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Here are some reprints of articles written about our establishment and the Story area. Click the ones you'd like to read. Country
Discoveries, Spring, 2002 by John Matejov |
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Article from
Country Discoveries, Spring, 2002 by John Matejov "When it comes to Western history, this small town is an open book." If you're traveling between Mount Rushmore in South Dakota and Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and are tired of the crowds at these well-known attractions, stop and rest for a spell in the small unincorporated town of Story. Nestled in the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains, Story is a quiet place (population 650 *Note: The population according to the 2000 census is now 801) where you can really get away from it all--and get a true taste of the West to boot. Even its name has Western roots, old-timers believe it honors cattleman Nelson Story, who brought the first large trail herd of cattle to Montana from Texas in 1866. Any visit to Story should start at the Piney Creek General Store and "Restrunt," known locally as the "Waldorf A'Story." You won't believe all the different things you can find at the store, which sort of serves as a general meeting place in "downtown" Story. It's a great place to eat, too. Chef Kim Eckerman, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of American, and her staff prepare dinners from her recipe book 5 nights a week during the summer. (*Note: This summer of 2005, Chef Kim will be doing her dinners one night a week. Call the Crick for a schedule.) If you decide to spend a few days in Story, you can bunk at the Story Pines Inn (1-800-596-6297), the Piney Creek Bed & Breakfast (1-307-683-2911) or the famous Wagon Box Inn (1-307-683-2444.) Many rooms start at $65 a night. As I mentioned before, Story itself is pretty small--not much more than a library, a post office and a church. But there's plenty to see within minutes of town. You can start with a tour of the local trout fish hatchery, which is the largest in the state. Then get a real flavor of the historic West by visiting Fort Phil Kearny. This fort was one of three on the famed Bozeman Trail that helped protect settlers on their way to Montana. There's a nice museum at the fort. The historic Fetterman Battle Site, where Chief Crazy Horse and 1,000 warriors wiped out Captain William Fetterman and his 80 men in an ambush in 1866, is also nearby. Except for General George Custer's defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, the Fetterman massacre was the worst defeat in U.S. Army history. Speaking of Little Bighorn, that battlefield is just 70 miles north of Story. The site is seconds off I-90 and features a museum that's worth a look. If you're in Story on the last Saturday in August, you'll enjoy Story Days, featuring a parade, a cookout and other community activities. This year's festivities (on August 26) will include something new--a Story -wide yard sale, along with a flea market. Who knows, you just might find a real deal on something you can't get at home. So if you're in the area, stop in and get a read on Story --- it's a living chapter in American history. If You Visit...Story is 22 miles south of Sheridan in north-central Wyoming, about 6 miles west of I-90. More To See...The Bighorn National Forest is just one of many areas nearby where you can enjoy a host of outdoor activities, including horseback riding and fishing. There's plenty of breathtaking scenery, too. About 20 miles south of Story is Buffalo, site of the Johnson County Wars. The Jim Gatchell Museum of the West, which features over 10,000 relics from Western history, is in Buffalo; admission is free. You can reach the Buffalo Chamber of Commerce at 1-800-227-5122. |
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Article from the
The Sheridan Press, March 13, 1999 by Wyeth Friday |
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A Story with a happy ending.
The Waldorf A' Story garnered national recognition last month when an article about the restaurant and general store appeared in the February edition of Gourmet magazine. The article spoke highly of the breakfast fare at the cozy restaurant on 19 North Piney Road in Story, and also mentioned the rare selection of hot sauces and other merchandise on the packed shelves of the general store. "A customer came in and told us we were written up in Gourmet. We didn't know when anyone from the magazine had been here," said Patty Hoover, who owns the Waldorf A' Story and the Piney Creek General Story in Story with her husband, Dick. The Hoover's bought the original store in 1993 when it was an orange and white striped metal building with a Pepsi sign hanging out front. "Dick designed all this and came up with the name, Waldorf A' Story," Patty said, gesturing at the rough-hewn logs that make up the counter and the twisting timber that appears to hold up the corrugated metal roof. The Hoovers moved to Story about six years ago from Dallas. "I wanted a place where I could walk to work," says Dick, and smiles. Dick worked as a graphic designer in Dallas, mostly preparing annual reports. But the collection of antiques, including an old runner sled, hurricane lanterns, carved wooden Indian and cowboy heads, and uncountable numbers of other knick knacks, shows a creativity beyond annual report graphics. Over the first few years of ownership, the Hoovers built a stone facade over the old metal building and added a wooden porch and numerous picnic tables and seats outside the shop and eatery. Anyone passing through would swear the structure was built a century ago. A weathered sign on the stone wall reads, "Story Real Escape Company." "That's what this is, an escape," Dick says. The magic behind the menu at the Waldorf A' Story is head chef Kim Eckerman. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. Eckerman served as executive chef at the Spring Creek Resort in Jackson before moving to Story to live in a "quieter part of the state." The menu features constantly changing weekly specials that run the gamut. This week featured Seafood Lasagna, Mexican Quiche and Indian Fry Bread Tacos among other things. "Eating out is an American past time. It should be fun. Eating should be a form of entertainment, not jut walk in, shovel it in and walk out, " Patty says. The store and restaurant is staffed by 10 people besides the Hoovers. "We have a lot of talented people up here, and most live right in the Story area," Dick says. The store is managed by Vicki Norwood, who Dick refers to as the magic behind the 200 vendors the store uses to acquire its selection of hot sauces, international foods and other gourmet food items. The Hoover's have heard a recipe from the restaurant may soon be published in Bon Appetit. "We expect the summer to be very busy. We're usually knee-deep in people in the store aisles," says Patty. Do the Hoover miss Dallas? "I miss the warm weather," says Patty "Not a minute," counters Dick.
