Joel’s Bar & Nightclub

119 W. 8th Street Durango, Co.

Back in October of 2022, I was looking at part-time jobs in Durango. Along the way, I decided to apply at Horsefly Tours about possible work conducting evening ghost tours. Already being staffed for tour guides for the upcoming Halloween season, Laine (the owner), wanted to sit down and chat about possible future paranormal investigations.

Regina and I took an evening tour learning about the darker side of Durango and ended the evening inside a prohibition-era tunnel underneath Main Street downtown near the dive bar, El Rancho. We stayed on after the tour and the three of us, plus her guide in training investigated the tunnel into the wee hours of the morning.  We learned a lot more history in the process that a timed tour usually can’t offer.

The investigation of Joel’s Bar came about through Laine. She is friends with one of the owners and they are currently closed due to some major remodeling (They’ve since reopened as the Oxford). The owners by the way also own and manage The Garage next door, a dive bar with copious pinball and arcade machines.

I didn’t know much about Joel’s or the building that houses it. So I had to do some research into the history of the building. What I found was mostly historical and less paranormal.   

Joel’s is located in the 800 block of Main Avenue in downtown Durango in what is called the Newman Building. This three-story, sandstone Romanesque building was built from 1891-1892 by Charles Newman. Mr. Newman was a prosperous pharmacist who owned four pharmacies. He was also a co-founder in the Swansea Mine over in Rico. He would make frequent trips to the small mining town of Rico by way of Scotch Creek located by present day Purgatory Ski Area.

The first tenant in the Newman Building was the Smelter Bank & Trust in 1892. However, due to the silver crash of the 1890’s, the bank had to close its doors in 1897.

Once things stabilized nationally a few years later, the Durango National Bank opened its doors with the help of founder, William J. Palmer. William was also a founder of the D&RGW Railroad, a Civil War General and founder of the city of Colorado Springs. He did quite well with the bank sharing the space with a hardware store that operated out of the back of the building.

In 1928, new tenants moved in and converted the bank space into the well-known Kiva Theater. The theater opened its doors to the public the night of June 21st, 1928 with about 600 seats. It was originally managed and operated by 20th Century Fox Theaters and shortly thereafter, Fox Intermountain Theaters took over. During the 1950’s, Mann Theaters bought the business and managed it until the 1960’s when it was remodeled and switched hands into private ownership. The Kiva Theater narrowly escaped a major fire on August 24th, 1974 that ended up destroying six buildings. The building was saved only because of the monumental stone work.

Ultimately, during the 1980’s the Kiva Theater finally closed its doors for good. Since then, the bottom floors have been converted into various retail spaces while the upper floor has remained office space.

Joel’s Bar occupies the old Kivas entrance foray and lobby while the next door, Garage (pinball dive bar) occupies what was once the auditorium.  The Newman Building was the first location in Durango to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

When it comes to the spookier stuff, I have had a hard time finding anything paranormal associated with this building. The only piece of information I was able to find comes from a Durango Herald Interview with a long-time local from the 1990’s. Apparently, ‘A long-time bartender at Joel’s, Arley, has seen a skinny cowboy, very tall always come in at closing and head straight to the bathrooms. He would walk from the women’s bathroom to the men’s. The light sensors (motion detectors) would always go off. But this only happened once a year.’ Based off this, this is a solid example of a residual haunting. 

Many people think a haunting needs to be malicious or negative to qualify as such. This is not the case. However, it often happens this way because of the emotions and energy left behind from traumatic situations (death, abuse, fear etc.). But it can go the other way into positivity. Happy emotions, constant enjoyment of the same type of activity can linger and keep spirits attached because of how these feelings impacted the person in life (music, drinking & merriment etc.). A couple locations that fall into this category include the Stanley Hotel and the 17Hundred90 Inn in Savannah, Georgia…now onto the investigation!    

We met outside Joel’s around 10:00 pm. We had to wait for a little bit for the co-owner to let us in. He gave us a small tour of the place and I walked around with him afterwards asking questions about the remodel, things they found and what his opinions were of the place since he owned it. Nothing had really happened ‘out of the ordinary’ during the remodel phase. Even the staff next door didn’t notice anything while repairs were going on. While we were walking around, Regina, Laine and her assistant, Kit were unpacking and getting ready.

The four of us started out by sitting down in a broken circle behind the bar in an open room. We took a few minutes to get a feel for the place with our eyes closed, listening and getting our baring for all the background noise. There was a lot of construction equipment lying around. I wondered what all this would do to our electronic equipment, possibly a lot of false positives?

We used a couple K2 meters and the REM Pod. Laine and Kat used a couple mobile-based apps for communication. We continued in this fashion for 20-30 minutes. We had some weak hits on the K2 meters but nothing on the REM Pod. The Apps kept outputting various words which of course, one tries to make sense in relation to the line of questioning. I was having trouble forming a cohesive framework.

We eventually switched gears and took turns investigating the main bar area and the restrooms. We kept using the K2 meters, a digital recorder and at this point, Regina took out some 99% copper wands I have. Laine and Kit used an app that mimics a SLS camera. This resulted in some interesting evidence. However upon later review, nothing was caught on the digital recorder or wands. The K2 meter did receive some flashes but again, due to the overwhelming presence of open wiring and construction equipment, I didn’t put too much faith in this.

Over the next 90 minutes, we explored the upstairs where I relayed some of the information passed along to me by the owner. We were able to shut the door ensuing complete darkness. However, due to the presence of an active ice machine (dull static of the motor and the occasional ice drop), it was hard to really focus and concentrate. Laine, Kit and I stayed upstairs while Regina left with a secondary recorder and the wands and investigated the bathrooms solo. Not receiving any evidence nor picking up on changes in the atmosphere, I voiced my intentions and we proceeded to call it a night. 

Consensus….

Some places will simply not yield evidence based on the time one is investigating. A lot of this simply comes down to timing. Spirits do not perform “on cue” and many times, it comes down to being in the right place at the right time. And of course, it does help having the right equipment with you, the right crew of investigators and the energy one brings to an investigation.

However, in the case of Joel’s, I do not feel any of this applies. Upon review of our collected evidence, nothing was found either auditory or visual. And with all the unshielded energy fields (static and pulsating) emanating from the walls and equipment for spirits to use to manifest, if need be (if you buy into this theory), I would have expected something. The environment was ripe for possible activity with all the changes being made. But as I mentioned, nothing was captured. And this would have been the ideal place for it.

My consensus is that Joel’s is NOT haunted in any way. It is a quiet building with a rather quiet and mundane history.              

Panessa, Laurie. “Newman Block.” Clio: Your guide to History. March 5, 2020 https://theclio.com/entry/96109