Glenwood Springs looked vastly different when Sioux Villa Curio first began welcoming visitors in 1955. 

Over the past 70 years, the unconventional gift shop has watched the town blossom into a thriving and distinctive community, becoming a nostalgic stop for locals and visitors alike through fires, floods, construction and adversity.

The Sixth Street shop will celebrate its 70th anniversary — and 20 years under current owner Matthew MacQueen — on Saturday with a full day of food, drinks, music, games, Forest Service animal shows, giveaways, discounted anniversary merchandise and more.

“We’re throwing a big shindig on Saturday, and I’m super excited to celebrate,” MacQueen said. “It’s going to be fun because this place sees people from all over the country and world and they are the backbone of our business. Saturday only, all merchandise will be half-off.” 

Loaded with Glenwood Springs memorabilia, rocks, minerals and novelty items like whoopee cushions and fake vomit, Sioux Villa Curio has built a reputation as the place to find the unexpected.

Alongside its eclectic merchandise, the shop features a 120-year-old player piano, a talking Native American fortune teller that delivers predictions for a quarter, and an atmosphere that makes visitors feel like they’ve stepped into a different world.

“It’s about creating an atmosphere,” MacQueen said. “We make it fun. I feel like every time I interact with customers they tell me that they are a third generation store visitor, or have heard stories about how their family used to spend their allowances here on Whoopie Cushions, or tell me they came here 10 years ago and haven’t stopped thinking of the place. I hear those stories every day.”

The store first opened in 1955, looking out at a vastly different Glenwood Springs. Over the course of the past 70 years, the store has become a safe space for locals during times of adversity and a must-visit place for Glenwood Springs regulars and first-time visitors alike. 

MacQueen, a nearly 40 year Glenwood Springs resident, has seen the town at its best and its worst, and treasures the cult-like following the store has built. 

“It’s not your regular tourist shop,” he said. “We go out of our way to make sure everyone is having a memorable experience.”

Although the store has changed hands over four times in its 70 year life-span, it never uplifted its roots from that familiar spot on Sixth Street. 

Throughout its time in Glenwood, the store has quietly stood by the community through some of its darkest days — from the Storm King and Grizzly Creek fires to mudslides in Glenwood Canyon — offering a sense of comfort and familiarity in times of uncertainty.

More recently, Sioux Villa Curio found itself needing the same comfort and support it had long offered the community, as it weathered the challenges of the Sixth Street construction project.

“This past winter was one of the hardest I’ve ever seen since 2005,” MacQueen said in relation to the lengthy construction project that wrapped up in June, though he said the cities willingness to work with local business and the outcome of the project has already qualmed those previous worries. 

MacQueen said he and three other business owners approached the Downtown Development Authority with a request to complete construction by June 15 — a key date for the summer season. The DDA agreed to finish the work on time if businesses allowed the road to close for two straight weeks.

The two sides agreed on the compromise, and according to MacQueen, the project has already “saved his business.”

“They followed through, and it saved our business,” he said. “Business turned around immediately, as soon as they opened that street back up. The work they’ve done is beautiful. I’m very happy with the design, and it looks very pleasing.”

The giftshop, open every day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., is hosting their celebration on Saturday, and MacQueen said the day is going to be full of honoring everyone that has helped them reach this point. 

“It’s become a tradition for generation after generation to bring their kids in and show them ‘This is where I came as a kid and spent my $5 allowance,'” he said. “I really can’t wait.”

This story is from PostIndependent.com.