Thursday, April 14, 2005 – Regina Leader-Post – B2
In Big Beaver, Sask., Aust’s is the general store, café, card parlour, and meeting place one of the centres of a life in the community.
By ANNE KYLE (Leader-Post)
BIG BEAVER – This little hamlet may not live up to its “big” name, but Aust’s Store – one of Saskatchewan’s last country general stores – certainly does, offering everything from nuts and bolts to soup and saddle soap, veterinary supplies and a hefty dose of country humour. “Our motto is: ‘if we don’t have it, you don’t need it,” says owner Ron Aust, whose family, starting with his mother and father Lena and Roy, have run the grocery store since 1959.
“The sign above the door really should read: ‘if we don’t have it, we’ll get it if at all possible,’” his wife Gail adds. “We’ve got a good cross-section of everything that a rural farmer would want or need,” Ron says.
Part of the charm of this country store is what you find tucked in the nooks and crannies between the shelves of veterinary supplies, jean jackets and cowboy hats. On the same shelf as the steel-toed work boots, you’ll find an old brass punch-key cash register, a money jar, a coffee pot and snapshots taken by local archivist the late Ralph Hasmussen whose photos and stories of the coming and goings in Big Beaver are legendary.
Ron and his wife Gail bought the business from his parents in 1976, but can trace its history back to 1928. The store changed hands three times before his parents took it over. They bought it out both general stores in Big Beaver in 1959 and consolidated them under one roof. People said it was the worst thing that could have happened to the community. The store wouldn’t last, they warned, Roy recalls. “Here it is nearly 50 years later, and we’re still here. It is not a big money maker, but it has been a good life.” Says Ron.
While big city stores like Wal-Mart may have official greeters, at “Ronnies” as the locals call the Big Beaver landmark, there is always a smiling face behind the register and a pot of coffee on the go. And unlike large chain stores, the Aust’s and their staff, who are on a first-name bases with all their regular customers, still accept personal cheques without asking for identification. Credit and debit cards aren’t part of the daily commerce, but the Aust’s allow customers to run a tab for their purchases in recognition of the ebb and flow of cash in the farming community.
“You have to have very dedicated loyal customers in order to survive,” Ron says, explaining how their general store has outlasted other businesses in the hamlet, where the population has dwindled to 21. The store draws its customers from as far as Bengough, Coronach and south of the border in Montana. Gail points out they are also reliant on the tourist trade, as people discover the secrets of southern Saskatchewan and the mystique of the Big Muddy.
In its heyday, Big Beaver, a border community as the end of the CP Rail line, supported a school, five grain elevators, two grocery stores, a lumberyard, a couple of garages, a bank, a restaurant, three churches, a hotel, a Massey and John Deere Dealership. Back in the days when the trains would come into town on Monday and Thursday nights, Big Beaver was a hub of activity.
Today, that “hub” is centred in the store’s three restaurant booths wedged between rows of shelving in the store’s back room.
“The coffee shop is the heartbeat of the store,” says Ron. When the hotel-café closed next door, they bought it, knocked out a wall to expand their store, but kept the café booths.
“The regulars come in here every morning to play cards, grab a coffee, and catch up on the news,” Ron says. The early risers hit the coffee row at the store around 7:30am. With the second wave of regulars trickling in about an hour before the mail arrives. “No matter what problems you have at home… the minute you go in there you forget about all of that,” says Adeline Hoyorka, the Rural Municipality of Happy Valley Administrator, who operates a small bed and breakfast in Big Beaver.
Contrary to the rumours, local historian Joan Volke says Big Beaver was named after Canada’s national emblem, the beaver. “The Cp Rail line came through here in 1928 and the hamlet got its name when railway crewmen spotted a very large beaver swimming in a beaver pond several miles out of town. There was already a Beaver Creek School East of the hamlet and the beaver part stuck’” Volke said. Big Beaver – a name with a lot of humorous connotations – has a lot of allure it seems, especially for folks living in Saskatchewan, Hoyorka says. “My kids have gone to school in Norte Dame College (Wilcox) and Regina and live all over. But they have to take at least 20 Big Beaver T-shirts back to school because everybody wants one. It’s like, Big Beaver! You’re from Big Beaver, whoa!’ They just can’t think of a better place that they wouldn’t have loved to have been from. The jokes are many,” she says.
Residents of Big Beaver have had to endure their share of ribbing about their hometown with a knowing wink, but Ron and Gail may have had the last laugh capitalizing on the name by hawking sweatshirts that are a hot commodity among the university crowd and tourists. The T-shirts are even being sold at Outta Bounds, a Regina sports store.
"It's amazing how many people have heard of Big Beaver. It's because of the Big Muddy and the allure of the stories of outlaws, cattle rustlers, hideouts in the caves and Castle Butte," Hovorka says. The area has a colourful past straight out of the wild west. There are stories of gunslingers and outlaws hiding out in the caves and hills of the Big Muddy badlands. Names such as Sam Kelly – alias “Red” Nelson – a member Nelson – Jones gang, one of the most notorious gang of horse thieves and cattle rustlers in the Big muddy. Occasionally they would hook up with Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch, says Volke.
The gang would hide from the law on Norman McCall's ranch, she says, explaining McCall was the first reeve of the RM of Happy Valley, which was formed in 1913. Tourists from around the world, who are exploring the Big Muddy, have stopped by Aust's Store. "We've had visitors from China and Japan, Germany, Switzerland, England," says Gail proudly showing off her guest book..
Unfortunately even with the visitors, the Aust’s, both 61, say there isn't enough money in the business to make a go of it for their 14-year-old grandson, who wants to take over when they retire. So in all likelihood, Aust's Store will close. Its departure wouldn't go unnoticed. "The store is the heart of the community," says Hovorka. The topography of the weary, weather-beaten faces of the seven or eight men sitting around the coffee table tell the story of survival in a rugged, often unforgiving land subject to the cruelties of Mother Nature. Most grew up in the area, taking over the family farm or ranch, buying or renting neighbour’s land and trying to make a decent living. But they aren't so sure the next generation will follow in their footsteps. "We'll probably be the last," says David Scholz, who rented his farmland out four years ago and now works as a seed cleaner. The RM of Happy Valley, once home to 1,800 people, today has 198 residents. And Big Beaver, which is nestled on the prairie grasslands at the edge of the Big Muddy badlands about a two-hour drive southwest of Regina, hasn't fared any better. Like Big Beaver, which lost its CP Rail tracks in 1984, then its grain elevators—the last of which disappeared in 1985 followed by the school closure a year later—a way of life is slowly disappearing. "It is really sad to see," Hovorka says, noting Big Beaver will disappear if the store closes.
"The pioneers who came out here needed each other to survive, and I think that need still exists. That's why you will find farmers and ranchers in the store gossiping and talking about life and what we are going to plant this spring. Everybody feels that closeness because they are all feeling the affects of the BSE (mad-cow) crisis and money is short," Hovorka says.
The store, Big Beaver and the rural community were built on trust, hope and a faith that they could make a living off the land, Hovorka says. "This has always been a next-year community. If things don't work out good this year, there is always next year," says Sharon Nickolson, an area farmer. "All our kids grew up and left home. They would love to stay on the land, but there is no way we can all make a living," she says. But Roland Kleese, whose family has ranched in the area for five generations, looks to the future. There is oil and gas in those hills, he says. Perhaps someday people will come back to the area and places like Big Beaver will experience a revival.
The Aust’s General Store and Leader-Post article were mentioned in the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly on May 2, 2005 by Brenda Bakken Lackey, Representative from Weyburn - Big Muddy. Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly - May 2, 2005
