Hundreds of hours of labor later, the original Meeker Hotel bar (left) has been redeemed from storage in a barn and restored. It’s now on display at the White River Museum, with some additional TLC and detail work to come. WHITE RIVER MUSEUM PHOTO/Niki Turner Photo
MEEKER | The Meeker Hotel became the “Landmark of the West’ in 1883 when Susan C. Wright bought the adobe buildings. In 1893, Susan passed away leaving the hotel to her brother, Rueben Ball. In 1896, he took down the adobe buildings and built the brick structure we see today. In 1904, Mr. Ball added the east and west wings, the bar, and the billiard room. During Prohibition in the 1920’s the bar was moved to the second floor, returning to the hotel lobby afterward. In a long series of events that have not yet been determined, the bar was removed from the hotel and placed in a barn north of Meeker for safekeeping.
In 2022, the owner of the property notified the Rio Blanco County Historical Society that the property was being sold and the bar needed to be removed. In a classic community steps-up event, the high school shop class took trucks and trailers to the site, scraped off all the pieces and transported them to the White River Museum. Over the past year or more, the bar has been stored in the back of Room 7 in the museum. The parts have been cleaned more, organized a bit, and finally, with the help of one builder who volunteered a great deal of time to the effort, reassembled. Although some of its original grandeur was lost, it is still a fine example of historic craftsmanship.
Last Friday, the massive bar was put back together with the help of some heavy equipment and manpower. Hundreds of volunteer hours have gone into the project thus far, and there’s more to be done, including finding a footrail and lighting similar to the original. If you step back and squint a little, it’s easy to imagine the grandeur that was the Meeker Hotel in its heyday.
Rio Blanco County Historical Society Executive Director Teresia Reed said via email, “Thanks to the Meeker High School Shop class and their instructor Zach Clatterbaugh, who rescued and transported it; the numerous folks who have cleaned on it; Bill Woller, for his tireless effort to figure out the puzzle of pieces; Dagne D’Agostino for supporting Bill and for willingness to get dirty cleaning really gross wood. Thanks to John Strate and the high school kids for helping move the pieces as the process went along and the tough guys who showed up with the equipment needed to finish big parts at the end: John Snyder, Steve Brickey, Stevie Brickey, Scott Reed, Kevyn Mack and Luke Trout for stepping up on the final push.”
