St. Thomas Episcopal Church

9 South 1st Street

St. Thomas Episcopal Church- The Rev. John Roberts held services in various places around the area starting in 1901. In 1905, Dr. Francis Welty donated two lots for a church to be built. The Ladies Guild was started, and Alice Hewett (Dr. Welty’ daughter) donated the land behind the church for the original Dubois cemetery. St. Thomas Episcopal Church was built in 1908 and consecrated in 1910.

Wyoming Tie and Timber Company cut the logs for the church at the tie hack camp. Martin Olson, head of Wyoming Tie and Timber Company and his wife Lydia donated one of the first stained glass windows.

Miss Adeline Ross was a deaconess sent by Bishop Thomas to oversee day-to-day activities around the little log church. It is said that one day she was teaching a Sunday school class and heard a worker laying shingles on the roof take the Lord’s name in vain. When she found the worker later nursing a sore thumb, she told him, “My friend, I don’t mind damns or hells, but please don’t use the name of my friend and Savior that way.” Apparently Dubois’ language was cleaned up for a while after that.

In 1948 the church held the first Swedish Smorgasbord Supper, based on the Scandinavian food served during the tie drives. The Smorgasbord Suppers of 1949 and 1950 paid for the Community Room. The church also started the Summer Square Dance that still happens today Tuesday nights June – September at the Rustic Pine Tavern Frontier Room.

The Stringer Hotel

202 East Ramshorn Steet

The Stringer Hotel- The Stringer Hotel was built in 1914 by Oscar Stringer and his brother’s Asa, Ernest and Albert. Oscar and his sister Nettie operated the hotel. Oscar handled the registry and was the postmaster for the post office within the hotel. Nettie was the cook and served the meals.

The second and third stories all had grates in the floor so what little heat there was could move up throughout the hotel. Whoever was above could see and hear everything going on below.

A salesman stayed at the hotel in the middle of the winter when it was very cold. He spent a very uncomfortable night due to the low temperatures. In the morning he went to the lobby to warm up around a heating vent. Jack Cunningham had just arrived from his place on the Dunoir. He was standing with his over coat and cap on, his eyebrows and beard had icicles all over them. The salesman said, “My God! What room did you have?”

Sue Beck says when she was a new bride living at the Trail Lake Ranch her mother had said she would write her a postcard every week from Philadelphia. None came, and finally she asked Oscar, “Don’t you have any postcards for me?” Oscar went back and found a stack of them and told her he hadn’t read them all yet, “But he would read me parts of what she had written.” Sue laughed.

The Stringer’s sold the hotel in 1946.

The Dubois Mercantile

118 East Ramshorn

The Dubois Mercantile- The Dubois Mercantile was built in 1913. It was originally 25’ x 75’ with two wings for storage. The business was run as a general store. In 1947 the corporation sold to Wyoming Tie and Timber Company after the timber operations closed at Dunoir.

Tony and Betty Dolenc bought the Merc in 1954 and operated it for nine years. Amoss and Janet Welty worked at the store. It was always an entertaining place to shop.

Paul Hines, Frank Mockler, Franklin Mockler, John Wells and Bob Grubb purchased the store in 1964. Grubb managed the operation. Wells traded his interest to George Letellier. The group moved the grocery department to the current Super Foods location in 1965.

The Mercantile had been remodeled and expanded several times during its life. In the past the building also held Dubois State Bank, the U.S. Post Office and the U.S. Soil Conservation Service.

Dr. Wallace Kucera purchased the store in 1974. Wayne Steinert was in charge of the merchandise for 10 years. The Steinerts purchased it in 1986. During this time it was still a general store with horse tack, clothing, shoes, jewelry and an Arctic Cat and Yamaha dealership.

In 2011 it was purchased by Wind River Land & Cattle Co. It was rented and operated as The Main Street Mart, which was similar to a flea market and included several small vendors. The evening of December 30, 2014 it caught fire. The day’s weather had been more than twenty below zero. A wood stove had been tended before everyone left for the night.

Fire investigators suspected that combustible material outside the stove pipe smoldered then ignited. Heroic efforts of the Dubois and other Fremont County Fire Departments saved the majority of the block of down town Dubois. The fire destroyed the Mercantile, Stewarts Trapline Gallery and the second story of the building to the west.

The Rustic Pine Tavern

123 East Ramshorn

The Rustic Pine Tavern- The Rustic Pine Tavern was built by Stanley and Gordon Shippen in 1919 and was operated as a pool hall at the time. During this time the upstairs was a rooming house and downstairs was known as the Hiway Cafe or the Hiway Pool Hall.

Bob Harter and Mike Guilford started the bar and established the Rustic Pine Tavern around 1935. During this same time period they used diseased wood to enhance the interior of the bar that is still in place today.

The Frontier Room was an addition built about this same time period and was the only large room in Dubois. It was used for many events by the local groups including the Episcopal Church, and was known as “Dance Land”.

The men had the best operation in town. Harter liked to tell stories and Guilford was a typical barman who very rarely forgot a face or a name. Everyone felt welcome and stopped there before they picked up their mail in the afternoon.

Dance Land had a number of different bands perform over the years including, The Aces of Rhythm, a band that included Clarence Allison on the piano. In later years Clarence Allison organized another band with Les Fossey, Bill Meckem, and Ron West who joined later. Allison also played the Hammond organ and piano on his own at the Tavern for 17 years during the summer months. “Treg” Trego played once in a while. In Treg’s earlier years he played with “Red Nichols and His Five Pennies”. Bert Muir joined in once in a while too. Their music was enjoyable, soothing and very danceable.