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Article from the Gourmet Magazine, February, 1999 "The town
of Story, Wyoming, is a fresh-air destination for many tourists in the
summer but home to a handful of stalwart High Plains citizens throughout
the year. Its focal point is a multipurpose log-and-stone building
called the Piney Creek General Store, a personable enterprise that serves
as a community center and an all-purpose convenience store with groceries,
video rentals, and an inspired selection of salsas and barbecue
sauces. Snuggled to one side of the jam-packed shelves is a little
dining area dubbed Walfdorf A' Story. It has a split-log counter and
some mismatched tables at which locals gather to greet the dawn over
plates of biscuits and gravy, warm coffee cake, bacon-and-egg sandwiches
on grilled french bread, and stacks of especially delightful buttermilk
pancakes accompanied by griddle-cooked smoked ham. Later in the day,
Waldorf A' Story is a good source for takeout meals. (The menu lists
the phone number as 683-2400 - I-AIN'T COOKIN'.") |
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Article from the
Billings Gazette, March 22, 1994 by
Anna Koch |
| If a trip to your supermarket doesn't make you come away
feeling the world is a pretty good place, consider stopping at Dick
Hoover's Piney Creek General Story in Story, WY.
The place offers a serenity akin to the atmosphere that existed in the general stores of the 1890's, but it is also stocked with items geared to life in the 1990's. At Hoover's Piney Creek establishment, the time you spend is appropriately referred to as "visiting time," rather than shopping time. You're likely to be invited to share a cup of coffee with Hoover, and, if you're lucky, you might end up in a hilarious conversation with his sidekick, art director and public relations man all combined in the personage of Story artist, Ed Smyth. Coming into town, watch for a small metal building with a sign which reads, "Serving Story since 1993." As you come through the front door, watch where you walk. If you're shopping for a doll for some little girl in your life, you might trip over the plumber's friends, and you may have to duck under the long string of garlic cloves to find the latest in gourmet sauces, but it's all there. Dog lovers have to remember that the dog food is located next to the big ivy plant, just east of the aprons made from old denim jeans. Hoover, not related to either J. Edgar or the vacuum cleaner people, says recent work done on his paternal family tree may show some blood ties to present Herbert Hoover. On his mother's side, he's related to president Eisenhower. But he says if he's achieved any degree of success in his lifetime, it is not because of any famous name people in his ancestral background, but rather because of the hard-work ethic taught him by his father when he was growing up in Pennsylvania. The philosophy Hoover developed is basically: "Work is a man's life. Without it, you have no purpose." After doing a stint with Uncle Sam, Hoover became what he calls "a displaced Yankee," moving to Texas. He and his wife raised Terri, Tom and Erin, and Dick Hoover developed a successful career in graphic arts. Despite achievements like the One Show Gold Award he won for an annual report he put together for a major baking company (subsidiary of Anheuser Busch Company), the stress of the corporate life began taking its toll. "Through such things a s bankruptcies, mergers and acquisitions, my business world changed drastically," he says.
During those ten years, Hoover tried to create his own little island of peace in Irving, Texas near Dallas. "I made my house what I wanted it to be and pretended to be somewhere else," is how he sums up his way of dealing with life during those years. Then one day a neighbor cut down all the trees just west of Hoover's house. The trees had been his security, not just from the long hours of Texas heat, but also, in a sense, from his stressful lifestyle. "When the trees went, I went." he says simply. "I had spent my entire life trying to get where I wanted to be, only to find out I didn't really know where that place was." Dick says. During yearly vacation trips to the Jackson, Wyoming area, Hoover had determined that when he departed this life, he wanted his remains returned to Wyoming. "I came to the conclusion, if Wyoming is a good place to be buried, why wouldn't it be a good place to live?" he says. On what Dick calls a "fluke," the result of an exaggerated account on the part of his friend, Jerry Walker, about his desire to come to Wyoming, Jerry ended up with a job in Sheridan. Before long, Dick came north to visit Jerry. While in Wyoming, the Texans ate at the Wagon Box and Lodore supper clubs nestled among Story's tall pines. Hoover was introduced to Story. "I thought any town I can't see in the daylight must be a good town," he said with a laugh. When he learned the
little store was for sale, he bought it. That was a year
ago. In the interim Dick Hoover has established his business
priorities: When according to
Hoover, you've got limited funds and/or space, you have to use
discretion as to how you stock your grocery shelves. Dick Hoover has a lot more than that. He brought to PIney Creek shoppers what he calls "personal response." If the patrons don't find what they want, they are urged to write the item down on Dick's green sheet at the front of the store and next week, it'll be there. Special services are often offered, like the delivery of a PCG turkey right to the customer's house last Thanksgiving. "It's absolutely amazing what I can get right here in Story," the new Wyoming grocer says. Plans for the future include adding such cold-weather essentials as Carhartt coveralls and year-long necessities like BVD's. From 110 new items on PCG's shelves the first week Hoover came to Story, there are now -- Well, Hoover quit counting at 3,000. When Hoover and Ed Smyth became acquainted, Hoover talked him into doing some local advertising in what can only be described as the "Smyth" style. Smyth, himself a displaced person from the busy corporate St. Louis, Missouri world of two decades ago, found out Dick Hoover loved moose. If you happen to be in the right place in Story at the right time, you're likely to see the lumbering creatures. So, the Piney Creek Grocery logo and main advertising line naturally ended up being, "Moosey on over." Most everyone who does is glad for the experience. |