Lost River Trading Post

Open Saturday and Sunday

The Lost River Trading Post is a modern, mountain general store that features over 200 local artists and American-made makers, a from-scratch bakery and espresso, craft beer and wine bar. The renovated building is the latest iteration of an old feed and general store building that was built in the late 1940’s on land originally purchased by the Winchester Milling Company. Behind the store, the Winchester & Western Railroad and Lost River Railroad converged and a passenger railroad station and co-located elementary school was located just North of the building in the early 1900’s. On August 12, 1953 Winchester Milling Co. sold the building to Joseph T. and Esther H. Frye, who opened up the Frye Farm Service store. Frye Farm Service was a community gathering place and feed store serving Wardensville for many years. Many locals have relayed memories of visiting as kids with their parents and having to lay around the store on bags of feed and seed waiting for the latest gossip fest to end so they could go home. One of the original turquoise blue seed bins is still located in the back room of the store. The building was then sold to William H. and Nancy P. Harmon on September 10, 1987, who turned the Frye Farm Service into a Southern States Co-op in 1988. The original Southern States signs that were on the exterior of the building are still up in the store today. The Southern States store closed at some point in the 1990’s and the building went through two different iterations of an antiques store before becoming the Lost River Trading Post in September of 2013.

Open Courtesy of Paul Yandura and Donald Hitchcock

Location: 295 East Main St, Wardensville