Montana Gaming Group

Glacier Bar over 100 years old, still prospering

    “He bought it on the Internet!”
    After six years, Carol Strander is still amazed at how her son, Bill Kobitisch, acquired the Glacier Tavern, a landmark bar in downtown Lewistown, the geographic center of Montana.
    Bill was going to be out of town on business when this reporter would be in Lewistown, but he said, “My mom will be there. She can probably tell you just as much about the Glacier as I can.”
    Kobitisch, who grew up in Butte and Billings, bought the Glacier Tavern in 2003.   “Mom came out to help out for a few weeks,” he said, “and she’s still here.”
    Carol Strander laughs at how it worked out. “I had just retired when Bill bought the business. So I came to Lewistown to help a little while.”

The Glacier Tavern is a landmark bar in Lewistown. Carol Strander, left, holding her friend, enjoys helping her son Bill, who bought the Glacier six years ago.

    Of the deal to buy a business in Lewistown, she adds, “The price was right, he got the financing and we made the move.” It was a smooth transition. Of the previous owner, Dolores Gies, Carol says, “She’s a jewel.” She goes on to say that the previous owner’s grandson owns the gaming machines in the facility, so the connection continues.
    In a phone interview, Bill explains that his purchase of the Glacier Tavern was a bit of a fluke.
    “I was looking to buy some property and was looking at a real estate web-site, and it popped up,” Bill says. “I was kind of surprised that I was able to get it, as there were other people looking at it, also.”
    Carol has definitely soaked in the history of the Glacier Tavern.
    “It’s over 100 years old. It’s one of the oldest bars in town,” she says.
    Digging out a well-used copy of “History of Lewistown,” edited and compiled by Robert L. Dissley and published in 2000, she finds a historic photo of the venerable building, which has a brick facing on the front half of the building, and native sandstone, a popular building material for many old Lewistown business places, on the rear half.
    The book also reveals that in 1914, the bar, then called the Elkhorn Bar, was owned by Moritz Fleischmann.
There are rooms above the bar and with a note of glee, Carol says, “There used to be girls there.” That was a long time ago. The second floor is now remodeled into two apartments. Bill and his son live in the larger apartment, and Carol lives in the smaller apartment.
    Bill confirms the colorful history of the bar and the upstairs business, noting that originally there were 15 rooms on the second floor. He also said that while the back bar on the main floor isn’t the original back bar, it’s still a real antique going back to the frontier days, and likely came to Montana on a Missouri River steamer. He also maintains that the Glacier Tavern is Lewistown’s oldest established bar.
    Bill says the move to Lewistown to purchase the Glacier Tavern was a good one.
    “I’m looking for ways to expand,” he says. “It’s done better than I originally expected. We’re part of what we call the ‘Barmuda Triangle,’ so we get a lot of traffic from people going from one bar to another.”
    The Barmuda Triangle?
    Bill explains that at this particular intersection of downtown Lewistown there are three bars: the Glacier, the Eagles Club and the Montana Tavern, which has the distinct feature of having a trout stream, Big Spring Creek, run underneath the floor, complete with a viewing window (I’ll be checking that out on my next time through there).
    That Barmuda Triangle is a popular area during Lewistown’s annual Chokecherry Festival, which brings in large numbers of visitors to Lewistown at the end of every summer. Lewistown’s Main Street is closed off to traffic to accommodate the festival and all the people.
    Bill also says there’s a lot of through-traffic of hunters and anglers who come through Lewistown on their way to the Missouri Breaks, as well as to fish on area streams.
    Bill, himself, enjoys flyfishing on streams and mountain lakes. He also enjoys hunting, but laments that while the Lewistown area is known far and wide for pheasant hunting, it’s extremely difficult to get access to private land, noting that Cabela’s, which just opened a new mega-store in Billings, bought two area ranches for outfitting purposes, which will tighten things up even more.
    Other than bar snacks, the Glacier doesn’t offer any regular food service, in part because there isn’t room, as well as that Bill had previously worked in facilities that had both food and beverages, and was more comfortable being more specialized.
He notes, however, that on special occasions he’ll bring in food. One of those occasions was at Thanksgiving time last year. “My son was gone for the weekend, so I figured since that my regular customers are part of my family, I fixed a big turkey dinner for everybody.”
    Bill’s son is a 2009 graduate of Fergus County High School and is headed for the University of Montana at Missoula this fall. “I’ve got to be in business four more years, at least,” Bill quips.
    Looking at the future, Bill reiterates his long term goal to expand the facility. He anticipates the state-wide smoking ban that goes into effect this fall is going to hurt business initially.
    “It’ll hurt a bit,” he concedes, but adds, “It’ll come back—and I want to give people reasons to come back.” He says he’s looking into purchasing a laser-shooting game, similar to those used by many hunter education programs.
    Back to the conversation with Carol, she looks at the mid-morning line-up of customers at the bar and says, “We open at 8 a.m., and we always have a bunch of coffee drinkers here early in the morning. We’re kind of the older guys bar, though there’s a younger crowd in the evenings.
    “We keep a pretty steady crowd,” she says, adding, “Lynette, one of our bartenders, came with the place.”
    Our conversation is interrupted by a poodle, “That’s Lord,” Carol says, “That’s short for Sir Lord Calvert. And then there’s his little brother, Little Dutch, or L.D.”
A customer stops by to chat with Carol on his way out. Kind of like family? “Oh, yeah,” Carol says with a smile. “I’ll bet three-fourths of them call me Mom.”
    She adds, “There are lots worse things they could call me.”