Welty’s General Store

113 West Ramshorn

Welty’s General Store- Dr. Francis H. Welty, doctor at the Shoshone Indian Agency at Ft. Washakie, homesteaded a mile north of Dubois in the early 1890’s. While he continued as the doctor for the Shoshone Agency his family resided on the homestead. By 1897, Dr. Welty’s son Frank, who had worked in the Trading Post at Fort Washakie for J.K. Moore had begun to bring in supplies to sell to area residents.

In 1903 after an extended vacation from Dubois, Frank Welty returned and purchased the store built at this site from Harry Youmans and George Hays. The store was modeled after J.K. Moore’s trading post and contained a post office and pharmacy. The store was stocked with rice, flour, sugar, salt, coffee and hardware. Fresh vegetables were available seasonally and were locally grown.

Frank was also a partner in a local bank immediately east of the store from 1913-1927. Welty’s General Store is still owned and operated by Frank Welty III.

The Twin Pines Lodge

218 West Ramshorn

The Twin Pines Lodge- Ernest and Ethel Stringer designed the building and helped the construction. Ernest “Rough Log” Johnson a local tie hack also helped with the construction. It was finished in 1941. There were seven cabins also built and finished in the 20’s and 30’s. An additional seven cabins were built in the 50’s for a total of 14.

Mac and Anna Lee McGuire purchased it in 1963. They recall some fun times while they had the lodge. A lady from New Hampshire and her four children stayed at the lodge. She wanted to go to Double Cabins which are up at the end of Horse Creek road. Mac gave her directions, “turn up Horse Creek road by Dubois Cold Storage and keep going until you pass two cattle guards, then take a right and go to Double Cabins.” About an hour later she returned and asked Mac, “What color uniforms were the guards wearing?”

Anna Lee tells a time where a tourist came in for a room but he decided it was too expensive. She said she was sorry but these were the rates. “Well,” the traveler replied, “I’ll just drive on up to Moran Junction and get a room at the Y.M.C.A.!” Anna Lee laughed heartily in re-telling the story because everyone around knows there are no accommodations in Moran.

The McGuires sold in 1972.

The Caldwell Homestead/Dubois Wind River KOA

225 West Welty Street

The Caldwell Homestead/Dubois Wind River KOA- This property was originally homesteaded by Bert Caldwell, some estimates are as far back as 1872. The original cabin is now located to the west of the main office, and is used for gatherings. There is a long bench down by the river that sets in the where the cabin originally was. The cabin was moved to higher ground to protect it from seasonal flooding. In the early years of this property there were two ponds and a swamp.

Stan and Twila Blakeman purchased the property in 1965 and started transforming it into the Circle Up Campground. They traded some of the old buildings for fill dirt to build up the pond and swamp area. They built the swimming pool in 1971, and in 1981, Twila started the bake shop. In 1989 Stan built the building over the swimming pool.

“The largest elk in the Rocky Mountains”, was crafted by Joe Back in 1957. Joe and Mary Back were artists and played a significant role in developing Dubois. The big elk was moved to the Big Elk Drive-In, a restaurant with car hops, then was later moved out to Wind River Ranch. In 1985 the Wind River Ranch had a foreclosure sale. That is where Stan Blakeman had the opportunity to purchase the large elk. It had 30 years of damage and was in desperate need of repairs. With the guidance of Joe, Stan and Vic Lemmon repaired the elk who had a lot of weathering damage as well as bullet holes. The elk had found its forever home.

Dennison Lodge

909 West Ramshorn

Dennison Lodge- Richard Dennison was part of the Dennison Paper Company family in New Jersey. It was said that he went to school with the Edison boys, apparently the sons of Thomas.

Dennison first came to this country in 1914 and acquired his ranch up Bear Creek. It included 5,500 acres of deeded land and he leased other land in the area. He purchased the ranch from Charlie Birdsall. Dennison created a showpiece. In the lodge, the main room was a trophy room, which was odd considering he wasn’t a hunter. He would go to Africa twice a year and buy mounts to add to his collection. There were Persian rugs hung on the walls. When he entertained, butlers were brought up from Denver.

The curious were never permitted entrance, the place was known as one of the most exclusive in the entire west.

He had a fine horse breeding operation mainly Kentucky blue bloods. 16 Thoroughbred race horses from his stable were shipped from Lander to Lexington, Kentucky where they were distributed among prominent racing strings through the south. The horse barn was built in the shape of an “L” and held 150 tons of hay. There was another barn used only for horses.

The barns were torn down and sold for lumber out of the estate after Richard died.

The Dennison property was sitting vacant and used as storage by the Wyoming Game and Fish. A group of local people had it moved to its current location to preserve it. Currently it is owned by the Town of Dubois and is used for community events.

Nicol Hotel

TUKADEKA TRADERS AND HORSE CREEK STATION

In this immediate vicinity was the Nicol Hotel that was swept away by the flood of 1919.

This building was later built in 1926 by Shorty and Mae Meckum as the Rustic Art Cafe and Indian Curio Shop. It is said that the east door is the first glass door in a commercial building in Dubois, the door is still used today. Several different people managed the Rustic Art Cafe in the early years. The restaurant had to be open in the summer only since it was so hard to keep it warm.

Over the years there have been several owners and several businesses in the building. Some of the businesses include other cafes, bakery, taxidermy, painting studio, and dance studio.

In 1992 Monte Baker purchased the property and named it Tukadeka Traders and Horse Creek Station. Monte has spent a lot of time restoring it to its original look.