When the Masonville Mercantile, a local fixture dating back to the late 1800s, closed, the future of the store was thrown into uncertainty. Most of the items inside were auctioned off last November, as well as the land and the building.

But the people who bought it, Bill Carle and his partners Susan and Robert Mein, have ensured that the store will remain open, continuing to operate it as a quirky gift shop, convenience store, clothing boutique and local gathering place for the small valley town of Masonville and the many tourists and passersby who pay it a visit each year.

Carle is no stranger to taking over operation of local landmarks — a decade ago he did the same with the Dam Store, the iconic stopping point that has delighted visitors heading up the Big Thompson Canyon for over a century.

Carle grew up in the concession business, family-owned and operated businesses that would serve food and drinks at government-owned attractions like national parks or museums.

In those days, he explained, the entire industry was family run. One of his earliest memories was seeing the Beatles at Red Rocks as a 9-year-old. His family ran concessions, a role he later took over himself, and his cousins insisted he head into the venue early to save them seats, swept up as they were in Beatlemania.

When he took over the family business, he continued to handle concessions at the world-famous amphitheater, as well as at other Colorado institutions like the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave and the Pikes Peak Visitor Center, then the Pikes Peak Summit House, the home of a famous donut recipe originally conceived of by his great-grandmother.

Times are changing, he said, and the state has moved to large corporate firms rather than family businesses to operate their cafes and concessions, leaving him adrift.

He lost his contract with the Pike’s Peak Visitor Center in 1992, then Red Rocks in 2002, followed by the Echo Lake Lodge in 2022 and finally Buffalo Bill’s in 2024.

The solution, he said, was local privately owned destinations like the Mercantile, places that had been family-owned for generations but couldn’t remain that way, but that both the family and the community had an interest in preserving.

“This is what’s left for mom and pop,” he said. “This is where mom and pop are going to try to hide out and survive another generation or two.”

There are changes in store, according to Susan Mein, who is primarily operating the Mercantile. For one, the place had, by the end of its previous ownership, come to resemble more of a museum than a store, with so many knick-knacks, artifacts and other ephemera that was not for sale filling the building, Mein said.

Most of those items were auctioned off at the same sale where Carle and the Meins bought the building, so it’s notably less cluttered than before.

But Mein said the quirkiness that has made the store such a destination will remain. Tourists can pop in for a t-shirt or souvenir, locals can pop in for a case of beer or just a chat, and the Masonville Mercantile will serve more or less the same purpose it has since 1896.

Sara Cobb and her friend Sara Decter, both born and raised in Masonville, were lounging outside in the early hours Thursday morning, reminiscing.

“When I was young, my dad and I would always stop by and get ‘the naughty things,’ as we called them,” Cobb said. “Coca-Cola, peanuts, maybe an ice cream cone, the things mom said we couldn’t have. It was always our secret to stop at the Mercantile on the way home.”

Decter bought her wedding dress at the Mercantile, and said that because she was getting married so young, every other clothing boutique she visited treated her with scorn.

“They acted like I was playing dress-up, because I was only 19,” she recalled after 26 years of marriage. The Mercantile was the only one that treated her with respect. Now that it’s reopened, she still stops by.

“It’s still the place to stop,” she said. “Take everything in, look at stuff, and grab a snack.”