Lincoln's Silver Dollar: 46,785 and growing
Pub Date: 11/1/2006
By Paul F. Vang
The big billboards you see across western Montana are misleading. There aren't 10,000 silver dollars at Lincoln' Silver Dollar Bar on I-90. No, 10,000 doesn't even come close. There are way more than that. They number 46,785 at last count, and the count keeps growing.
Perhaps some travelers might consider the billboards a bit tacky. On the other hand, Rex Lincoln, who has spent most of his life in the hospitality business, will point out that those billboards are not only his most effective form of advertising but also a reminder to take care of business.
"We put up all those signs to draw people in. You'd better take care of them," he says.
Lincoln' Silver Dollar Bar is in a great location; about halfway between Missoula and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and one of the last stops in Montana for gassing up, getting something to eat, or staying for the night. It' also the success story of a long-time, family-run small business.
The business had its start in 1951 when Rex Lincoln' parents, Gerry and Marie Lincoln, built a small bar along old Highway 10, just west of Alberton.
Back in those days Montana was home to the silver dollar. Lots of people were paid their weekly wages in "cartwheels." If you made a small purchase, you had to be careful about paying with a big bill, because you'd probably get your change in silver dollars. On October 1, 1952, Gerry cut a round hole in the top of the bar and pounded a silver dollar into it and inscribed his and Marie' names beneath it.
Other people liked the idea and just a year later the collection of silver dollars had grown to over 2,000, and the Lincolns changed the name of their business from "Cherry Springs Bar" to "Lincoln' 2,000 Silver Dollar Bar." Since then the collection has continued to grow, and the business kept changing its name until it hit 10,000.
The original bar is still intact with those first silver dollars that started it all (some 2,115 in all) and the walls are covered with display boards that display the rest of the collection.
In a historical handout at the bar, the Lincolns say that, "Each coin is the possession of the individual who left it and many people, or their children or grandchildren, return year after year to visit their coin."
1956 was a difficult year. Gerry Lincoln lost his life in an auto accident, leaving Marie to run the business by herself. Rex Lincoln was a senior in high school at the time, but was able to help work his way through college by working at the bar, and after graduation in 1960 came back to work full time in the business.
In December 1961, Rex and Sharyn Lincoln got married. "They said it would be a cold day in hell before anybody married Rex Lincoln," Rex quips.
"It was a cold day, about -25 degrees, when we got married in Superior," he reminisces. "Some friends put some sort of sticky stuff on my car as a joke, and it wasn't until we got to Reno, Nev., on our honeymoon, before it thawed enough for me to clean it up."
interstate highway construction forced a move from Alberton, as the original bar was right in the path of the new highway that became I-90. They moved the business some 50 miles west to Haugan, a small but thriving logging and mining community. In 1976, the Lincolns acquired property fronting I-90 and moved the business to that location.
Over the years, the business has grown from a small loggers' bar to a bar, restaurant, gift shop, motel, convenience store and gas station. In addition, they welcome RV travelers to camp on the property behind the main buildings.
"We needed an imposing facility to pull people off the road," Rex noted, and that' exactly what they have.
While the business has moved twice and greatly expanded, it' still true to its origins as a family business.
"My mother put three of us through school with this business, and my kids went through grade school, high school and college, working here," Rex says. "Our three daughters work here and now their kids work here. We have a new generation--the fourth generation--coming up through the ranks."
It takes more than just family, of course. "We have a lot of long-term employees who stick with us, and many of their kids have "done time' here," Rex says. "A lot of those kids have been pretty successful as adults. They learned a good work ethic here."
While Lincoln appreciates employee loyalty, he acknowledges that keeping the business properly staffed isn't easy.
"We're in an isolated area with a small pool of people. Finding good people is our single greatest problem." He adds, "We're about the area' largest employer, employing around 45 people year around, going up to 90-100 employees during the summer tourist season." The gas station and convenience store operation is open 24 hours per day, so it needs to be staffed 24-7.
As for the billboards, Rex says, "We determined early on that the billboard is our most successful means of advertising--and then we give them a good product. This is a nice place, from the parking lot, to the restaurant and bar."
On the late summer day when we stopped, the parking lot was jammed, the gas pumps were full, and people were milling around the restaurant and gift shop.
"We have generational customers," Lincoln commented. "I listen to our customers chatting in the gift shop and hear them telling that they came here with their parents, years ago, and now they're here with their kids."
Lincoln appreciates customer loyalty. "The bottom line is that the customer still makes the payroll. If they don't come in and rattle the till, nothing happens."
Looking back at his years in business, Lincoln chatted about his philosophy of life.
"You can get it into a nutshell," he says of life' main accomplishments. "Our 45 years of marriage is my greatest accomplishment," adding that winning a personal battle with alcohol, years ago, came in a close second.
Lincoln goes on to say that a major key to their success is, "I'm surrounded by family. They all have their own areas of expertise and responsibilities, but they're all capable of doing anything that needs to be done. I'd be a dead man if I didn't have these people with me."
Rex Lincoln personally spends much of his work time in the large gift shop. "This is our growth area," he notes. When a daughter interrupted our conversation to say that a new shipment of merchandise was coming in that afternoon, he added, "We're a gung-ho outfit. If a shipment comes in, it'll (merchandise) be on our shelves tonight."
As to the bar, where it all started, he says, "It' a good bar, but not a growth area. Any bar man will tell you that. The old freewheeling days are long gone. Still it' a good business. We have good days--but some dog days, too."
Rex Lincoln, now age 68, says he has no retirement plans. "I don't know what I'd do tomorrow if I didn't show up for work. In this business we don't have many hobbies."
As for all those silver dollars that draw in travelers for a needed break, the big coins keep coming in at the rate of about 1,500 per year. The oldest and probably rarest coin in the collection is an 1876 Hong Kong trade dollar.
The Lincolns say, of the collection, 10,623 are real silver dollars, which does confirm the basic truth of the claim to 10,000 silver dollars. Since 1972, when silver prices escalated, people still bring in the dollars, but they're Eisenhower dollars, a copper/nickel "sandwich" coin. Susan B. Anthony and Sacajawea dollar coins apparently aren't welcome on these walls.
Each coin in the collection, as mentioned previously, is regarded as the personal property of the donor. Each dollar is noted as to the donor' name and the date, going back to that first dollar Gerry Lincoln pounded into the bar top 54 years ago.
As to the value of the total collection, Rex shrugs and says, "It' probably worth a million."
Source: The Montana Tavern Times, Nov., 2006, published monthly by Continental Communications, 125 W. Granite St., Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701.