250 Main Street
The Lander Hotel -The Lander Hotel was one of the first businesses on Lander’s dusty Main Street. It began as an eating place and stopover for bull-team freighters on their way to Fort Washakie. It was a one-story, four-room log building built by Ben Decora. Later additions were built of adobe and wood.
Captain H. G. Nickerson bought the hotel in 1885 or 1886. Behind the hotel (to the north) was a livery stable and barn which Nickerson ran in conjunction to the hotel for the convenience of his guests. The Fremont Clipper newspaper reported it as a “popular hostelry with large airy rooms, nice clean beds and the tables always supplied with the best market affordable.”
The hotel register shows that Owen Wister, author of the popular book, The Virginian, spent a night or two in the hotel in July, 1887. Wister was a lawyer from Philadelphia who became one of the first writers of western novels.
The “coming of the railroad” was an influence and part of the lower floor was remodeled into a restaurant.
In 1928 the hotel was torn down to make way for the present Grand Theater.
