For the past 30 years, the building at the corner of Main Street and Copper King Trail has been known far and wide as the Bull O’ The Woods Saloon.
In the past, it was called Silver Spruce, Mac’s Bar, The Dog Gone Saloon (early 70s) and Kate & Gary’s from May 1974 until Kate sold the place to Charlie and Margo Stanton in 1989 when it became The Bull. It was then sold to Rob Swan in 2002 and eventually to the current owners, David and Tammy Maschino in 2015.
The term “social institution” is most appropriate.
Built by New Mexico native Dan Zehna, it began life 80 years ago as the Silver Spruce. It is unclear how many years he operated the saloon/dance hall.
From the day the doors opened in 1939 to the present, it has hosted wedding receptions, wakes, birthday parties, business meetings, international Mardi Gras balls, 2-steppin’ country and rock concerts, Fantasy Football drafts, fund-raisers (Ducks Unlimited and Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation), live broadcasts for Amarillo TV stations, Winter Carnival celebrations featuring movie stars… the list continues to increase with time. It’s even been the host to a horseback ride-through or two! It’s a popular place to go and sit, soaking up the essence of Red River.
From the start, it was also competition for the place across the street: Tony’s & Tillie’s, built in 1936 by Tony Simion as a dance hall/casino. Today, it’s The Motherlode.
The Silver Spruce was a saloon and gambling establishment, complete with slot machines, card tables and maybe a marked deck or two.
According to Tony’s wife Tillie Simion, in her book Tillie: An American Life (published in 1981 by Floersheim Printing Company), Zehna bought the lots for the Silver Spruce from Bing Abbott, a miner and gambler who owned Red River City’s famous Jayhawk Store in 1896. Since the lots were across Main Street from Tony’s place and next door to the Simion home, it would be safe to say that Tony was not happy. Reports of shooting skirmishes across Main Street involving rival gamblers are said to have occurred and Lester Lewis, who moved to town as a child with his parents in 1935, verifies that his father Leffy Lewis stopped such conflicts in his role as Justice of the Peace.
It should be noted that Leffy Lewis built the Playhouse in 1936 as a casino and dance hall which hosted big bands of the era. It was said that the infamous Long John Dunn of Taos oversaw the gambling at the site.
Oral history has it that Juan Largo de Taos also was known to deal Three Card Monte in Zehna’s Silver Spruce.
A former coal miner, Tony died of black lung in 1952 and Zehna died by his own hand in 1961.
The Maschinos and their dedicated staff have plans for a year-long celebration, with specials and plenty of live music. No strangers to the Bull before buying it, their kids loved the pool table and shuffleboard table, as well as the animal heads on the walls.
