Sidebar by Ed Quillen
General Stores – August 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine
It all depends on how you want to define a “general store,” but in this context, call it a “market that sells a variety of items, usually including gasoline, that is in the same building as the post office.”
The Twin Lakes Store fits, and so do several others in this part of the world. One is in nearby Granite on U.S. 24.
Although the store at Hillside nearly closed a few years ago, it’s still operating — right on the Frémont-Custer county line on Colo. 69.
Another can be found at Parlin, on U.S. 50 about 15 miles east of Gunnison, and we’re told that there’s one in Jaroso on Colo. 169 south of Fort Garland, almost in New Mexico. Along U.S. 285 between Fairplay and Denver, there’s a general store at Grant (wher the Roberts Tunel emerges), and an almost-general-store at Shawnee (it’s a post office with merchandise, but it doesn’t sell gasoline).
There may be others — we relied on memory and the U.S. Postal Service, but it doesn’t keep a convenient record of “contract post offices.”
