Everyone knows about our historic Meeker Hotel, once visited by politicians and bank robbers. It was a resting place for weary travelers who would emerge from dusty stagecoaches run by the Harp family. What we now see is the product of decades of tearing down, remodeling, additions and hard work.
In the beginning there was an empty adobe building built as temporary housing for soldiers. In 1883 the Army abandoned what was a garrison to keep the peace. The land had been a huge reservation occupied by the Utes and managed by Nathan Meeker as Indian Agent for a short time. The Utes did not appreciate Meeker’s management style and he was abruptly “terminated” from his job in a rather violent restructuring. The Ute management team was relocated to Utah, and thousands of acres of land in northwest Colorado was up for grabs. The Utes had lost it in corporate takeover but the U.S. government bureaucracy had not declared it to be public domain yet. The consequence was that the U.S. Army owned the garrison buildings but not the land under them.
1st Lt. George T. Patterson was one of the last men at the Camp on the White River and it fell to him to sell the buildings at public auction on Aug. 13, 1883. The officers had quarters in sturdy log buildings, but the enlisted men had only long adobe buildings for barracks. Three barracks were sold on-the-cheap because they could not be relocated and the real estate under them could not be deeded. Mr. Major, who had been managing the Hugus Store in Powell Park west of the garrison, bought one and moved his stock into the adobe building.
According to Ed Wilber, Charlie Dunbar bought one adobe building and Susan C. Wright bought another. Wright and Dunbar arrived together in March of 1883. Wright set about homesteading 160 acres at the foot of Nine Mile. The land was just outside the existing military reservation. The Army exerted military control for four miles in any direction, measured from the flag pole on the post parade ground. No one could homestead any closer than four miles. In those days, it often took 16 days to travel by wagon from Rawlins, Wyoming. There were horse trails to the Grand River and later the Government Road was extended to where Rifle is today. Before that time, everything had to be freighted by wagon from Rawlings along the Government Road including the mail. Carbonate had just been set up as the temporary county seat of the freshly minted Garfield County. Dunbar and Wright became partners and opened a makeshift hotel and bar in this isolated part of northwest Colorado. Dunbar ran the saloon which included gambling. Wright ran the lodging side of the business. They were going to capitalize on the influx of cowmen seeking free range and lush grazing.
Things were going well and election day in Meeker was coming up. This election was going to decide the Garfield County seat. Glenwood won out, but the White River area pushed hard to have the county seat. The issue was decided by a margin of 41 votes. During that period, only men could vote and the best place to sway the voters was in the local saloons. That meant a surge in beer and whisky sales across the country.
Charlie Dunbar enlisted the help of Ed Wilbur as a temporary help behind the bar. There are many versions of what happened on that fateful November election day. I will repeat Ed Wilbur’s account of Charlie’s demise next week. Traditional newspaper cliffhanger…
My thanks to the Rio Blanco Historical Society and Ellen Reichart.
By ED PECK
