Lusk, A Day in the Life - Walking Tour Featured Buildings
Frank Lusk House – Pier Funeral Home
It was the first home built in Lusk – in 1886.
Frank Lusk built it for his mother, Cornelia.
Cornelia was a world traveler and an advocate for education.
Her house was decorated with items from her travels.
She was an early school superintendent and school board member.
The house was large and gracious, and Cornelia used it as the center for entertainment and social events.
It has been used as a mortuary since 1931.
Armory – Stagecoach Museum
It was built in 1927 for $15,000 to house military men.
It had living quarters and entertainment for them – bowling alley, pool tables, shooting gallery.
It housed units of the National Guard – a medical detachment, a Cavalry platoon, and a quartermaster regiment.
Later, it had a roller-skating rink, a dance hall, and an art studio until it became the museum in 1969.
The museum displays the last stagecoach to make the run from Cheyenne to Deadwood.
Sager House
This house began life in 1907 as the Arnold House, an elegant addition to Lusk.
Ed Arnold came to this area in 1879 before there was a town. When he died in 1960, he had seen the rise and fall of the passenger railway and the development of the range from open grazing to its modern economy.
In 1919, Arnold sold his house to an “Improvement Company”, which converted it to an apartment house called The Whittier. Sometime afterwards, the building was also used as a hospital, and was still called The Whittier,
In 1950, the owners of the nearby Ranger Hotel, the Chamberlains, bought the building as their residence.
Gertrude’s sister, Jeannete Sager, who also worked in the Ranger Hotel, lived in this house with them.
After the Chamberlains both died, Jeannette stayed in the house until her death in 1995. Since then, it has been a bed and breakfast and is now privately owned.
Ranger Hotel
The hotel was built in 1919 with plans to have 216 rooms with private baths and telephones.
But when the oil boom ended, the hotel was not completed.
In the next few decades, it had several owners and uses.
By the late 1940s, the building truly became a hotel. The Chamberlains owned the hotel until 1958. It was known during those years as one of the best hotels in Wyoming.
The hotel went through many owners, and in 1977, when it became an “apartment house for the elderly.”
Snyder Mercantile
The first mercantile was built in 1886 on the southwest corner of 2nd
St. and Main. It served stockmen who needed supplies as they traveled north.
In 1929, this first mercantile was torn down and replaced by a Texaco station, Highway Super Service and now Lickety Stitch quilt shop.
This first mercantile was where Harry Snyder started his mercantile in 1895. Over the next years, he bought several other businesses, bought out various partners, and built the second H. C. Snyder’s Mercantile in 1919 in this new location.
The first electric elevator in Lusk was installed during the construction.
Snyder and his family operated the mercantile until 1932. This building went on to house Midwest Hardware, a café, and now the Rawhide Drug Store.
Snyder was a mayor of Lusk and a Wyoming state representative.
Spencer Hospital – Henry Hotel
Lena Henry, who was from Norway, bought the land and had the hotel built in 1918. She was an old-time friend of Senator John Kendrick.
The hotel was built by local talent because WWI created labor shortages.
It was substantial and elegant, with 24 rooms.
It was a hotel until 1941, when Dr. William Reckling bought it to establish a modern hospital in rural Wyoming. Reckling named the hospital after Spencer the man who donated funds to create the hospital.
The hospital ran until the early 1960s.
Doc Reckling was much loved by the community. He often treated patients free of charge and even sometimes treated local cows and horses.
Walker and Waters Saloon
This site was where many businesses stood, including: general store, clothing store, service station, café, and most recently a quilt shop.
Most interestingly, it is the site of a murder in 1887 of a popular local lawman – Charles Gunn.
The murderer escaped but was shot out his saddle and put in jail. His guards helped him escape, but he later surrendered.
He was convicted of murder, but once again escaped from jail. He was pursued all over Wyoming and Montana but never found. He died from a broken neck, having fallen from his horse in New Mexico in 1903.
Silvercliff Hotel
The hotel was built in 1918 during the oil boom. It was a deluxe hotel, offering steam heat and hot and cold running water in each room.
For a while, it took advantage of the discovery of radium in the hills behind the hotel, and it offered radium baths as a cure for ailments.
In 1923, the owner’s son set fire to the hotel so his father could collect insurance. Luckily, there was not much damage, and no one was hurt.
Later, the hotel was used for long-term stays and suites for businesses until it fell into disrepair and was condemned.
Merry Whirl Dance Hall
A two-story building was in this spot from 1919 to 1971, when it was torn down.
The first floor was the Garden Theater where movies were shown. In 1923, a fire broke out when a box of movie film exploded.
The second floor was the dance hall, the Merry Whirl, where couples danced to live music. There was a crystal chandelier that sent sparkles over the couples.
Military men from Fort Robinson and Igloo, SD, came to Lusk to dance and make merry.
In the basement were a pool hall and barber, and other businesses set up shop in the building over the years, such as the Lusk Post Office, the Elks Lodge, and bowling alleys.
Northwestern Hotel
A few years after the railroad arrived in 1886, The Collins House was established on this site and became a popular establishment in the eastern part of Wyoming.
It was later sold and became the Herring Hotel.
Herring twice caused explosions resulting from taking lighted materials into the basement and underground areas where flammable materials were used. One explosion destroyed the dining room floor and killed a waitress. He was not injured.
In 1911, Lena Henry (who later built the Henry Hotel), bought the Herring Hotel and renamed it the Northwestern Hotel.
She made it into a major stop for Sunday dinner for travelers on the railroad
It was torn down in 1930.
Since then, this site has been a car dealership, among other uses.
Railroad Depot
It was built shortly after the railroad was completed here on July 13, 1886. Also built in 1886 was the redwood water tower east of town to supply water to the steam engines.
The original depot burned down in 1919, and a new one was built.
This new depot featured solid oak furniture with separate waiting rooms for ladies and men.
This depot was the passenger hub until the last passenger train on August 9, 1950.
The depot closed in 1976. But it was remodeled in 1984 and became local railroad headquarters.
Lusk Light and Power Station
This building started operation in 1920 after a plant built in 1914 couldn’t supply enough power.
Power was generated by steam, and the steam was cooled back to water and reused.
The plant provided electricity and power to Lusk until the 1940s when the Bureau of Reclamation started providing power from its hydroelectric plants.
Yellow Hotel
“Hotel” painted bright yellow.
Brothel built in 1920 by local madam – Dell Burke.
Was in business until 1978. Dell died in 1980.
She was generous to the city, its businesses, and its citizens.
The building was torn down in 2012 with its furnishings auctioned off.