The Bucksnort Saloon Is Poised for a Comeback Under New Owner

"I bought it to save it," says Pete Kazura. "I was looking for my next chapter, and the Bucksnort is a different beast. It's a special kind of beast."

Anyone who's ever taken winding Elk Creek Road off of Highway 285 to the Bucksnort Saloon in the small mountain community of Sphinx Park knows that. The Bucksnort is a particular breed of Colorado bar that is becoming less and less common these days as developers snatch up parcels of land. Which might have become the Bucksnort's fate, too.

Kazura works in pediatric emergency medicine but enjoys taking on passion projects, including commercial real estate; he also owns Flights Wine Cafe in Arvada, where he lives with his wife and two kids.

While searching for his next venture, he came across a listing for the Bucksnort, a place he'd never been before. He scheduled a showing, and "the first day that I was there, it talks to you," he recalls. Afterward, he "took a ride up the block and met two locals. Two hours later, I left with the history in a nutshell. ... I put an offer in the day I walked in the door."

Surrounded by rock formations, with Elk Creek running straight through the one-acre property, the building started out over a century ago as a community gathering place and store called Sphinx Park Mercantile that catered mainly to the railroad workers and miners in the area. Over the decades, it played host to events such as square dancing and live music; eventually, the shop became a bar and restaurant.
It was dubbed the Bucksnort by the ’70s, and has had several owners since then, including Galina Bye, who bought it in 1997 with her now-ex-husband, Joe Bye, after the two ended up enjoying a night of fun and music there totally by chance. “It was sort of a mistake,” Bye told Westword in 2017 — her twentieth anniversary of owning it. “We had no idea how much work it would be.”

She'd put the property, which includes the two-room, 2,000-square-foot main building plus three rustic cabins and a parking lot, on the market in 2016, but didn't end up selling it until two years later, when it was purchased by LJ and Kathy Weller.

Their run was particularly challenging, thanks to the pandemic followed by major septic issues that led to some heated back-and-forth with Jefferson County — drama that was shared on the bar's Facebook page at the time. As the last act of that drama, the Bucksnort closed its doors.

"It took a hit," Kazura admits, "and now is my opportunity to go, what needs to be fixed right now? What can I do to repair the community relationship? My priority is to save it, but I also have to do that in the view of the community."

There are 58 homes in Sphinx Park, and Kazura knows that for the Bucksnort to be successful, he needs the support of the people who live there full-time. "I'm starting fresh," he says, "so whatever came down or whatever changed started fresh with me on Thanksgiving," the day he officially took ownership.
The Wellers "have been great in this transition process," he notes. "They've been very communicative and very open about sharing the quirks about the building" — including those septic issues. In turn, Kazura has been very open with the community, sharing regular updates on Facebook, chatting with whoever pulls up while he's there working (which happens frequently) and making connections with neighbors.

After putting in an offer, Kazura's next step was to go through the due diligence process, reaching out to various Jefferson County departments to schedule appointments — three of which he had set for the same day. An employee noticed the back-to-back meetings and offered to get everyone in a room together instead. "I couldn't possibly be more grateful for that, because now everyone is on the same page," Kazura says. "I think what really benefited me was going in with transparency and saying, 'Here's what I want to do. Can I do that?' It's not that I'm doing a lot to reorganize the property; it's, what do I need to do to bring that property back to functionality?"

The answer: a lot. But Kazura is taking things one step at a time. "Phase one is really stopping deterioration," he says. "So, what can I do to stop erosion and freeze this in time? We had a really wet year and it's on a low point, so every snowfall, there's erosion." Without someone taking action, the Bucksnort "was just going to fall into the creek and it was going to die," he adds.
When he purchased the property, he also inherited various violations with the county, so he's started by getting the proper permits to be able to clear those in order to get approval for the work that needs to be done. "There's a waterway that runs basically through my building. Making that aesthetically pleasing is important, but more importantly, it has to be safe and sustainable," he says.

He also converted one of the cabins into a workspace so that he has a place to operate out of as a home base. "I love going up there and just getting dirty and rehabilitating what I think is a really special geographic piece of property," he says.

Phase two will be replacing the septic system so that there are functional bathrooms; Kazura is currently in the process of getting bids. Otherwise, he doesn't plan many major changes for the main building...but there will be changes.

"You have to listen to the land and say, what do you want to be?" he explains. He has dreams of additions like colorful murals, an outdoor stage and an area where locals can sip coffee, listen to the creek and get a wi-fi connection. "There's so many cool nooks and crannies that haven't been activated, and that with a little TLC can help sustain it in its next chapter."

He plans to bring back the store — the BuckStop — as well, which will likely be the first part of the project to open. "I want the retail space to be a community area where you can grab swag, buy a CD from someone up the block or a piece of local artwork, and a Coke for the road," Kazura says.

Live music and events like auctions for local artists or even yoga sessions in the parking lot are part of the vision, too, "but I have to do that in a way that's conducive to the community," he notes. "You've got to find a way to be respectful to your neighbors."
The Bucksnort has always been a draw for bikers, which Kazura hopes will continue, but he also wants it to be a family-friendly pit stop for people recreating in the foothills. "Stop by, sit at picnic tables, play in the creek a little. Make some memories here and put a dollar or two on the wall," he says of his hopes for the future.

The dollars hanging in the saloon are an essential part of its quirky appeal, and a reminder of the many people who have had good times inside over the years. "A lot of them came down prior to my purchase," Kazura notes. "I only know from pictures how many there were, and I know how many there are." But someday soon, he hopes bucks will start going back on the walls.

"I look at it like it's not mine," Kazura says, while reflecting on what it means to take over something as well known and well loved as the Bucksnort. "The environment is mine, but the soul of it is the people that come there. Whatever my end goal, vision or product is doesn't change who brings the life to that place. Its iconic-slash-cultural heritage is formed by the people on the walls in the pictures. They were there, hanging out, making memories, having a blast, sharing sorrows. That's what brings the people back."