A few of them predated the arrival of the Chicago North Western, but just a few in Shoshoni and Lander. The Hotel Fremont was well established when the railroad finally reached Lander in October 1906. The others were simple wooden structures that replaced earlier large, canvas-walled tents in the booming, border town of Shoshoni beginning in 1905.
The Cheever and Lydick and Elkhorn were the largest hotels in Shoshoni. Competing with low-cost cots arrayed inside long wall tents made them attractive alternatives to homesteaders with a little money as they waited for the opening of the ceded lands of the Wind River Reservation on August 15, 1906.
It didn’t take long for hotels to pop up in Moneta, Shoshoni, and Lander as the railroad approached. After its arrival, the Savage Hotel, followed closely by the Wind River Hotel arrived in Riverton. The Hudson Hotel came in 1909, as did the Shawver in Shoshoni after the competition was literally, burned out.
Proximity to the railroad was the biggest factor in building a hotel. Not knowing exactly where the railroad was going to be built was just part of the fun.
Legend has it that money changed hands with railroad surveyors and local businessmen seeking the exact route of the tracks.
In Riverton, the Savage Hotel was first but missed the mark on the Chicago North Western’s tracks. The Wind River Hotel was on target and the winner in the location lottery.
It was built just a few dozen yards from the Riverton Depot and took the bulk of the guests stepping off the platform.
Location wasn’t the only factor in a successful lodging business.
Each of the Fremont County stops on the Chicago North Western had a specialty. Moneta was a sheep shipping center, shipping out up to 1,500,000 head annually from ranches stretching from Nowood to Crook’s Gap.
Shoshoni had stockyards but was more involved in copper and gold mining operations on Copper Mountain.
Arapahoe and Hudson took the cattle and sheep of the Wind River Valley all the way to Dubois and shipped them east to Omaha, Kansas City and Chicago.
Lander had plenty of government business. As county seat, state officials were always in town, and federal officials and troops regularly arrived in Lander before making the brief trip to Ft. Washakie by horse or carriage.
Riverton was different, it was an agricultural community yearning to stretch out into other economic ventures. In that respect, nothing much has changed in Riverton over the intervening 120 years.
The Wind River Hotel was a two-story wooden structure with communal bath facilities, built along the lines of Western hotels established half a century before.
It was efficient, but far from luxurious.
Ed Luthy built the Wind River Hotel in 1907. Its location on the corner of Main and Second Street was close to the Riverton Depot.
Luthy’s building was a two-story wooden structure, with a large façade facing Main Street. He owned the hotel and the restaurant within it on the first floor, for only three years, and had Mr. and Mrs. A.B. Riner manage it.
In 1910, John Lapeyre Sr. purchased the hotel.
Lapeyre was a French immigrant. He came to Fremont County on the descriptions of friends who relayed all the money-making opportunities the young, largely uninhabited county offered.
Lapeyre arrived in Rawlins on the Union Pacific, took one of the last stagecoaches to Lander, and then took the short train ride from Lander to Riverton in 1907.
Lapeyre left his fiancé in New York City.
In 1910, Lapeyre purchased the Wind River Hotel, then took the Chicago North Western to retrieve his fiancé.
Soon after taking over management of the Wind River Hotel restaurant in 1910, Will Louger did the unthinkable and took the wrath of Riverton ministers. He ran this ad in December in local newspapers.
“Will Louger invites you to try a Sunday dinner at the Wind River Hotel”
He opened the dining room on Sunday afternoon from noon to 2 pm. It was scandalous to operate any business on a Sunday in “civilized” towns like Riverton, but it worked. The dining room was full of patrons, many who left their respective churches around noon and headed straight for the restaurant.
From 1910 to 1915, when Lapeyre moved the Wind River Hotel off Main Street to the south to make room for a more modern hotel, there were five different managers.
Mrs. B.E. Luthy ran the hotel, followed by A.B. Riner and F.D. Peede. John Schultz came next, taking charge on Halloween 1913 after he lost his lease on the Fremont Café. R.L. Landfair took over from Schultz, then turned it over again to Mr. and Mrs. A.B. Riner.
