River Arts and Books in Roscoe creates a new gathering place for the community

ROSCOE — With just 16 residents, Roscoe embodies the definition of a small town with only one business in the area. But a new nonprofit, River Arts and Books, hopes to bring more opportunities to the community as a bookstore and event venue.

Last Friday, the company held a celebration to mark its opening to the public and to raise funds for further renovations to the premises.

Caroline Joan Peixoto is the co-founder and director of River Arts and Books. She moved to Roscoe several years ago and quickly fell in love with the area.

“I wanted to give back to this incredible community in some way. I wanted to create a place where people could go and feel a little bit of the magic and beauty of this place and then take it with them,” Peixoto said.

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Peixoto decided to start the business after meeting Melissa Raphan – who has been coming to the area for over 15 years – and they both realized they shared the same dream.

“Somehow in the five minutes we talked, she said, ‘I want to open a bookstore,’ and I said, ‘I want to open a bookstore.’ That started the conversation that lasted about eight months,” Raphan said.

They decided to start the company as a non-profit organization.

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“We’re off the beaten path and traffic isn’t very heavy, so it would be difficult to operate a traditional store,” Peixoto said. “We wanted to create an engaging, conducive community space, and the nonprofit route allowed us that flexibility, both in raising funds and in the type of people we would attract and the type of events we could host.”

The premises not only serve as a bookstore, the building is also divided into an event room and a room that is still to be expanded.

Rhema Mangus works for the Tippet Rise Art Center in Fishtail and recently joined the board of directors at River Arts and Books. She is excited about the new opportunities for artists to create and perform.

“I hope that we can support artists of all kinds, whether they’re visual artists or maybe especially writers, artists who work with words, by providing them with a space to think and write in our writers’ room,” Mangus said. “A place like River Arts and Books is a magnet for small communities. It really creates a space where community can happen, where people can come together, especially in an environment where the Beartooth Mountains, the river and the wildlife make people seem so small.”

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The books sold are both new and used, most of which have been sent to the store as donations from across the state and country. All have their own lives and stories, just like the building itself, which has been part of Roscoe’s history for over 100 years and sits along East Rosebud Creek.

“This building was built in 1894. It was one of the first homesteads in the area. But after a few years, it was used as a post office to serve the area. That’s why you still see the original post office sign in front of our door,” Peixoto said.

While the interior has been completely renovated, Peixoto has taken care to preserve as much of the original look as possible. The building has a new roof but is structurally still the same as it was 130 years ago.

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Julia Childs has lived just outside of Roscoe for over 84 years and supports the new venture.

“It’s my home. I grew up here. I went to school here,” Childs said of Roscoe. “As this started to develop, I became interested in what was happening in Roscoe, but there’s not that much going on.”

The building will continue to hold an important place in the community for generations to come.

“The idea that people can come to the bookstore and find a book they like and have time to read it is, in my opinion, just not replicable,” Raphan said.