DEER CREEK—One would assume there isn’t much to see or do in a tiny town of less than 100 residents not far from the Oklahoma-Kansas state line, but they would be wrong. Just ask Brittany Webster.
This young woman, who turns 30 soon, has almost single-handedly revitalized her hometown of Deer Creek.
She is the owner of the historic Deer Creek Mercantile downtown, which not only brings in visitors from Oklahoma and Kansas, but from coast to coast too.
Webster said it began not long after she graduated from Deer Creek-Lamont High School. She was tired of seeing the local businesses fall apart and fade into oblivion.
So, she decided to do something about it in 2015.
“I had a used car lot on the highway [State Highway 11 which runs on the north side 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. The 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 in 2021 when the mercantile building owners sold it to her.
“I went from 700 square feet to 5,000 square feet (on the downstairs level),” she said.
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.
“My dad grew up in Deer Creek and he shopped here when he was a kid (in the 1960s and 1970s),” Webster said.
The store sat empty until 2021. That’s when Webster purchased it from the Lehman family.
At that time, parts of the mercantile were falling in: Ceiling was on the floor, floor was in the basement, 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 restored.
Between Webster and family members, they restructured and replastered walls, rebuilt wooden shelves, and restored as many original components as they could, including the lights and wood flooring.
Deer Creek Mercantile reopened its doors for business the first time in 28 years in December 2022, just in time for the Christmas season.
Christmastime is Webster’s favorite time of year.
“I just love Christmas. We decorate the store top to bottom,” she said. Her third annual Christmas launch party will be this Friday and Saturday (November 1-2). She said there will be a lot of candy, stocking stuffers, and a little bit of everything else.
The store is currently closed for the reset. Webster and her staff construct holiday displays reminiscent of old department stores.
“People love the experience, the nostalgia, the memories. It will be the best one yet,” she said.
The Christmas celebration will continue throughout the season in Deer Creek, not only at the general store, but the other three shops that have since opened downtown: Schnebele & Company Antiques and Vintage Shop, Bachman Farm Store, and Hair by Claudette J.
“When I started, there was nothing downtown,” Webster said. “It’s brought good to the town. Now there are four businesses where there were zero.”
The antique shop is in the former post office where Webster started; she owns that, too, and her parents run it. It’s only open on Saturdays unless there are special events in town.
The farm store is run by Dave and Amy Bachman, whom 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 earlier this year and credit Webster for inspiring them to have a store front.
In the same “strip mall” as the farm store is a beauty shop that also opened at the same time. 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.
Webster has plans for another shop downtown in another original building she intends to restore someday; this time it will be an old-time café with a soda fountain.
In the meantime, she’s actively promoting her town on social media. Deer Creek is on the map now, drawing “a lot of out-of-towners from Wichita and Tulsa,” she said, adding Fridays and Saturdays are usually the busiest.
Webster has many repeat customers, mostly because she said they delight in the feel and the experience of the early 1900s.
While she does carry modern clothing lines such as Wrangler, Ariat, and 2FlyCo., it’s the popular throwback items that appeal to customers including the old-fashioned candy, soup mixes, dry goods, specialty soda, toys, and home décor. Most of the products sold are made in the United States. Webster also designs and prints many of their themed T-shirts too.
And as aforementioned, the Christmas holiday is the town’s best season. On the schedule for the rest of 2024:
- 29 is Black Friday specials
- 30 is Small Business Saturday specials
- 7 includes a Christmas parade downtown with other town dignitaries such as the fire department, mayor, town council, and school members
Webster and the other business owners enjoy partnering together no matter what season, whether it be Valentine’s Day, Easter, lazy summer days and Fourth of July, Thanksgiving … “we change out the displays all the time, have pop up vendors, and host customer appreciation specials,” she said. “We’re going to keep doing what we’re doing.”
Deer Creek Mercantile is open daily except Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Some of the merchandise is available online at deercreekmerc.com, and specials are advertised on the merc’s Facebook page @deercreekmercantile.