Country Store Featured on the Cover of Missouri Life Magazine’s June Issue
The Glosemeyer General Store, known today as the Peers Store, opened for business in 1896 along the new KATY Railroad.
The Peers Store on the Katy Trail is a unique place, one that’s been repurposed to welcome visitors and spread a conservation message — and the June issue of Missouri Life magazine confirms it. Our beloved Peers Store was chosen as the cover for a feature story on “11 Country Stores and Where to Find Them.” The Peers Store is one of five country stores that get a short profile in the piece, sharing details about their history and personality. For Peers, that includes its continuous operation, mostly by the Glosemeyer family, from its opening in 1896 to 2012, before Dan and Connie Burkhardt bought it in 2014, surviving repeated flooding from the Missouri River over the decades. The piece, written by Lisa Waterman Gray, describes Peers Store as a “welcome center” for Katy Trail users, offering a place to grab everything from a cool drink or an ice cream to a new inner tube for a flat bicycle tire. And May through October, with live bluegrass music performed on the front porch every Saturday and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m., it’s also just a great place to hang out for a while and relax.
Peers Prairie at Its Peak
The Peers Prairie in bloom
The cover photo showcases the 4-acre Peers Prairie blooming in front of the store. Editor Danita Wood said the beauty of the flowers paired with charm of the store made it a natural pick over other cover options. The cover photo was taken in late June of last year when the prairie was at its peak. The end of June is a perfect time to see the prairie in full bloom, which is why we will be holding Peers Prairie Days the last two weekends of the month (June 19-20 and 26-27). We will have prairie experts, along with the usual live bluegrass music, available to answer questions and explain the value of native plants in our yards, gardens and landscapes.
Plan a Road Trip to See All 11 Stores
Live music on the Peers Porch every Saturday and Sunday from noon to 3pm, now through October
The historic circa 1896 Treloar Mercantile, located just 3 ½ miles down Highway 94, which is owned by the Burkhardts, but open only for special events, also gets a mention in the piece.
The other 10 country stores listed in the article include Cockrell Mercantile Company, a late 1880s general store building in eastern Lee’s Summit; Willow Spring Mercantile, a 1907 building in downtown Excelsior Springs; Amish Country Store in Branson; Country View Store in Memphis, Mo.; Crane’s Country Store in Williamsburg, Mo.; Dutch Bakery & Bulk Food Store in Tipton, Mo.; Dutch Country General Store in Hannibal; James Country Mercantile in Liberty; Old Village Mercantile in Caledonia, Mo. (just North of Elephant Rocks State Park); and The Country Store in Chilhowee. If you’re looking for a fun road trip, you might consider visiting all 11 stores over the course of a weekend or even making daytrips to one at a time throughout the summer. Wood said she envisions readers doing just that.
Peers Store feature in Missouri Life
“We always hear that no matter the kind of place we write about, that the stories inspire our readers to go,” she said. “My instinct is that country stores will be very appealing to people.”
They have long appealed to Wood, who has especially fond memories of visiting a country store that was located near her grandparents’ home. It’s no longer open, but Wood pays tribute to it in her “My Missouri Life” column.
To read more about Peers Store or to start planning your trip to visit all 11 country stores, pick up a copy of Missouri Life at major grocery stores, Wal-Marts and major book stores. You can also order a copy online at MissouriLife.com, or subscribe for a whole year for $19.99.