HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
Laramie's oldest bar, est. 1900, with a bullet-holed back-bar mirror and resident ghost lore
114 East Ivinson Avenue, Laramie, WY 82070
Research updated June 2026
Age
21+
Cost
Free
No cover for general bar access; standard drink prices. The upstairs Parlor opens late on weekends.
Access
Limited Access
Historic two-story bar with an upstairs Parlor reached by stairs
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1900 · Oldest bar in Laramie · National Register of Historic Places · Second-floor brothel into the 1950s · Preserved Old West bar interior
The Buckhorn Bar & Parlor opened in 1900 at 114 East Ivinson Avenue and is recognized as the oldest bar in Laramie. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the city's downtown historic fabric. For its first half-century the second floor operated as a brothel, a function that continued into the 1950s; the upstairs space was reopened as the Buckhorn's Parlor in the early 1970s and now serves as a late-night weekend room.
The bar's signature artifact is a bullet hole in the large mirror behind the bar. Local accounts of how it got there differ. One version, repeated in a Columbia Missourian feature, holds that a jealous husband fired a rifle from across the street, with no one hurt. Another, told by Laramie's KingFM, describes an intoxicated regular who fired several shots inside the bar after a bartender rebuffed him, putting one round into the mirror, one in the ceiling, and one into the alley. The accounts agree on the surviving bullet hole, which the bar keeps as a centerpiece of its story.
Through multiple owners the Buckhorn has stayed in business as a downtown bar and music venue, drawing students, locals, and visitors. Its long continuous operation, its preserved Old West interior, and its place in Laramie's downtown have made it one of the city's most recognizable historic establishments.
Sources
The Buckhorn's ghost lore is part of its everyday character. A longtime employee, Scott Crane, described seeing a shadow figure descend the basement stairs in October 2012, along with a cold draft and footsteps he could not account for. Staff and regulars repeat similar accounts of an uneasy feeling downstairs and unexplained sounds in a building that has been in continuous use since 1900.
The bar's best-known story is gentler. As told in local coverage, a patron went to the men's room one day in 1993 and never came back, having died there. He had left a full beer waiting at the bar. For years afterward the bartenders kept a stale glass of beer on a shelf, the story goes, in case the man ever returned to finish it.
The accounts come from a Columbia Missourian feature and from Laramie's KingFM, which gives them more grounding than the typical single-source bar legend. The Buckhorn leans into the lore as part of its identity rather than presenting it as proven fact.
Walk in to see the bullet-holed back-bar mirror and the long mahogany bar at Laramie's oldest watering hole. The upstairs Parlor, in the building's former brothel space, opens late on weekends. Ask the staff about the bar's history and the resident ghost stories.
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