This summer, Ben Jones, 58, who played Cooter for the seven-year run of the popular CBS show, opened Cooter's Place in Sperryville, a museum/gift shop dedicated to all things Hazzard.

Jones, who moved to Rappahannock County to be near his wife's Washington, D.C., advertising agency, decided it would be fun to open a museum and shop with the mountains of "Dukes of Hazzard" memorabilia he has collected. Plus, the timing was right, he says, given the renewed popularity of the show's reruns on The Nashville Network.

"'Dukes of Hazzard' is one of the biggest hit shows on cable. It's found a totally new audience," Jones says. "A big part of our customers weren't born until after the show went off the air."

But Cooter's Place also attracts the young at heart. Jones says he has had visitors from 40 states and from more than 20 countries. Not bad for someone who doesn't advertise or market himself. In fact, all he had to do to draw customers was park one of his museum pieces in front of the shop.

"We've got the General Lee out front," Jones explains, referring to the orange Dodge Charger with the rebel flag painted on top that Bo and Luke Duke drove in the series.

"There are over 2,000 items licensed with 'Dukes of Hazzard' stuff on it," Jones says, and he's looking to collect all of them. "I'm still a long ways to go before I have a complete collection." But people from all over are willing to trade some of their memorabilia for hard-to-find items that Jones has, such as scripts.

Jones hasn't retired from show business — he was featured in "Primary Colors" and will be seen in an upcoming Dukes of Hazzard reunion — but he has broadened his stage. Before moving to Virginia in 1998, he briefly served as a U.S. congressman from Georgia. Then the opportunity presented itself to open his shop, and "I thought I'd do it as a weekend, fun thing to do," he says.

In one weekend alone this summer, Cooter's attracted 5,000 people. Jones has raked in up to $6,000 in a day. With most sales totaling between $8 and $10, Jones isn't making a killing off his merchandise, but he sure is having a good time: "We have a ball. It's kind of like Hazzard County."

— LEILA UGINCIUS