Trackside Mall & Antique Gallery

Poulson Street loses its pavement near the railroad in Idaho Falls. The Trackside Mall & Antique Gallery stands at number 301, just behind Jack Thomas Grain & Feed. One directory’s summary of reviews describes a parking lot off a dirt road past the tracks and signs that can be hard to find. A 2026 real estate listing puts the building directly on the train tracks and gives its year of construction as 1910. It rises three stories and covers nearly 20,000 square feet, and a modern elevator joins the floors. Admission is free. The mall’s own notice asks visitors to chaperone younger children.

Three floors of booths

Inside, dealers rent private booths, wall spaces and enclosed showcases. The September 2026 listing described the building as fully occupied. The mall’s own inventory runs long: antique wood furniture, costume jewelry, coin collections, silverware, china and glassware, vintage clothing, cast iron hooks and creatures, rustic cookware, porcelain vases, ceramic bowls, clocks, dolls, cabinet hardware, old photographs and frames, vintage signs, and Mine Lab metal detectors. Western goods appear throughout: boot jacks, bridles, horseshoe racks and decorative ironwork. The mall says it deals with estate sales and flea market offerings each month.

Directory summaries of shopper reviews add their own finds. These include old toys and vinyl records, carnival glass, military surplus, Hot Wheels, uranium Vaseline glass, Native American artisan jewelry, and bones and antlers for taxidermy collectors. The real estate listing adds neon signs, lunchboxes, tools and lamps. One directory reckons visitors regularly spend more than two hours in the aisles. Another reports that the layout can be hard to navigate, that the place runs in a “mom pop” style, and that fragile purchases are wrapped at the counter.

Coins, poker chips and metal detectors

Many of the dealers keep a specialty. In 2010 Richard Jimenez, then described as co-owner of Trackside Mall, made his living selling and trading collectible coins, currency and antiques. He spent his off-hours hunting Idaho poker chips. He had been collecting for about 25 years and owned 260 kinds, a collection he valued at $30,000.

In the first half of the 20th century, nearly every bar, cigar store, pool hall and private club in Idaho ran poker games with its own custom chips. After the state outlawed gambling in 1949, police raided the card rooms and often destroyed the confiscated chips or hauled them to the dump. “I do a lot of dump digging and I never find a chip in a dump,” Jimenez told the Post Register. Each summer he traveled the state looking for former club owners and their relatives, and he talked with customers who came to see him at the mall.

His favorite chips came from Idaho Falls: the Fletchery West Cigar Store, the El Paso pool hall and the Havana Club downtown. He had not yet found one from Ford’s Bar. He planned a book with a picture and story for each chip. “It’s out of people’s minds,” he said. “This is Idaho history.”

In January 2014 Myron Curtis of Trackside Mall took metal detectors and treasure-hunting books, along with pistols and rifles, to the Idaho Falls-Eastern Idaho Gun Show at the Shilo Inn Convention Center.

Ray and Shirley Park worked together for a number of years at the Antique Gallery and Trackside Mall. They also worked at Main Street Antiques and Last Roundup Antiques in Rexburg. Ray had ranched, logged timber and driven truck, and he married Shirley Campbell in 1956. His obituary says he loved sharing antiques and military history, and that children with their excited faces and great questions always made his day. Shirley died in October 2014. Ray died at his home in Parker on February 2, 2024, at 91.

The Martin Brothers packing shed

By the mall’s account, the building dates to the early days of the town, when Idaho Falls was still called Eagle Rock. The railroad shaped the place after construction came through in 1879. The line reached Butte, Montana, on December 26, 1881, and ended at Garrison, Montana, in 1884.

The building first housed the Martin Brothers Fresh Packing Shed. The mall says many old-timers recall working warehouse shifts to get Idaho potatoes loaded and ready for shipment. One directory’s summary of reviews calls the building a former train station, but the mall’s history names only the packing shed. According to the 2026 listing, the basement still has loading access and the main floor a side door for loading.

In 1999 owners Joe and Barbara Riggins began an extensive remodeling that turned the shed into the mall. Heather Quick has since become owner, and Sheila McCormick is mall manager. On September 8, 2026, the building was listed for sale at $965,000. Under the listing, the fixtures, shelving, lighting and display structures go to the buyer, while everything in the booths, wall spaces and showcases stays with the dealers.