© 2024 | Jefferson Public Radio
Southern Oregon University
1250 Siskiyou Blvd.
Ashland, OR 97520
541.552.6301 | 800.782.6191
a service of Southern Oregon University
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Callahan Store Known as Biggest Little Store in the West

Across from the Ranch Hotel in Callahan, Calif., sits The Callahan Emporium.  Recently reopened in 2011, it was originally a lodging house called the Baker Hotel run by Mrs. Ella Paxton Baker from the late 1800’s until 1912.

Later Dick Hayden owned, and Charlie Thompson operated, a revamped store and adjoining bar. Thompson took credit for dubbing the two-story store the Emporium.  The store carried everything, from groceries, meat and produce to work clothes, boots and other hardware and knick-knacks. It was often said that the Callahan Emporium was the “biggest little store” in the West.

Although today’s Callahan population has dwindled to fewer than a hundred, Callahan was once a booming gold mining community, settled in the 1850’s. Gold seekers streamed in from the Trinity mines on their way to Yreka or Oregon.

The Emporium’s bar is still a local hotspot, owned and run by “Callahan Fran,” but it features an antique bar that was moved from a saloon originally located in South Fork Town, a few miles up South Fork of Scott River near the old Montezuma Mine. The bar was moved to San Francisco for a time before being returned to Callahan.

Source: Kinney, J.O. "Callahan Store and Bar." Vol. 3. Siskiyou Pioneer and Yearbook. Ed. Evelyn Carter. No. 7 ed. Yreka: Siskiyou County Historical Society, 1964. 62-64. Print.

Gail Fiorini-Jenner is a writer and teacher. Her first novel "Across the Sweet Grass Hills", won the 2002 WILLA Literary Award. She co-authored four histories with Arcadia Publishing: Western Siskiyou County: Gold & Dreams, Images of the State of Jefferson, The State of Jefferson: Then & Now, which placed in the 2008 Next Generation Awards for Nonfiction and Postcards from the State of Jefferson.