A.B. Riner lived in Neble, a now vanished town chartered by Asmus Boysen on the flat plain to the northeast of present-day Black Bridge. He ran a small hotel and managed properties in the fledgling town, but it never grew. On February 13, 1915, Mr. and Mrs. Riner took over the lease for the Wind River Hotel.
The Riners were excellent managers, and Lapeyre kept them on at the Wind River Hotel and the new two-story, modern brick Lapeyre Hotel that took the old wooden Wind River Hotel building’s place on Main and Second Street.
While rail service was just a few steps away from the hotel, Lapeyre and Riner realized that many businessmen needed to travel sooner than the next scheduled train. They began offering stagecoach service in 1907 and switched to passenger cars around 1912. The ease of stepping off the curb, sitting in the back seat and bouncing along for an hour or so across the Wind River Reservation to Lander was another enticement for businessmen.
The summer of 1915 was a busy one for John Lapeyre.
A story in the August 27, 1915, Edition of the Riverton Review described his intentions.
The Wind River Hotel which is one of the landmarks of the town is being moved off of its present site and a modern brick building will be erected in its place, John Lapeyre, the owner, has a large force of men at work moving the old building and doing the necessary excavating for the new one. The building will be 50×60, two stories high and with its additions will contain 50 rooms, three of which will have private baths and there will be one public bath. The dining rooms of the Wind River Hotel will be closed for two weeks, or at least until it is permanently settled on its new foundation, and it will be an annex to the new hotel. The new hotel will be under the same management as the old which ensures the traveling public a hostelry second to none in Wyoming, for its attentiveness to its patrons. Mr. and Mrs. Riner have certainly established a reputation for caterers, which is unexcelled, and it shall be their aim, in the new house, to strengthen the friendships they hold on the traveling public. It will be at least 90 days before the new building is completed and in the meantime Mr. and Mrs. Riner with care for their patrons in the old building. 
They completed the hotel in 1916. The Riners continued to manage both the Wind River and the Lapeyre for a few more years, but Mrs. Riner’s health declined, with breathing issues and doctors suggested she move to a lower altitude. They left Riverton for a few weeks in Thermopolis then took a Chicago Quincy and Burlington passenger train to the west coast. They moved to California and never returned.
Their replacement was another husband-and-wife team, the Connors. It was standard practice to hire spouses to run hotels in the early 20th century. The husband usually managed the hotel and the wife the kitchen and service staff.
The Lapeyre Hotel was one of the first businesses to replace gas lighting with electric lights in hallways, private rooms, conference rooms and the dining hall. The power came from Lander’s Popo Agie Power and Light at their hydroelectric powerplant at Sinks Canyon in 1919, adding to a supply from Boysen Dam above Shoshoni. Boysen closed in 1923 and Riverton had its own coal-powered plant as well.
A trend began soon after the Wind River Hotel was completed and carries on with the Lapeyre to this day.
The two hotels always had a café or restaurant on the main floor of each building. While the hotels lasted under the Lapeyre family ownership well into the late 1970s, the restaurants were a revolving door of constant change in management.
Business guests and vacationing families were the target clients for the Lapeyre hotels, but John was a great businessman and utilized every inch of the property for financial gain.
The location of his newly constructed, modern, brick hotel was perfect, just 100 yards from the Chicago North Western train depot. As porters unloaded luggage for arriving passengers, Lapeyre bellhops loaded them on carts or carried them the short distance to the hotel lobby.
Lapeyre converted one of the rooms into a visiting physician’s office, and traveling doctors, both licensed and occasionally of the snake oil variety, served patients after heavy advertising in the Lander Clipper, Riverton Review, Riverton Republican, Wind River Mountaineer, and Copper Mountain Miner newspapers.
The medical rentals provided a nice boost in income.
In 1916, Lapeyre offered Western Union a better rate than they had at the Chicago North Western Depot across the street and Riverton’s telegrams were now sent from the lobby of the Lapeyre.
Lapeyre spent a little extra money on clocks, purchasing Western Union Electric Clocks. These were used by the Chicago North Western and were a determining factor in getting a local depot Class A status, allowing them to charge more for telegraph services.
He had other rooms that served as law offices, accounting offices and long-term business offices for smaller oil and energy companies. There were a couple of stockbrokers with offices in the building that soon left when the New York Stock Exchange crashed in 1929.
John was a shrewd businessman.
