T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA Ohio Valley residents are out in full force at the fall hunting classic sale at Cabela’s in Triadelphia.

TRIADELPHIA — Twenty years ago, The Highlands welcomed Cabela’s to the Ohio Valley.

Before Cabela’s, the land where The Highlands would eventually stand was nothing more than empty space with a lot of potential.

“When I was hired, where Texas Roadhouse now sits, they had a trailer sitting there where I did my interview for this job, ” Longtime Cabela’s employee Kay McCleery said. “The Distribution Center was being built but there was nothing else, there were no restaurants or stores, there was nothing but us.”

She also mentioned an on and off ramp on Interstate 70 for people to be able to get to Cabela’s when it opened.

“We all had to come in the side road because there was no other way to get here,” She said.

McCleery recalls the day that the store opened those two decades ago.

“We shut down the highway that day, it was wonderful,” McCleery said. “We had somewhere between 300-400 employees, you know it was a whole different world. This was the first time anything like this was in our area.”

On Saturday, Cabela’s celebrated the 20 years of being in the Ohio Valley with a large community event. The all day event had more than 60 local vendors, live music, food trucks and fireworks.

“We’re just celebrating our 20th anniversary, we’re letting our local vendors hang out, and we got a bunch of food trucks and live music as well as some fire trucks for the kids,” Cabela’s Group Sales Manager Issac Knight said.

Knight originally started working for Cabela’s as a seasonal worker, but moved away and worked for Robinson Auto Group for 15 years. When Robinson opened in The Highlands, Knight found himself back in Triadelphia which led to him becoming the group sales manager at Cabela’s.

“We’re happy to be up here and it’s been nice to see The Highlands evolve and continue to grow. And it’s a really nice facility and they do such a great job at maintenance as a whole, it’s just a nice venue,” Knight said.

Although the event was in celebration of the 20th anniversary, Cabela’s didn’t want to make the event only about the store.

“It started out as a little celebration for us the store itself and then kind of grew into a Highlands celebration,” Cabela’s Office Administrator Gina Haney said.

Haney started working at Cabela’s when the store opened in the fudge shop located on the second floor.

“It was crazy, people loved the fudge,” Haney said while reminiscing on the store opening.

Although Cabela’s is a nationwide store, it still makes a point to be a prominent member of the Ohio Valley community.

“The community is what keeps us going, if it wasn’t for the community we wouldn’t be here,” Haney said. “We try to give back to the community as much as possible.”