Welcome to RedBone Willy's

Feature Article in "OUR STATE" Magazine

You almost have to shake your head in disbelief as you wind down N.C. Highway 18 near the Cleveland-Lincoln county line.

There, on an otherwise nondescript stretch of country road, is RedBone Willy's Trading Company, a massive country store that has become a lifeline for visitors to nearby South Mountains State Park and an attraction to Charlotte-area travelers heading west. The Toluca store is about 20 miles north of Shelby and about the same distance from Lincolnton, Morganton, and Hickory.

The store is packed floor-to-ceiling with clothes, camping supplies, home accessories, beauty products, and old-fashioned candy such as BB Bats and Necco wafers. Customers can pull a glass-bottle Coke out of a vintage cooler or enjoy a dish of homemade ice cream at the BoneHead Cafe.

The tin-roofed general store celebrated its 10th anniversary on April 1. The store has doubled in size during its first decade, and its inventory has grown from $12,000 to more than $300,000. And last year, store owner Glenda Miller opened a bed and breakfast next door to RedBone Willy's.

"A lot of people said it wouldn't work because I'm in the middle of nowhere," Miller says. "But I'm on the way to somewhere."

Who's minding the store?

Miller grew up in Toluca, an unincorporated community of about 100 people. She built RedBone Willy's on property that belonged to her grandfather. As a child, she rode her bike through the nearby woods to Carmie Boyles' general store, where she would buy a Pepsi and a pack of cheese crackers.

"I just loved it. We'd sit by the potbellied stove and find out what's going on with the neighbors," she says. That store has been closed for 25 years, but it remained a fond childhood memory.

Miller first made a career selling insurance. It paid well, she says, but it didn't make her happy.

"It was a very stressful job, and I had little time with my family," Miller says. "I decided I didn't want to do that the rest of my life."

Given her childhood memories of the local general store, it didn't take her long to dream up the idea for RedBone Willy's. In 1995, she used her savings to open the store, hopeful that the location at the intersection of N.C. highways 18 and 27 would generate enough traffic to make the business successful.

As it turns out, Miller's faith was justified. Charlotte is about 45 miles east, and Miller estimates about 75 percent of customers come from that direction. The proximity to the South Mountains State Park doesn't hurt, since plenty of park visitors stop by for supplies. The 18,000-acre park is the largest state park in North Carolina and attracts horseback riders, trout fishermen, hikers, and campers.

Miller also says the store's quirky country merchandise brings people to the store, particularly repeat customers. She intentionally aims for items that can't be found in malls. The cafe also brings in customers, particularly in the warmer months, when Miller's homemade ice cream proves to be an irresistible lure. Patrons fill the store's large front porch, where they sit in rocking chairs, eat ice cream, and play checkers.

In addition, the cafe offers fresh-squeezed lemonade, sweet iced tea, hot dogs, and a sandwich menu that includes North Carolina favorites like banana, fried bologna, egg salad, tomato, and pimento cheese.

Miller has a simple, yet successful, approach to stocking her store.

"I don't buy it if I don't like it," she says. "I pretty much do everything my way."

Miller's tale

On a recent Saturday morning, the petite owner rang up an order of work shirts, poured sodas for thirsty guests, and gave directions to a caller from Hickory, all within the span of a few minutes.

And, as if she wasn't busy enough, in January 2004, Miller turned her five-bedroom, Queen Anne Victorian-style home, which is adjacent to the store, into DeStarte Bed and Breakfast Inn. She initially decided to build her store next to her home, in part, so she could be close to her children. But when they grew up, her home became her next business opportunity.

"My kids were in college, and I had all this space," she says. "It's a big house to be there by yourself."

She gets some help from her family in running her business. Miller's daughter, a flight attendant for U.S. Airways, pitches in when she comes home, and her mother supplies the cafe's red velvet cakes and fried apple pies, which are made with apples grown in Toluca.

"It's pretty much a family-run operation," Miller says.

In addition to running the store, she cooks and cleans at DeStarte, which is named for a character in the Louis L'Amour novel Hondo. The two-story house replaced Miller's 1920s-era farmhouse, which was destroyed in a 1989 tornado in the Toluca area.

Every morning, Miller cooks a big country breakfast, which usually includes sausage, pancakes, biscuits, gravy, and a Cleveland County delicacy, livermush. Miller admits many out-of-state guests are reluctant to try livermush at first, but most of those who do end up asking for seconds.

She also opens up the home for catered events, including wedding receptions, anniversary dinners, and family reunions.

Miller says she enjoys her work, but running both a general store as well as a bed and breakfast keeps her busy.

With business interests as wide-ranging as the merchandise in her store, however, Miller thrives on the challenge. In fact, she wouldn't have it any other way.

Bruce Buchanan is a writer for the Greensboro News & Record.

Article reprinted from "Our State" Magazine, December 2005