The Enterprise Bar & Grill

3 North Glascow Avenue Rico, Colorado 81332

            The Enterprise Bar and Grill is reputed to be Colorado’s 7th oldest bar that is still in operation. Considering the state’s oldest saloon/bar (Silver Dollar Saloon- Leadville) date’s back to 1879, only three years after statehood, being the seventh is nothing to sneeze at.

            Built in 1892 from locally quarried rock and sandstone, The Dey Building, as it’s known, was constructed from profits from a few of the local mines owned and operated by the Enterprise Mining Corporation. Plus, a minority of funds were generated by the sale of bonds. The total cost came to about $35,000. In 2022 dollars, this is roughly $1,105,784. In terms of overall cost, this is actually not that bad. I would imagine much of the labor was probably supplied by current employees of the Enterprise Mining Corp.

            It’s not known if Dey was an employee, but as early as the 1880’s, A Mr. H.J. Dey did own and operate a local saloon in Rico. Considering the pay and wealth disparities, plus the nature of manual labor vs. entrepreneurship, if Dey was an employee, more than likely, he was involved in daily operations and decision-making, in other words, management or ownership. But there’s nothing really linking him to the existing Dey Building that houses the Enterprise.

            The Dey Building was originally much larger than the current iteration that houses the bar and attached liquor store. The Metropole Hotel opened with 62 rooms and of course, the current bar & grill. The small liquor store functioned as a de facto gambling parlor and card room for guests of the hotel.

            During the heyday of the silver boom in Rico, there were so many people working in the local mines (Johnny Bull, Atlantic Cable, Stanley, Snowshoe, Enterprise and Golden Age among others), that most evenings, the hotel was at capacity with workers, guests and newly arrived laborers sleeping on the floor in the front parlor.

            Unfortunately, in 1905, the hotel burned down. The devastation was so complete, local residents demolished what was left of the stone walls and foundation. 60% of the businesses had to close temporarily because there was no where to put guests and employees.

            Because silver prices hadn’t rebounded from the silver crash of 1893, it wasn’t financially viable to rebuild the hotel. The Dey Building and Enterprise Bar and Grill survived only because most of the structure was stone. They were put on the National Register of Historic Places in April of 1999.

             When it comes to the paranormal and unexplained occurrences, the Enterprise Bar & Grill tends to run a bit on the quiet side.

            Per short interviews with Brandy and Justin (owners) and Lloyd (long time employee- kitchen), some of the incidents that have been witnessed include: feelings of being watched, wine & beer glasses sliding out of the storage racks behind the bar (witnessed by multiple people), tenants boarding in the upstairs apartments hearing talking and music after hours downstairs and an overall feeling of heaviness in the back of the bar near the kitchen and bathrooms.

            Occasionally while opening the kitchen in the morning doing prep work, Lloyd mentioned to me he has had a female voice say, ‘Good Morning’ to him. And keep in mind, at 8:00 am, he’s the only one in the building.

            And speaking of upstairs tenants, there are six rooms for rent that are part of the building. Some tenants have reported feelings of being around a female presence and being watched. The upstairs used to function as a small brothel. Some of the women’s closets still have small doors in them that open one-way out into the hallway for an easy ‘escape’ for the men.

            But in everything I have heard and read about The Enterprise, there’s never been anything indicative of maliciousness or negativity. Impressions seem to run the line of benevolence and benign energy.

            A curious story I found while digging through books at the library in Telluride, and one that was echoed by the staff and oddly substantiated (to a degree) by our REM Pod is that of The Swede.

            A past owner, Marc Sumner and his wife Stephanie used to own the business back in 2005. Marc was playing pool with some friends downstairs in the bar when he turned, and saw an unattended customer sitting at the bar. He asked Stephanie if she could please wait on the man, but Stephanie was confused as she didn’t see anyone. The man was husky, wearing an old, dirty-white denim jacket with long blond hair tied in a loose ponytail.

            Marc looked into the man’s face and saw only pink eyes, no irises, no pupils, just pink. No one else saw the man. Marc looked away to get his friends’ attention only to look back and the man, The Swede, was gone. The only evidence was a slightly depressed seat cushion.

            A couple months later while sitting in an upstairs office doing work, Marc heard the downstairs front door open and close forcibly. Shortly afterwards, footsteps came up the stairs. Someone came in and sat down in a sofa chair behind him. Marc turned around to ask Stephanie a question assuming it was her, only to come face to face with those same pink eyes. He diverted his attention briefly to address someone standing in the door to the office, it was Stephanie. But the Swede had gone.

             Our evening at the Enterprise Bar and Grill started off with some “fireworks.” Brandy and Justin were amazing in that, both stayed with us for a while explaining and detailing events surrounding the building and playing with one of the pieces of equipment we brought, our dog, Kaiah! Lloyd also came and stayed helping us to investigate and relayed information on a more personal level.

            What I meant by ‘fireworks’ earlier was that, the owner of the liquor store next door started blaring his music and peeking though the outside window. Drugs were involved. However, Brandy managed to handle the situation and extinguished that fire quickly and efficiently. Being that we got a later than expected start time, and all three of us had to work the next day, we decided to limit our investigation to only a few hours.

            Once our hosts left for the night, we formulated a short gameplan, opened up our cases and splayed out various pieces of equipment on the pool table, donned Kaiah her own little red “S” cape and got to work.

            We started out by showing and explaining to Lloyd the purpose of some of the pieces we brought and testing the batteries beforehand so there would be no excuse for possibly drained batteries later. We started out investigating the bar area and the back of the building by sitting in the dim light and getting a ‘feel’ for the ambient noise so our eyes and ears would be better suited to the environment. I’ve always felt this is a good starting tactic to exclude possible false positives later in the evening.

            We used a digital recorder, a couple of K2 meters and a new REM pod I just picked up the prior week. All three of us took turns with the digital recorder (Yemenren R3) but unfortunately, we didn’t capture any EVP’s over the course of 45 minutes. Because of the constant hum of electronics from the kitchen and occasional loud crash of ice from the ice machine (the initial drop of ice caused some laughter!), I choose not to utilize the bi-directional digital recorder (Tascam DR-40x) due to its sensitivity.

            We received mildly successful hits by using the two K2 meters side-by-side at different spots along the bar with a line of questioning. We tested the K2’s validity by proximity readings to devices such as: the microwave in the kitchen, electrical outlets and our cell phones. While the hits at the bar are obviously not 100% conclusive of paranormal activity, it did provide a framework to start on and we continued using them throughout the night.

            The REM Pod on the other hand, proved to be extremely successful, especially in one instance. We placed it on the bar in the spot where The Swede is said to have preferred. During a line of questioning by Regina, the REM Pod lit up on specific questions (‘Do you enjoy this saloon?’ ‘Are you a Foreigner?’). This only happened for 2-3 questions for a total of about 20 seconds. It was the only time the device went off during the whole investigation.

             The basement while, offering an amazing environment was likewise quiet. The original stone foundation was there to see. The floors were dirt and in the back, was the original coal furnace that used to heat the building at the turn of the century. In fact, you could pick out the difference in stone where the old flew was bricked up. Because of the environment, the setting was definitely more ‘creepy.’ All three of us took turns downstairs investigating with various pieces of equipment but alas, no evidence was caught. But from a historical perspective, it was fascinating.   

            For the rest of the evening, Lloyd, myself and Regina took turns investigating the bar area, the back bathrooms, kitchen and basement. By way of collected evidence, the evening proved quiet.

            We finally packed things up around 3:00 am and decided to call it. We will be back to investigate again when we’ve all had more sleep and less disturbances from the next door business. Brandy is very encouraging on this matter.