The History of The Golden Burro

Roy Pray in front of Roy's Lunch

The year was 1934 when a young Roy Pray, tired of "doing some mining on Tennessee Pass" just north of Leadville, decided to follow in his father's footsteps and open a small café. Like his father's café located in Canon City, Colorado, Roy also named his Leadville café "Roy's Lunch."

Located at 612 Harrison Ave., Roy and his wife Leona were renting from an "obnoxious Frenchman" named Mike Berthoud who charged them $4/day. Berthoud owned a small dairy on the west end of Leadville and part of the rent deal was that Roy had to also purchase his milk from him on a daily basis.

By 1938 "Roy's Lunch" had become so popular, Pray took the advice of prominent local attorney Jack Lang and expanded his operation, renaming it the Golden Burro Cocktail Lounge. The local newspapers spoke of the new Pullman booths and how everyone who came for the grand opening of the newly expanded Golden Burro raved about the new facility. It quickly became THE gathering place for Leadvillites, open 24/7. ("I threw away the key", said 96 year old Pray in a 2006 interview. "There were still 19 cribs operating down State Street and we'd get a steady stream of customers all day and night.")

Charlie Frey

In 1942 Pray opted to serve in the Navy, and sold his booming café to long time Canon City friend, Charlie Frey. It wasn't long before Frey encountered that same "obnoxious Frenchman" Pray had spoken about. It seems the milk one morning was sour and Frey refused to buy it. "You'll buy it or get out!" Frey got out. With the help of some 25 friends meeting Frey at the Golden Burro around midnight, every stool, stove, refrigerator, knife, fork and spoon and even the custom made neon signs and back-bar were removed from 612 Harrison Ave., and relocated to 710 Harrison Ave. where the Golden Burro Café and Lounge operates today. (The original back bar, still in great shape, is still in use behind the eating counter today, and one of the neon signs Pray had purchased in 1938 hangs proudly in the main dining area.)

The Golden Burro Café and Lounge was bought and sold several times over the years and went through some good times and some bad times after the Frey era. The "Burro" had been expanded by Frey through a purchase of 2 additional lots from Adolph and Mary Schaefer 16 years after his purchase from Pray. Subsequent owners included L. G. Osborne, Donald Wickman, Wilma Pixler and others.

In earlier years, long before Pray formed the Golden Burro Cocktail Lounge, the building at 710 Harrison Ave. which now houses the Golden Burro hosted such businesses as the 1899 Leo A. Klein Pianos and Organs (and music teacher), and later in 1900 the Moir and Curtis Bakeries. Fred Minor's Home Bakery operated from 1901 and shared adjacent space with John Jorgenson, Tailor until 1911 when the Home Baking and Mercantile moved in. In 1915 A.T. Schaefer Hardware moved in for a 42 year run, while Jorgensen was replaced next door in 1916 by Feller & Threlke Bakery. Grove and O'Keefe Wallpaper Company replaced the bakery and operated next to A.T. Schaefer Hardware from 1918 to 1925. Other businesses came and went, like the Monarch Trading Company, and the AF of L Building Trades, but it was Frey who eventually established the expanded ownership of the current three lots which make up the Golden Burro Café and Lounge today.

For half a century the Golden Burro (fondly referred to by locals as the "Brass Ass") was THE meeting place for good friends, good food and community gatherings like the Toastmasters Club, Toastmistress Club, Business Men's Club and many others over the years. (It has hosted the Lions Club since the 1950's and still does today).

Leadville's economy for many years was based on the Climax Mine operation located just north of the city, until the late 1980's when the demand for molybdenum diminished and the mine closed operations, putting some 3,500 miners out of work. The days of when hundreds and hundreds of Climax employees would come down Fremont Pass from the mine when their shift was over, and eagerly look for the brightly glowing and now-famous neon Golden Burro sign with his little wagging tail, are gone.

In July of 2005 however, the Golden Burro Café and Lounge was purchased by Leadville historian and videographer Dave Wright and his wife Jane from Jack and Carol Louma, both local Leadville residents for many years. It was the mission of the Wrights to re-establish the "Burro" as THE gathering place for great friends and great food, as it had been in years past. Newly remodeled with Pullman booths and walls covered with historical photos, the Golden Burro Café & Lounge along with its Brass Ass Saloon has now once again become THE gathering place for locals and Leadville visitors alike. Although summer entertainment (which makes visiting Leadville even more enjoyable and informative) are now a part of the Golden Burro Café & Lounge, its more-important and nationally recognized famous legacy from 1938 has been re-established.

The Burro is BACK!

Little Known Facts & Rumors Debunked:

FACT: The Golden Burro Café & Lounge today is located in the historic 1889 building, built for Herman Richner and by the famous architect H.C. Dimick. Dimick is noted by historians and one of the country's great architects of the time.

BUNK: The Golden Burro Café & Lounge was never lost by Pray to Frey in a poker game. As Pray commented in a 2006 interview "That whole poker story is bunk. I don't know where it came from. I should have never sold to my friend Charlie. But I did and Charlie never missed a payment... in fact I think he paid off the $1,500 balance he owed me early."

FACT: "String Cheese", well known rock group, played at the Golden Burro during the 1990 era and even wrote and recorded a song about the Golden Burro titled "Dudley's Kitchen."

BUNK: Doc Holliday never dealt FARO or lived in the building that now houses the Golden Burro Café & Lounge. Holliday dealt FARO, and was involved in his last shoot-out at Hyman's Saloon, currently known as the Bonanza Trading Company, but located at 316 Harrison Ave., not 710 Harrison Ave.

FACT(?): It is now believed that the famous pack burro race idea (up Mosquito Pass) was conceived at the Golden Burro over 50 years ago. The event lives on today and is held in Leadville on the second full weekend of August every year.

FACT: The Golden Burro is the longest continually operating restaurant in Lake County, Colorado.

BUNK: And last... George Washington never slept at the Golden Burro Café & Lounge.

Now you know the REST of the story...

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