What A Convenience
2071 Muskoka Road 38 P0C1A0 Bala, ON, Canada

In order to do our part to help flatten the curve of covid 19 we will be closing as of 7 pm Thursday April 9 th, Thank you for your patience in this matter. We will post here as soon as we are reopened.

If you are thinking Hank Williams Kaw-liga think deeper The History of the Wooden Cigar Store Indian. The use of a carved Cigar Store Indian as a symbol in front of a tobacco store began in England in the early 1600’s as ships from America began to bring back tobacco. These early carvings were made by carvers who had never met a native and were created based solely on descriptions and drawings from those that had visited the colonies. It is noted in history that sadly the f...acial features rarely resembled members of any particular American Indian tribe. In America by the 1850’s cities were increasing in size and there were more stand-alone tobacco stores. This is when the Cigar Store Indian took place on American streets. The lore surrounding the wooden Indian is said to that the average smoker in America during the late 1800’s could not read the words tobacconist Shop thus the wooden Indian was used as a calling card; similarly a red, white & blue stripped pole indicated a barber shop, three gold balls represented a pawn shop, and a mortar and pestle indicated apothecary. In about 1890 city streets were becoming increasingly crowded and many cities passed laws requiring two feet of open space in front of each store. Many Cigar store Indians began to disappear and today there are not many left. Those that do exist are found in museum collections or in private hands. Some are worth over 100,000.00. Today Tobacco remains as both a sacred commodity as well as an economic source of income for aboriginals. The Cigar Store Indian can be viewed as a celebration of the hundreds of years of tobacco trade for Aboriginal people. See more

Getting in the X Mas spirit! Yummy short bread cookies.