Pete’s Roc N Rye Club used to a popular stop near Evanston on the old Lincoln Highway. Now it’s abandoned and slowly fading, more of a “wonder what that was” for passing motorists. But longtime locals still have fond memories of the place.
On the service road east of Evanston, a casual look north reveals log buildings and a weathered, fading sign that for many brings back a lot of memories.
Robert Hamilton, an archaeologist with PacificCorp, said he’s noticed the abandoned building over the years while documenting segments of the old historic Lincoln Highway through Wyoming.
He recently shared photos of the building and signs along the highway related to gas opportunities on a Facebook page dedicated to vintage gas stations.
The photos were taken over the years as he traveled between Wyoming and his home in Ogden, Utah.
What followed was a flood of responses from southwest Wyoming recalling decades of memories associated with Pete’s Roc N Rye bar and restaurant.
“That was one of the gas stations on the Lincoln Highway,” he said. “I was really surprised at all the people that were piping in and all the stories they had.”
Hamilton said he was probably too young to have had a chance to visit the place, but the stories his photos have stirred up indicate it was something special for locals.
Uinta County’s Assessor’s Office documents show the property listed as belonging to Stan Taggart. Attempts to reach members of the Taggart family were not successful.
One person commented that he enjoyed going to the bar to celebrate New Year’s when he was young.
Another said he toured the bar a few years ago.
“(It) was like going back to the ’30s and ’40s,” Joe Don wrote. “Stan has done a great job. Would make a perfect movie set.”
Actually, the bar was a movie set for the late Evanston resident Paul Mills, a quick-draw shooting champion, who used the bar as a setting for his movie “The Reckoning,” according to an Uinta County Herald story published Feb. 28, 2024.
“Stan Taggart, who owned and managed Pete’s at the time, often said that his hearing loss was due to Paul shooting his gun off in the bar while making the film,” the paper reported.
The bar was initially named by original owner Elmer “Pete” Peters, who died in Evanston in February 2003.
His obituary in the Feb. 11, 2003 edition of the Casper Star-Tribune reports that he and his wife, Nadine, owned Pete’s Roc N Rye Club while living in Evanston for 21 years before moving to Utah for another 20-plus years.
An Old Sign advertising Pete’s Roc N Rye that came off the Lincoln Highway. At right, a sign informing drivers of a gas stop ahead. (Courtesy Robert Hamilton) 
Stan Taggart at 85 was still opening his bar occasionally in 2018. (Courtesy Uinta County Herald) 
Left, the Ogden Standard Examiner on June 29, 1962, carried a photo of the future bar owner in a strength competition. Right, the Morgan County News on Oct. 26, 1962, carried an ad for Stan Taggart and his run for sheriff. (Courtesy Newspapers.com) 
(Courtesy Newspapers.com)
Lincoln Highway Stop
Hamilton’s photos of the building show a red-white-and-blue banner with the words “Lincoln Highway” draped in a corner of the front and a round “Pete’s Lounge One Mile” sign that likely dates back decades.
The place also reportedly used to have moose antlers hanging outside as well.
Hamilton also shared an old neon sign in the form of an arrow that apparently pointed to the gas station, restaurant and bar.
A columnist for the Park City Record in Park City, Utah, also apparently made it a point to stop at Pete’s, having mentioned the destination in a column as he wrote about an old truck and it wanting to “spend just one more night in the parking lot at Pete’s Roc N Rye up Evanston way” in an April 14, 2004 edition of the paper.
The same writer, Jay Meehan, on March 21, 2018, wrote that the interior in Pete’s had “in-your-face Old Western authenticity and grittiness.
“For many of the Utah persuasion, Pete’s has long been the flickering light that is the end of the tunnel that is Echo Canyon,” he wrote. “Over time, a deep need of peace and erudition has nudged pilgrims northward to the promised land of whiskey and enlightened discourse.
"It’s like a massage parlor for the damaged psyche.”
Jack Of Many Trades
Meehan characterized Taggart as a former teenage documentary photographer, rocket scientist, body builder, candidate for sheriff in nearby Morgan County, Utah, as well as a paleontologist, ethnomusicologist, historian, dispenser of libations and a mentor to those who came through the door.
As a younger man, Taggart for several years wrote an outdoor column for his local paper, the Morgan County News.
The Unita County Herald featured a 50-year anniversary story about the tavern under his leadership on Oct. 23, 2018.
Taggart told the paper he inherited a bar at 19 when his stepfather died and enjoyed running the place.
He said when Peters wanted to sell the business in 1968, he bought it. He had previously spent 10 years working at the Hercules missile plant in Utah.
By 2018, Taggart was 85 years old and opening the bar only occasionally.
The paper reported that the man who sold whiskey and never drank it was still running hills behind his business and its attached home every morning.
When the Herald’s reporter asked what his plans for retirement were, Taggart responded with singer-songwriter Paul Simon’s words, “My name is Stan and I have no plans.”
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
