White Wolf In Douglas Has A New Owner, But You Can Still Get A Shot For A Bullet

DOUGLAS — Growing up, Bruce Winton always thought it was cool how the businesses in Douglas would help out his wrestling camps or other sports teams with sponsorships and other support. 

Someday, he decided, that would be him. 

He would own his own business and would make sure to give back, because so many had given to him.

That became part of his own ideal for the American dream, one that he has finally made come true by buying the White Wolf Saloon in Douglas, the town’s oldest building and one of the state’s coolest Western bars.

Dating back to 1887, it’s also one of Wyoming’s oldest saloons famous for its eclectic collection and displays of artifacts.

Winton’s purchase returns the White Wolf Saloon to a native Wyoming son, as Winton was born and raised in Douglas, returning after attending college in nearby Casper.

For Winton, the White Wolf Saloon has always been about its great conversation starters. 

From the perpetual poker players seated outside next to a howling white wolf sculpture, to an actual taxidermy white wolf inside the bar, and the Western artwork and unique barroom artifacts in between. 

Any one of them can be considered a first-rate conversation starter.

Winton doesn’t plan to change that aspect of the bar now that he owns it, though he does want to shift the focus to more of a Western theme.

“It may have been a bit more busy than I have it now, but I did want to keep that aesthetic and that theme going,” Winton said. “But also, just kind of bringing it up to modern times and making it fun for everyone. 

"We’ve got to stay Western, but we have modern stuff, too, like games and pool and darts and stuff like that.”

A Shot For A Shot

One of the other things Winton has kept is more tradition than artifact.

“There’s a couple of wacky state statutes and stuff, and Wyoming state law that still differentiates a bar and a saloon,” he said. “And so, we still honor some of what you would call heritage, like someone turning in larger pistol rounds for a free shot and stuff like that.”

That was a common practice in the Old West, Winton said, where a cowboy who couldn’t afford a shot of ​liquor could trade a bullet for a slug of whiskey instead.

“It was a shot for a shot,” Winton said. “And we still do that.”

Some of the old-timers that frequent the White Wolf still ask for that, Winton added. Most also go ahead and buy a few other drinks as well.

Eight Truckloads

Cleaning out the bar and redirecting its vision to something more Western probably took a lot more work than Winton is letting on. 

Bar patrons told Cowboy State Daily during a weekend visit to the bar that Winton had taken no less than eight truckloads of stuff out of the bar to clean it up and get it ready for its reopening.

“But the important stuff is still here,” one of them added, raising a beer to the taxidermy alligator named Elvis, all 13.5 feet of him.

Elvis now sits on a wooden platform amid taxidermy birds and other animals that look like they might be a tasty treat for an alligator in the afterlife. 

The gator has an incredible backstory. According to the bar’s previous owners, it came from the Miami Vice television show and was once owned by Don Johnson himself.

Another of the iconic artifacts that lives on at the bar is a taxidermy dog named Budweiser. 

Petting Budweiser on the way out the back door is tradition, some of the regular bar patrons told Cowboy State Daily, and it's become an important mascot for the bar.

My Buddy Weiser

There’s a backstory to the dog, as told by the previous owner, Carl Strode. 

Strode bought the taxidermy pet from an auction for $25. It was a somewhat forced purchase by the auctioneer, who told Strode the owner was dying and his children were selling his belongings to pay for his medical expenses. 

The dog, the auctioneer suggested, was perfect for Strode’s new bar.

When it came up for auction, no one wanted to open the bidding, not even for $50. 

With no takers, he started looking intently at Strode, who made a neck-cutting motion to signal that he didn’t want to bid.

The auctioneer, however, seeing movement, pointed at Strode and yelled out, “I got $25, sold!”

Strode knew when he was outmatched and took it all well, forking over $25 for the stuffed dog even though he hadn’t really wanted it.

Strode and his bar patrons were taking bets on what type of dog this was and what to call it when an hour later two women walked in and said, "We’re here for Bud Light."

Strode was like, “Yes, ma’am, I have that in a can, bottle, or draft.”

But a beer wasn’t what they had in mind. 

“We mean the dog in the back,” they said. "That’s his name, Bud Light.”

Turns out the dog belonged to the girls’ father. He had been a faithful companion all his life, and when he died, their father sent him to a taxidermist to preserve him in a lifelike pose. 

The two women wanted to take a picture of the dog to show their dad that Bud Light had a new home in a bar, which they knew would cheer him in his last days.

Strode waved them back, saying, “Sure, sure, take all the pictures you want.”

Did You Find The Chinook?

A very short time later the women were back with deer-in-the-headlights looks.

“What’s going on?” Strode asked them.

The dog, it turned out, was placed right next to a life-sized figure of a cowboy who looked just like their dad. 

With misty eyes, they told Strode how they were going to tell their dad about his dog’s new home, right next to a mannequin that looked just like him. 

They were sure when he went to Heaven his spirit would be right there alongside his beloved dog Bud Light again.

Eventually, Strode also found out what kind of dog Bud Light, or Budweiser, was. 

A couple from New Hampshire excitedly told Strode he had a chinook, though at first he didn’t understand at all what they were talking about.

He told them he most certainly did not have a chinook, thinking they meant it was the king salmon on the wall or maybe some type of airplane, neither of which were anywhere in his bar.

“I don’t have any wind in the bar either,” he added, assuring them he indeed had no such thing as a chinook. 

They explained that a chinook was an unusually loyal and intelligent dog, prized as a sled and work dog in their home state. 

So it was that Strode found out that Budweiser was actually not a Heinz 57 mutt after all. He was a chinook.

A Black-And-White Western

While the cowboy mannequin in Bud Light’s corner has been removed, the dog remains, along with the howling coyote on the shelf above, both of which seemed very Western and cool to Winton.

“Instead of having a lot of themes, I kind of pulled it back to the Western saloon scene,” Winton said. “It was more of a what fits this Western theme and what’s too much, because it had a little bit of everything. 

"Western, modern, old alien stuff — there were a lot of genres represented when we started it. So, it was more about categorizing everything to a theme, which is a Western saloon.”

If there’s any doubt about that, check out what’s on TV.

Winton also has an old-fashioned box television which he calls a “tube” that he plays old Westerns on — things like the John Wayne films “Flying Tigers,” “Yellow Ribbon” or “True Grit.”

Drinking To A Sunset

The White Wolf gets its fun name from Strode and his wife’s three half-breed white wolves, which they brought up with them from Florida not knowing at the time those pets aren’t legal in Wyoming.

The couple, who sold the bar last year because they decided to retire, bought the saloon for its history. 

That’s one of the things the bar’s new owner, Winton, also loves. 

The White Wolf started life as the Pringle Saloon back in 1887, which makes it the oldest saloon in Douglas, and the oldest building as well.

“I believe it used to be a tent saloon back then, because the railroad came through in '86, and he (Theodore Pringle) purchased that property in 1887,” Winton said. “And 1906 is when he also bought and constructed the College Inn, which was the first permanent structured bar in Douglas. 

"And then 20 years later he came back to this original property and made it a permanent structured property as well.”

The bar still has some of the original wood from Pringle’s saloon, displayed behind all the bottles of liquor, Winton said, and that’s one of his favorite artifacts in the bar.

He also loves the taxidermy white wolf, which he relocated to the front of the bar where it’s more visible.

Winton said there’s a story behind every artifact and discovering them is part of the fun both for him and for guests who wander into his real Wild West saloon where the bartender will still take a shot for a shot and play you an old black and white John Wayne Western while the sun slips from the sky.

Contact Renee Jean at renee@cowboystatedaily.com

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.