LINCOLN, Neb. (
Nebraska Examiner
) – The stories at the Olde Main Street Inn are as plentiful as the pine trees on the nearby rocky ridges.
Like the time actor Woody Harrelson came by but couldn’t get a room because the three-story bed-and-breakfast was full.
Or the time the beer on St. Patrick’s Day turned an unexpected green, and then, when the next beer was drawn, wasn’t green but a golden amber. (An ornery Irish ghost named “Jack” took the blame.)
Or the time the proprietor fashioned up an engagement ring — using some wire and a crystal from a chandelier — so a local man could propose to his long-time girlfriend.
Jeanne Goetzinger, who’s operated the Inn and its 77 Longbranch Saloon, for 35 years, says she’s going to miss the stories and the characters she’s welcomed at the 135-year-old, brick structure. Those characters range from talk show host Dick Cavett, Olympic gold medalist Billy Mills and former presidential candidate George McGovern, to a well-known, Chadron street person named Matthew Red Shirt.
But Goetzinger, now 78, said it’s time to turn over the colorful and historic place to someone else.
“I don’t have the energy and capacity to be able to have it open as much as I’d like it to be,” she said. “It’s only fair to the community to offer it for sale, so it could become the lively place it used to be.”
How lively?
Mini-skirts, live bands
Goetzinger used to station two Chadron State College coeds, dressed in skin-tight, mini-skirts and holding “turn here” signs, along U.S. Highway 385, to beckon motorcyclists heading to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, to stay at the Olde Main and enjoy a beer garden and a live band.
On Wednesday nights, she organized a weekly social club that drew an eclectic crowd that included local college professors, a former NASA rocket scientist, a local author and a former Nashville session musician.
The saloon was also a late-night gathering spot for members of the Mari Sandoz Heritage Society and the late Ron Hull, a long-time public television personality, as well as the jumping off point for members of the John Neihardt Foundation headed north for an annual hike up Black Elk Peak.
Goetzinger, whose abundant locks of curly, red hair have turned grey in recent years, said she doesn’t want to leave the place and its colorful clientele, but it’s just time.
“I never know what the adventure of the day is going to be,” she said. “It’s been fun. I’m going to miss the thousands of stories.”
So the nine-suite inn, with a restaurant, a bar, a cozy corner out-building and living quarters for the proprietor, is up for sale. The asking price is $575,000 for a structure on the National Register of Historic Places that, over the decades, played a role in the aftermath of the massacre at Wounded Knee and the history of the nearby “Cowboy Trail” railroad line.
The Inn was originally called the “Hotel Chadron,” and was built by a mischievous Irishman named Jack O’Hanlon (thus the name of the ghost).
Over the years, it served as a YMCA for railroad crews and as the first gymnasium for the fledgling Chadron State College.
The Inn’s rooms are named after prominent local figures such as Sandoz, whose books include “Old Jules” and “Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas,” and Gen. Nelson Miles, whose probe into the killing of nearly 250 Lakotas at Wounded Knee in 1890 concluded that it was “the most abominable, criminal military blunder and a horrible massacre of women and children.”
The ambiance of the saloon is part cowboy, part biker and part sassy. There’s huge elk and deer mounts; a picture of the proprietor astride her 1968 Harley-Davidson motorcycle; and a sign that warns guests about “arguin” with a woman.
“My mind’s made up. Don’t confuse me with the facts,” reads another sign.
Law firm to saloon
Goetzinger left a position as a legal assistant at a prestigious Denver law firm to take over the place from her mother — a former Rosie the Riveter at the Martin Bomber Plant in Omaha. She learned the job of running a hotel and restaurant on the run, but has pared back the operation in recent years.
The Inn’s restaurant, which served prime rib, buffalo burgers and grilled salmon, closed 15 years ago due to a lack of help. The saloon, once open seven days a week, is now open only on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights. And the bed-and-breakfast doesn’t always take walk-ins, even if it’s a Hollywood actor.
The Wednesday night social club, dubbed the “Algonquin Round Table” after a legendary New York City gathering of artists and writers, fell apart during the pandemic, in part due to spats over wearing masks to protect Goetzinger’s medically fragile son from the virus.
She said she hopes someone would reopen the restaurant and revive the saloon that used to be filled with college students, professors and local cowboys, but knows those decisions would be for a new owner.
“I would prefer someone who was sensitive to the history of the building and all that goes with it,” Goetzinger said.
Tradition continues?
The summer tourist season — an industry with an estimated $30 million impact in the region — has now begun in Chadron, a community of 5,100 that hugs the shoulders of the Pine Ridge, a rocky outcropping of the nearby Black Hills of South Dakota, which is about an hour’s drive away.
Some bikers have already called to book rooms for the Sturgis Rally, and the Inn has regulars in the fall for deer and turkey hunts on the Pine Ridge. A new hike-bike trail is being developed on the old Cowboy Line just outside the door, which may bring a new breed of “bikers.”
Goetzinger said she’s had some inquiries, but no offers yet. She’s hopeful the “right person” comes along to continue the tradition of the place, and the tales it has spun.
“If the right person walks in and continues a benevolent way of operating the business, they will have one helluva of a great life,” she said. “You may not have a lot of money, but you’ll have a great life.”
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