CHEYENNE — Part dive bar, part honky-tonk and known for hosting local music acts, boxing and even little people wrestling, the Outlaw Saloon has lived up to its current name for decades.
That will end after this weekend, when the Outlaw has its final blowout before closing for good.
It’s being put on the auction block in a foreclosure sale to recoup more than $1.7 million in delinquent mortgage payments and other unpaid fees.
The Outlaw, as it was renamed in 2019 when it was bought by Curtis and Shelby Crowton and their limited liability company Bullseye Operations, has been the go-to hangout in Cheyenne since the early 1970s.
Before it was the Outlaw Saloon, it was Cowboy South and Cal’s before that in the early 1970s, said Sally Jo Larson, a former regular who called the foreclosure and pending auction sale “really, really sad.”
Its “glory days” were when the huge 22,000-square-foot place at 312 S. Greeley Highway was Cowboy South, Larson said.
Then, it was a true Wyoming dive bar — a little rough around the edges where people could get $5 T-bones served on paper plates with plastic cutlery, Larson said.
“That was when Gloria and Jack (Horn) owned it,” she said. “My sister started bartending there in the early ’70s when it was Cal’s, then it was named Cowboy South.”
The Outlaw Saloon’s website claims it’s the largest bar in Wyoming, and while that couldn’t be confirmed, Larson said she recalls it was always huge. At one time, it had three working bars inside along with a bowling alley.
And there was enough room left over for a huge dance floor and live music.
“I really started going out there when they had the live bands every weekend,” she said. “We’d go out really early to get a space at the bar and sit. We had a blast. We’ll miss it.”
So will a lot of others, she said, because “it was always packed — packed on weekends and even when they had a cover charge. I’m so sorry to see it go. It’s been around forever.”
Not The Same
While Larson, a self-described “Cheyenne old-timer,” remembers the bar’s heyday, others say they’re disappointed — but not surprised — that the Outlaw Saloon is closing.
Since it was bought and the name changed to the Outlaw, it hasn’t been the same, said Bill Dike, who grew up in Cheyenne and now lives in Lander.
“It was nothing like it was when it was Cowboy South after it was bought,” Dike said. “Back in the early 2000s, there were three different bars in there and they had the bowling alley on the side.
“But the best thing is it was kind of a dive, a honky-tonk, and it was a little rougher than it is now. It was like what a Wyoming bar should be.”
He said the current ownership made too many changes, including putting a casino in the upper level, that caused the place to lose its unique feel.
Dike said the Outlaw being foreclosed on and closing doesn’t affect him as much as when the owners changed it from the Cowboy South he loved.
“If it would’ve been that old one this is happening to, it would’ve made me sad,” he said. “But with this one … it just completely changed and you couldn’t get farther from what it was like.”
Owes $1.7 Million
Even so, the Outlaw Saloon was still a favorite place to go during Cheyenne Frontier Days, and it brought in some top-tier music acts, like Chancey Williams and Ned LeDoux, who played at the Outlaw during this year’s CFD.
Calls to Curtis Crowton, who’s listed as the registered agent for the bar since his LLC bought it in 2019, were not returned before this story was published. Numbers listed for Shelby Crowton were either disconnected or not in service.
Both are named in a public notice of the foreclosure sale as guarantors for a June 13, 2023, mortgage with Citizens Bank in the amount of $1,566,078.07. Adding accrued interest and other fees and penalties, the liability comes to more than $1.7 million.
The sprawling saloon and property will be sold “to the highest bidder for cash” at 10 a.m. Monday at the Laramie County Courthouse, the public notice says.
It appears the Crowtons and Bullseye Operations were trying to sell the Outlaw Saloon, according to an online listing with The Graham Group and Coldwell Banker Commercial.
As of Thursday afternoon, the listing says the building was built in 1962 on a little more than 2.5 acres with an asking price of $3.15 million. It also lists the property status as “pending.”
Whether the listing has been put on hold because of the foreclosure and public auction sale was unclear. Calls to the listing agent weren’t returned by publication time.
‘We Definitely Spent A Lot Of Paychecks In There’
Ryan Georges now lives in Payson, Arizona, but grew up in Cheyenne and said news of the Outlaw’s pending closure is sad.
One of the main reasons young adults in the capital city looked forward to turning 21 was to legally get into the then-Cowboy South.
“We were barely 21 and just happier than anything to be there mingling, dancing and all the amenities,” he said. “It was always a good time.”
He also said it was always packed.
“It didn’t matter what night of the week it was, it was always busy,” he said. “And then these local bands would come through, and during Frontier Days some of these bigger artists would play there.”
Georges said he saw Ned LeDoux and Chancey Williams at the Outlaw.
While he hopes the place is bought by someone who wants to bring the Cowboy South vibe back to it, Georges isn’t holding his breath.
“I’m hoping someone will buy it at auction and keep it going, but those things can be a money pit,” he said.
For now, Georges said he’ll remember the good times, the occasional fights, and even “how smoky it was in there before they had laws about that. You would come home just reeking like an ashtray.”
It’s like losing an old friend, he said.
“We just had a heyday there. I don’t know how we survived all that,” Georges said. “We definitely spent a lot of paychecks in there, that’s for sure. It’ll be a shame to lose that.”
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
