WATCH ABOVE: The Bragg Creek Trading Post is open for business once again. It’s been a community staple for more than 80 years and while there’s still lots to be done, the owner is committed to keeping it’s long legacy in tact.Tracy Nagai reports.
CALGARY- It’s a historic building in Bragg Creek and for the first time since last years floods, the Trading Post is open for business once again.
The Bragg Creek Trading Post was submerged below flood waters, the long standing structure reduced to a watery shell more than a year and a half ago.
“We were piling bags up against the door, trying to keep the water out. At that moment I realized that it was serious and that we try to recover what we could,” the owner Barb Teghtmeyer said.
It’s been a community staple for more than 80 years.
While there’s still lots to be done, the owner is committed to keeping it’s long legacy in tact.
Barb Teghtmeyer has been struggling to rebuild her family’s store, located along the Elbow River on White Avenue in Bragg Creek.
Her family has owned the store since her father purchased it in 1940.
Teghtmeyer began re-building the trading post in July. She said she had to wait out the winter until she got all the necessary permits and approvals from Rocky View Count. She says it took seven weeks after she applied for them in the fall of 2013.
“We are progressing with the re-building process since the flood and our early setbacks,” said Teghtmeyer. “We are slowly moving forward to have our historical location open and functioning again.”
The building’s main structure is almost complete, according to Teghtmeyer.
The first customers to walk through the trading post’s doors in over a year, took nothing for granted.
“As soon as I went in there today and I smelled the wood smoke, I said ahhh, it is back,” one customer said.
It was built along the elbow river in 1927, used to trade furs and form relationships with the area’s first nation people. It’s located on the century’s old Stoney Trail and was established as a trading post.
Repairing the place hasn’t been easy, with many unexpected problems.
“There were leaks, massive leaks in the plumbing. so it took weeks and weeks to do plumbing that should have taken a few days,” Teghtmeyer said.
But teghtmeyer is determined to keep the trading post’s long legacy intact, so she decided to open, if only briefly in 2014.
For many, the place is more than just store.
“It’s such a symbol of Bragg Creek and to see it wiped out was pretty devastating, so it’s good to see them back, beautiful job, amazing. the log work is just incredible,” one long-time customer said.
Bragg Creek resident and president of the Bragg Creek Historical Society Judie Norman said the Trading Post is synonymous with Bragg Creek.
Norman said the store sold First Nation crafts and many works of beadwork art, as well as bows, drums and moccasins.
“The Trading Post was much more than just a store, it was a place to go and catch up on news, have a few laughs, or just visit,” said Norman. “It was a warm, welcoming place, and on each new visit you would see something you had never spotted before.”
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