The Main Street exhibit represents Thermopolis businesses during the early years of the 20th Century. Customers of early Thermopolis businesses included ranchers, oilfield workers, miners, and visitors to the Hot Springs.

Because many people traveled to the Hot Springs in the hope that the mineral water would restore their health, there was always a sizeable medical community in Thermopolis. One of the Main Street exhibits shows a doctor’s office with equipment used by several early Thermopolis doctors including Dr. C. Dana Carter, founder of the Carter Hotel and Sanitarium in the Hot Springs State Park (on the site where the Holiday Inn now stands).

The Main Street displays are made up almost entirely of artifacts from actual Thermopolis businesses. Many of the items in the General Store came from the store run by Martin McGrath, one of the founders of Thermopolis.

Other Main Street businesses shown in the exhibit are:

• a barber’s shop
• a bank
• a dentist’s office
• a dress shop
• a bootmaker and saddlery shop
• a photography studio
• the post office
• the jail
• a lawyer’s office
• and the office and printing press of the Thermopolis Record newspaper, ancestor of today’s Thermopolis Independent Record