy JC Drug and Hardware here looking for an onion and a carton of milk.

"Got to get the chili going," one of the town’s newest homeowners said with a smile as he headed toward coolers in the grocery section.

The store is one of the last businesses in the town of about 140 on the northeast edge of Musselshell County, and it is far and away Melstone’s oldest business. It opened its doors just four years after the town was founded as a stop for the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad in 1908. The year its walls went up, the entire business district of the once-thriving railroad town burned to the ground. City fathers decided that all new commercial buildings would be constructed of brick, Coles said.

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A proposal by Becky Jennaway was one of the first to gain traction. She suggested that the community form a cooperative to buy and operate the Lazy JC. With the help of the Montana Cooperative Development Center in Great Falls, a steering committee recently finished the paperwork necessary to get the co-op rolling.

Lazy Jc Drug & Hardware 406-358-2413

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