Room rentals were seasonal with the late spring and summer the best months with tourists arriving before taking stagecoaches or later buses to Yellowstone National Park.
One of the largest sources of revenue for both rooms and dining came as the tie hacks following hundreds of thousands of untreated, hewn railroad ties reached Riverton from Dubois in August and early September.
Tie hacks were paid once they reached Riverton and like the cowboys of the Old West, they spent lavishly on beer, women, whisky and steaks.
On Saturday nights, the dining room was cleared of chairs and tables. Lapeyre hired orchestras to play, and for a dollar, couples could dance the night away.
Throughout these early years George Hawkins and his wife served as clerk and head housekeeper.
John Lapeyre retired in 1935. He passed away in 1941 and his wife 10 years later.
Their son, John Lapeyre, Jr. took over the operation.
Through the years, the dining room changed hands, changed layout and changed names.
One of the more interesting owners was R.W. Smith who operated the “Y-Not Eat Cafe.” Like many never-before accomplishments of the Lapeyre, Smith ran the restaurant 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Late night and very early morning dining was common in larger cities, but this innovation brought new customers to the café.
Railroad workers, oil field hands working the night shift and locals stopped in for a bite on their way to or from work.
The Home Café operated there for a while, but the name often returned to variations on the Lapeyre name. The Lapeyre Café, the Lapeyre Restaurant, and the Lapeyre Hotel Dining Room were all popular names that ebbed and flowed with each successive leaser of the kitchen and dining room.
Business took a hit when the Chicago North Western ended passenger service in 1943.
The Lapeyre continued as a hotel into the 1950s, but it faced a serious challenge when the four-story Teton Hotel was built a block east, across Main Street in 1919. The Lapeyre kept the location advantage but the Teton drained a lot of potential customers with its massive size, and tremendous advertising campaign that reached as far east as Chicago and Omaha.
“I have a few stories my dad told me about that place. He was with Doc Ashbaugh in there when a small plane buzzed town, indicating he wanted a ride to town from the airport,” Linda Kobel Moench said. “My dad and another guy went up to the airport to pick up the newcomer, who turned out to be none other than Clark Gable. I’m sure they all got well-oiled at Johnny’s that night!”
Johnny’s continued as a Riverton night spot until the 1970s.
Renovation was done and the Lapeyre Hotel’s second floor was converted into offices.
In 1976, the former Wind River Hotel, now used as storage, was removed.
Johnny’s Bar and part of the former dining room on the northwest corner of the Lapeyre Restaurant became one of Riverton’s hottest night clubs during the disco era of the late 1970s.
The Lapeyre family ended their tenure with the building, selling it to Jack Ratliff in 1978.
Bobby Dean and Eldonna Clark leased the restaurant and opened the Broker.
The Broker was a hit, offering arguably the best steaks ever grilled in Riverton.
Max Hagar did the remodeling for the Clarks.
“When Max (ex-husband) remodeled the hotel part for Bobby Dean and Eldonna to open the Broker, he found tunnels underneath the building that led underground,” Linda said. “And lots of paper money and silver dollars in the walls.”
After a brief hiatus, the restaurant returned as the Brown Sugar Coffee Roastery which it remains today. Upstairs is the location of Oak Haven Dentistry.
There is a bit more to the story of the Lapeyre, a story in the metaphysical realm. The Lapeyre Hotel is supposedly haunted. For decades, people have claimed to see a shadowy figure looking out of a second-floor window.
“It was a little girl or maybe a young woman, sitting in the upstairs window as we passed by the closed hotel in my late 20’s,” Linda said. “I had been partying with friends, but happened by the building, and there was an illuminated room with a person in the window. It was a little eerie so l drove around the block, nope, not there. I Went home and never gave it another thought until Max started renovating.”
Many other people have spotted the figure in the windows of the Lapeyre over the years, with even a few paranormal investigations taking place.
“It came up again when a friend said one of her friends worked there and lights were always turning on and off, and people had seen a young woman upstairs,” Linda said.
The Lapeyre Hotel, in its many iterations, celebrates its 110th anniversary this year.
For many years it was the landmark other businesses used in advertising campaigns. Though no longer a guidepost for travelers and local businesses, the building is a testament to quality construction by workers from four generations ago.