DEER CREEK—Not far from the Oklahoma-Kansas state line, one would be hard-pressed to believe there is much to do in a rural community of less than 80 residents along Oklahoma 11. But local shop owner Brittany Webster would beg to differ.
She runs the historic Deer Creek Mercantile in downtown Deer Creek.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the mercantile building is the oldest commercial building in Grant County. Built in 1905 to replace the previous wood-frame building that first opened its doors in 1899, the general store carried an assortment of goods as a one-stop shop for farmers in Northwest Oklahoma.
In 1908, a Russian-German Mennonite named Reuben Lehman took over Deer Creek Mercantile. He and his family owned and operated the general store until 1994.
Webster’s father grew up in Deer Creek and remembered shopping at the town’s general store when he was a kid in the 1960s and 1970s.
Unfortunately, the store sat empty for nearly three decades falling into disrepair until Webster saved it.
Saving her hometown
The Deer Creek-Lamont graduate hated to see Deer Creek Mercantile, or any other local business for that matter, fade into oblivion so she decided to do something about it beginning in 2015.
“I had a used car lot on the highway (Oklahoma 11 runs on the north end of Deer Creek) and learned how to do business from that,” Webster said, adding she “learned a lot” from that first foray into entrepreneurship.
When Deer Creek lost its post office, she decided to buy that building on Main Street and turn it into a shop in 2018.
One weekend a month Webster would open for business, specializing in western and farm-related goods, vintage style clothing, and old-fashioned candy as well as pre-loved and modern-day finds. She found her niche online by tapping into social media marketing and utilizing the shop’s website during the pandemic.
That shop did extremely well, but Webster had a bigger dream—to buy the 6,000-square-foot building across the street, restore it, and move her shop into there.
Her dream came true three years later when she purchased it from the Lehman family in January of 2021.
“I went from 700 square feet to 5,000 square feet (on the downstairs level),” she said.
However, parts of the mercantile were falling in: the ceiling was on the floor, the floor was in the basement, and walls were on the floor. In addition, brick mortar joints were decayed to a point that bricks could be pulled from the walls.
Literally everything had to be overhauled.
For nearly a year Webster along several family members restructured and replastered walls, rebuilt the wooden shelves, rewired the whole structure, and restored as many original components as they could, including the lights and wood flooring. She actually tracked down identical wood flooring in North Carolina and Tennessee and drove there with a trailer to pick it up so as to preserve the store’s authentic appearance.
The labor from sunup to sundown paid off. Deer Creek Mercantile reopened its doors for business the first time in 28 years in December 2022, just in time for the Christmas season, which is her favorite time of year.
“I just love Christmas. We decorate the store top to bottom,” she said. She and her staff construct holiday displays reminiscent of old department stores because she said her customers love the experience, the nostalgia, and the memories it brings.
Deer Creek Mercantile initially drew in crowds from across the nation fascinated with the place that was likened to a mini-version of famous Oklahoma foodie Ree Drummond’s Pioneer Woman Mercantile in Pawhuska.
Revitalizing small town shopping
With the current state of the economy, things have slowed down for many small locally owned businesses in the region.
Deer Creek Mercantile is no different. It used to be open several days a week, but starting this past March, Webster went back to her original shop model of being open one weekend a month and relying heavily on her creative brand of marketing strategies selling new releases online.
“Summer is the slowest time of the year,” she said. She intends to be open more hours come the holidays.
Offering a mix of curated vintage pieces along with several new favorites, the mercantile is still blending history with the here-and-now. Among the most popular items trending are vintage cookbooks, Little Golden Books, enamelware, and food stuffs including biscuit mixes, seasonings, and jams.
When she began her quest to revitalize her hometown and put it on the map, Webster saw potential for other businesses to boot up and help boost annual events downtown.
“When I started, there was nothing downtown,” Webster told the Enid News & Eagle in October 2024. “Now there are four businesses where there were zero.”
Upon moving into the historical general store building, she kept her old shop building and her parents ran it as Schnebele & Co. Antiques and Vintage Shop. The two businesses merged together last fall inside the general store so Webster could utilize the small shop as Deer Creek’s event center.
She felt people needed a place to have birthday parties, baby showers, reunions, and more and she didn’t want them to have to drive to Medford or Blackwell to do so. The event center can hold up to 30 people on any day of the week.
And rather than use the merc’s loft—now the merc’s storage and shipping space—Webster can also promote fun monthly activities downtown at the newly formed event center.
Near the event center in a “strip mall” is Bachman Farm Store and Hair by Claudette J.
The farm store is run by Dave and Amy Bachman, who have owned the seventh-generation family farm outside of Deer Creek since 1920. They either raise themselves or locally outsource beef, chicken, pork, and lamb then sell or ship on dry ice along with other homemade goods. The Bachmans opened in 2024 and credited Webster for inspiring them to have a store front.
The beauty shop also opened at the same time as the farm store. Claudette, who also has salon seats in Edmond, does hair and makeup for her clients’ every day wear as well as special occasions like weddings.
Someday, when she finds the time, Webster plans to open an old-time café with a soda fountain next door to Deer Creek Mercantile since there’s no place to eat in town.
In the meantime, she wants to give her customers a worthwhile experience since they are taking the time to travel all the way to Deer Creek to shop.
For example, next weekend for Mother’s Day, the mercantile will celebrate mothers with a bouquet bar in which people can make their mothers real flower arrangements for a fee as long as supplies last.
In June, Webster is organizing a summer kickoff weekend with food and fun, and then she looks forward to hosting Christmas in July festivities the weekend after Fourth of July.
“It’s a fun place to come shop. Get out and see what’s here,” she said.
Deer Creek Mercantile, 1183 Main, Deer Creek, is open one weekend a month. This month doors open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. next Friday and Saturday, May 8-9, and 1-4 p.m. on Mother’s Day (Sunday, May 10). Due to summer harvest, the merc will only open on Saturday, June 13, and then again July 10-11. Call (580) 267-3597 or go online to deercreekmerc.com. Follow the merc on Facebook.com/profile.php?id=61581620036636 for weekly online specials and store hours announcements.