Labonte Hotel

When the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad was aiming to link the Pacific Northwest to the Gulf of Mexico, a premier turn-of-the-century Douglas hostelry called the “Valley House” was found to stand in its way. In the face of its scheduled removal, a group of Douglas businessmen arranged for a replacement, to be named the “LaBonte” (after the alleged first settler in Converse County). Built at a cost of $55,000—equal to approximately one million in today’s dollars—the structure was furnished sumptuously throughout for an additional $15,000 (or about $270,000, currently). Within a “u”-shape floor plan, the red-brick LaBonte Hotel offered 54 guest rooms across its two upper floors, while a lobby, kitchen, dining room, barber shop, billiard hall, and bar occupied the ground floor. Guests enjoyed early 20th century state-of-the-art comfort and convenience—afforded by electric lighting, steam heat, in-room telephones, hot running water, and private lavatories. The lobby boasted a marble-top hotel desk and an ornate tile floor; billiard tables and bar fixtures were acquired from the estimable Brunswick-Balke Company. (As part of a remodeling effort, the original bar itself, a massive mahogany piece, was donated in 1968 to the Wyoming Pioneer Memorial Museum in Douglas.) The LaBonte was well-patronized from the outset, being proximal to the newlyconstructed Burlington Railroad Passenger Depot and promoted within the region to motorists traveling the new Yellowstone Highway; the large neon sign high atop the west wing of the structure cast “HOTEL LABONTE” out into the night sky above the Highway route to the south. The building has been in use as a hotel since its inception, and has undergone periodic remodeling and renovation across the years. The alteration most noticeable from the exterior is the roofed dance pavilion, installed within the original open courtyard in 1982, and thence crowned with a sizeable reproduction of a Douglas “jackalope.