I remember seeing this marker  and the building years ago at the southeast corner of Chili-Riga Rd. and Riga-Munford Rd, in the Town of Riga.  Several years ago I noticed the marker was gone.  I never knew what happened.  Recently I found out it was removed to the Genesee Country Museum in the 1970’s where it remains on display today.   The Thomson Tavern is considered by some to be the first wood framed building constructed west of the Genesee River.

     In 1807, Joseph Thomson came to Riga in 1807 and built his tavern in 1808.  It wasn’t until 1810 that his wife and their ten children arrived in the Town of Riga .  It is at this tavern that the Thomson family made their home, which also served as a store, tavern, bakery and post-office.  After 1809, when the Town of Riga  was formed, the tavern was also the site of many town meetings.  The tavern served food and refreshments and also provided lodging for those to those traveling to and from the Niagara Frontier.  Lodging was provided in one of three upstairs bedrooms.  Additional lodging, when required, was also available in the second floor meeting room/ballroom.  The first floor consisted of a kitchen with a brick fireplace, pantry, several bedrooms and store with a brick fireplace.  The basement was partially excavated and provided room for an unusually large brick oven that was used to bake bread for the local settlers.

    According to one of the store’s original record books, the business was stocked with such items as coffee, bibles, bonnets, cake shaving soap, candles, factory cloth, plates, mugs, calfskin (for shoes), hats, fishhooks, door latches, codfish, tobacco, brandy, rum, cider and paper.

    This cache is a a camo'ed 1 lb plastic coffee can on private property with the permission of the owners at the time it was placed, since then, the property has changed hands. The previous owners failed to let the new owners know about the cache. The new owners were initially concerned but after a fellow cacher explained geocaching to them they are ok with it. so I know you will be respectful of their property.   GPS accuracy was pretty poor at GZ, best I could get was 38'.   Average geo-sense should make it an easy find, as a TB hotel should be.

Congratulations to ri123 for  FTF