JUDY HAGEROTT Star-Tribune correspondent | Posted: Wednesday, September 3, 2008 12:00 am
No longer on the ash heap, the Bozeman Trail Inn reopened its doors in June.
Built in 1882, the Big Horn watering hole has always been the sort of place where locals gathered to share the news or swap stories over a glass of beer. According to owner Jeri Sheperd, "Eighty-five percent of the males born and raised here drank their first glass of beer here."
Beer has always been the drink of choice at the Bozeman. Beer has always flowed at the Bozeman, even during prohibition. "Who's to say it wasn't purely for medicinal purposes?" quips Sheperd.
But a fire on Sept. 12, 2006 forced the doors of the Bozeman to close. Labeled as "unintentional arson," meaning the fire was not naturally caused and was possibly man-made, Sheperd shrugs her shoulders and guesses that it was probably "some kid who was playing with matches and the fire got away. I was devastated, but thank God it didn't do any more damage to our building than it did."
The building had to be gutted.
During reconstruction, however, the original doors, windows and hay doors were discovered. The floor timbers were hand-hewn with hand-held axes, held together with hand-made square nails. Initially built to be a stable, the original owner, John Custis, later turned the Bozeman into a billiards parlor and beer hall.
The Bozeman was built by local contractor J. W. Austan in 1882, an immigrant who brought his saw mill with him as he traveled to Wyoming. Austan built coffins on the side along with the Sheridan Commercial building in Sheridan.
But it was also during reconstruction that poor building design was discovered. The structure was built on the ground, on skids; the Bozeman had no foundation. Sheperd shakes her head and says, "Is it any wonder that the walls were sagging in before the fire."
Locals begged Sheperd not to change the Bozeman's mystique. Determined to keep its rustic atmosphere, Sheperd, a fifth-generation Wyoming native, had the interior finished to replicate the original building, with stucco walls and a reproduction tin ceiling. "We were saving Wyoming's history," Sheperd says. "The oldest operating bar in the state of Wyoming deserved to be saved."
The Bozeman has a remarkable and sometimes sordid past. "The Bozeman has a very, very, very colorful history," Sheperd says. "It's seen the richest and it's seen the poorest."
The back bar, the focal point of the establishment, was bought from an Elk's Club in Omaha, Neb., shipped to Miles City, Mont., and picked up by three teams of freight wagons and brought to Big Horn. The railroad did not make it to this part of Wyoming until 1893. In the late 1890s, it became an Italian restaurant. In 1939, interior plumbing was installed when workers made do with that was available. Local ranchers used old car exhaust pipes for the sewer pipes.
It wasn't too long ago that the Bozeman's history turned shady.
"The Bozeman was considered a dead business and had gone through demise," Sheperd says. "At one time it was considered a drug den with drugs being snorted off the bar and drugs sold through the drive-thru.
"We literally got rid of the bad and turned it around in the other direction. The Bozeman has always been here and all of us remember it in different ways. We wanted to provide the community with a gathering point again. My husband's and my dream was to rebuild and become a place where men were proud to bring their families to again. Our goal was to bring the community back into this building."
Sheperd's husband died from a heart attack in 2000 while working behind the bar.
"I always said I worked him to death," says Sheperd, who now owns the Bozeman with her son, Clint.
Positioned dead center on the Bozeman Trail, the Bozeman Trail Inn is listed on the National Historic Registry. Completely rebuilt, the Bozeman now boasts a dining room with fine dining and a restored bar, complete with fireplace and pool table. Still under construction is a side patio capable of hosting more than 100 people, complete with a huge bandstand.
Big Horn, now with a population slightly more than 200, at one time was delegated to be the county seat until the railroad swang east and headed to Gillette, was once a booming town with more than 30 active businesses. Now, only three businesses line the main thoroughfare, with folks traveling miles to meet at the Bozeman.
Sheperd does all the baking, including the pies and breads. "We try to make at least 85 percent of what we serve," she says. "We serve good, wholesome food, keeping in mind that Wyoming is meat and potatoes. We also serve seafood and pasta for those that aren't into that. Our chef, Patrick Reed, originally from Cheyenne, comes up with some pretty amazing specials that keep our customers on their toes."
Reservations are recommended for the dining room, which can hold up to 60. "We try our damndest to not turn anyone away," Sheperd says.
Anyone is welcome to stop by and take a look around the Bozeman. "The tourists always ask where the swinging doors are as they walk in," she says. "I tell them, "You're in Wyoming; you'd freeze your asses off!"
Always aiming to please, however, Sheperd soon will have swinging doors installed.
The Bozeman has been packed since opening its doors on June 4.
"There isn't a soul alive that says the Bozeman isn't beautiful," Sheperd says. "It really needed to stay here. It's built to last another 200 years."