TEN SLEEP — Who doesn’t love a good bullet hole or two, especially when it’s in a building that has a lot of history and character?
That’s certainly the case for the Big Horn Mountain Stage Co., a gift shop and fun little coffee stop in Ten Sleep that’s about to turn 120 years old.
This Ten Sleep original still retains much of its 1903-1905 construction, and that includes the fancy tin-stamp ceiling and original native pine floors.
St. Louis-based Tin Works was the company that likely manufactured the ceiling tiles, based on a wooden box that owner Lori Huff found in the basement with that company’s name on it.
“So, we’re pretty positive that’s where all the tin for the ceilings on both floors came from,” Huff said. “And it would have been just wagons and wagons to make those upstairs and downstairs (ceilings).
“Can you imagine this whole building, up and downstairs, how many wagons up those dirt roads that would have taken? It would have been a lot of wagons. That guy had to have some money.”
The elaborate building began its life as a wedding gift for H.G. Church’s daughter, Huff said. She eventually sold the business and abandoned Ten Sleep for California.
According to the National Register of Historic Places, Church began a small mercantile store in 1902 in Ten Sleep in response to growing demand for a local service center in the area. He then expanded the mercantile in 1905, building the present-day, two-story structure that still sits at 201 Second St. in Ten Sleep.
The Register also listed the builder as H.T. Church, but Huff believes, based on tax records, that the actual name was H.G. Church and that the shop was built in 1903.
“It’s been restaurants, it was a rodeo office. We’ve even heard stories that it was a brothel,” Huff said. “There are actual, real, very old bullet holes in mostly the upstairs tin. So, I always imagine how those got there and who shot it up in there.”
Hardware Store
The historic building is the oldest in Ten Sleep. It spent much of its life as a hardware store, starting with Paul Frison, a prominent local historian and politician, who served as a justice of the peace, mayor of Ten Sleep, and a state legislator.
Frison operated the store from 1919-1943. He also wrote five books detailing the area’s history and folklore, including one about the first white woman to live in the Bighorn Basin, and another about Charles Wells, an Apache slave.
At one point, a relative of Huff’s also owned the hardware store from 1948-1986. His name was Leo Rhodes.
Huff has spent a lot of time filling in all the holes that Rhodes drilled into the floor so he could pull rope or other hardware components up from the basement.
“For him those made perfect sense,” Huff said with a smile. “But we don’t need them.”
Owning a store that her uncle once owned has been cool, despite all the holes she’s had to fill in.
“People come in all the time and tell us stories,” she said. “Like, ‘Hey, your uncle Leo sold us my first pair of shoes.’ He used to have racks and racks of shoes down there, and he’d let people go down there to shop.”
Owner Lori Huff wanted to save the Big Horn Mountain Stage Company because of its history and because her uncle once owned it. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
The counter at Big Horn Mountain Stage Co. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
The two shelves at the end are original to the store, as is the tin stamp ceiling above them. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
A box from St. Louis found in the basement of the store. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
What the Ten Sleep Mercantile looked like after H.G. Church's daughter sold it to Brokaw and McCarty. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
A blue matcha latte. Delicious. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Souvenirs, T-shirts, hats, and more are for sale in the gift shop area of Big Horn Mountain Stage Co. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
The stage and backdrop were once used for entertainers, but now it's a coffee chilling spot. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Pictures of the performers who have been to Bighorn Mountain Stage Co. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Bighorn Mountain Stage Co. has what feels like a secret coffee garden. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily)
Spring Creek Raid
In 1909, the Ten Sleep Mercantile was the only shopping center for miles around. It sold all kinds of things: food stuffs, whiskey, bullets, equipment for ranchers, dresses for ladies and more.
“We think both the sheepmen and the cattlemen involved in the Spring Creek Raid would have bought all their bullets and provisions here,” Huff said.
Other likely visitors probably included the infamous Calamity Jane who, in that timeframe, came through the area as a scout, taking people from South Pass to other areas of Wyoming.
“They would have visited the mercantile here, because that was the only place to get provisions,” Huff said. “This would have been a hub for anyone passing through the area.”
That history as a community hub is one of the reasons Huff felt it important to save the building from ruin, which is where it was headed when she and her husband Marcus bought it in 2005. Another is the fact that her uncle once owned it.
“There were birds living upstairs,” Huff said. “And the roof was leaking really bad. If we hadn’t caught this when we did, it would have been really bad.”
There was no drywall and no insulation in the building. The gorgeous, tin-stamped ceilings in the upstairs apartment had all been covered up as well. Fixing everything took about two years.
“I know I took 10 coats of paint off of these windows and door frames,” Huff said. “It seems like anyone who ever owned this didn’t strip it down to the real thing. They just painted over stuff.”
Huff made the decision after a fresh coat of paint began peeling off to just strip all the old layers away.
“You can’t just keep slapping white paint on it,” she said. “It’s just going to keep peeling, right? So, we corn-blasted the whole building, which was not cheap.”
It was definitely worth it in the end, though, Huff added.
“I love that the external part of the building is wood color,” she said. “And it’s beautiful. It was a lot of work to restore the building, and a lot of money too, but we’re just really happy. Because of all the work we’ve done there, it’s going to be preserved for a long time.”
Transformation Continues
In the beginning, Huff’s idea for the business was a music and entertainment venue, as well as serving food.
That is why the business still has a raised platform, which looks a little like a backdrop for a play. Huff left the stage area in place, but now it just serves as a cool space to “chill” while drinking a hot or cold latte, espresso, Americano, Italian soda or other coffeehouse-style drink. There’s also a secret coffee garden outside, where people can go to enjoy their coffee as well.
“We did have a lot of concerts here, just not this year,” Huff said. “I also have a wood-fired pizza place, but I couldn’t find enough people to help run it. So next year, I’ll probably make that into something else (food-related).”
Huff’s manager, her daughter Kahle Dame, said she plans to continue the focus on running a nice coffee stop, combined with a gift and souvenir shop, that also comes with a nice little dash of history.
Huff eventually hopes to hang photos of every store owner over its 119 or so years throughout the building’s history, if she can find them. She’s already put up a few such photos in the store.
As cool as the Big Horn Mountain Stage Co. coffee and gift shop is, it’s not yet open year-round. There’s just not enough traffic there in the winter, so it’s strictly a seasonal pleasure.
“Spring to kind of the beginning of fall is our niche,” Dame told Cowboy State Daily. “So, I think that’s what we’ll probably continue, closing the end of September, and opening in May.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
