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Butte Falls residents welcome tavern reopening Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell The new Butte Falls Tavern will have the look of the original, although the original antique bar has been replaced by a new sugar pine bar from the local forest. There are, however, a half-dozen trophy mounts, including four bull elk and two buck deer, on the wall. Many residents have missed the town�s gathering place since it closed two years ago. By Paul Fattig BUTTE FALLS � The drought is nearly over for locals with a thirst for bellying up to a local bar for a cold beer and a warm chat with old friends. The Butte Falls Tavern, whose closing in the summer of 1998 left this picturesque hamlet without a bar for the first time in more than 90 years, reopens Sunday. That�s refreshing news to folks like longtime area resident Gene Marley, a retired sheet metal worker. "It was a sad day when it closed down," he said. "That�s the place where you could always find out what�s going on in this town. That�s where you met all your friends." Owners Mike and Liz Stritenberg are reopening the old tavern at a new location at noon Sunday with a grand opening planned for Oct. 7. Instead of its original location on Broad Street just down the block from city hall, the tavern will be on nearby Fir Street at the historic Boarding House, circa 1911. "When we sold it, we didn�t think the town would miss it as much as it has," Stritenberg said. "We�ve had nobody complain that we�re reopening and a heck of a lot of people tell us their happy we are. "We�ve had a lot of people come through here who are disappointed there is no longer a tavern in the town," he added. "Cycle Oregon really raised Cain. And the hunters have also been disappointed." After the Stritenbergs sold the building that housed the tavern in August of 1998, the new owner opted not to reopen the bar. That building remains vacant. Incorporated in 1911, the town had had a tavern since the Butte Falls Sugar Pine Co. built a sawmill at the base of the falls in 1906. However, during Prohibition, the taverns were restricted from serving alcohol. Old-timers believe the Butte Falls Tavern itself was established just before World War II. It was noted for its ambiance, including an antique bar with a long mirror behind it and an elk head with a huge rack on the wall. The Stritenbergs, both teetotalers, say they want to recapture the original atmosphere. The antique bar has been replaced by a new sugar pine bar from the local forest, but there are a half-dozen trophy mounts, including four bull elk and two buck deer, on the wall. A pool table and dart board will be there when the tavern opens. A juke box arrived Wednesday morning. "We want this to be real low key," he said. "We want to have a lot of the old memorabilia from hunting and logging. We want to get a lot of hunting pictures and old town pictures." The Stritenbergs are longtime Butte Falls area residents whose four children grew up in the area. "Neither my wife nor I drink, but we spent a lot of time in the tavern," he said. "It was a place where we all got together and hash out the world events." It was a place where everybody knew your name if you were a local, said Butte Falls Mayor Jack Brown, a retired coach and teacher. He had leased the old tavern from the Stritenbergs for three years ending in 1998. "You could pour the beer when someone walked in because you knew what they drank," he said. Like Marley, he looks forward to the tavern�s reopening. "You can talk to anyone in town and they�ll give you a positive feeling about it," Brown said. "It was a meeting place. It was a place where they socialized. "A lot of them didn�t drink beer," he added. "They just had a Pepsi or a Coke. They came in to talk. That�s what people are missing." Opening the tavern doesn�t trouble Butte Falls Police Chief Melvin Ray. "I don�t foresee any major problems with it," Ray said, adding that it may even result in fewer drunk driving arrests on the Butte Falls Highway. "The pub has always done good things for the town," Marley said. "When somebody was sick, people in the pub always did something for them." Reopening the tavern also allows him to resume a family tradition of buying a beer for one of his children when they turn 21. "The one kid never got that pleasure because it closed down," he said of his youngest. "Now I�ll be able to do that for him." Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA