The Virgelle Mercantile is located 8 miles south of US-87, about 66 miles northeast of Great Falls, Montana. Rising 2 stories above the surrounding prairie, within sight of the Missouri River, the old building serves as the heart of the revived ghost town of Virgelle…
Boasting one of the best collections of homestead-era antiques for sale, it is also headquarters for the Missouri River Canoe Company, and the Virgelle Mercantile Bed and Breakfast overnight lodging facility…
April 26, 2009 at 5:06 pm
Howdy. About 14 years ago now I was beginning my own river business-Missouri Breaks River Co.-on the Upper Missouri. I use a motor boat to take people down thru the rightfully famous White Cliffs area. The put-in is at Coal Banks, river mile 41, just a mile or so from the Virgelle Merc. I was using a motorcycle to come back up from Judith Landing (river mile 88), where I would leave the truck and empty trailer, come back about 75 miles from Judith, half of it gravel road, spend the night at Coal Banks in the campground, welcome my guests the next morning and we would go down the 47 river miles thru the White Cliffs to the take-out at Judith.
I’d become acquainted with Don Sorensen and Jim Griffin, business partners at the Merc and Missouri River Canoe Company. Don and Jimmy let me tie my motorcycle up at the Merc when I wasn’t using it, so I knew the bike was safe and would be available when I needed it. One morning, late September that year, I’d checked the weather. It was going to be real cool that night, maybe frost by morning and I really didn’t feel like camping out at Coal Banks, I was tired, it was getting toward the end of the season. So I asked Don if I could spend the night in one the their cabins, I would pay, of course.
When I walked in the cabin I was astonished. It was (and they still are) immaculate. Huge, fluffy towels for the nearby shower in a converted Ice House, woolen blankets, comforter, immaculate line-dried sheets…a wood stove for morning heat if necessary, barbecue outside the screen door…that was just the beginning.
The entire Merc is like that, the B & B in the Mercantile building proper is even more ‘upscale’, fancier. I tell people ‘it’s like staying in a museum’. It is an extraordinary experience. Time slips away and you are left with River Time, and your fine hosts at the Merc.
Yes, we do business together. That fall was the beginning of it. We do a White Cliffs Cruise where you stay at the Merc, ride with me. You can look at our web pages for details. So I suppose yes, you could say my perspective is also in my business interest. But this is far more than that. It’s far more than business. The Breaks are a World Class experience. Yeah, I know, that’s quite a claim for an unheard piece of real estate and from an unheard of neck of the woods. Don and Jimmy’s Virgelle Mercantile and Missouri River Canoe Company are a part of that experience. Come up here. Log some River Time. Stay at the Merc. Find out for yourselves.
Bill Marsik
Missouri Breaks River Co.
http://www.missouribreaksriverco.com