The Buffalo Rose
Golden, Colorado · Westward Expansion · Est. 1859 · Open today
Since 1859
The Buffalo Rose property in downtown Golden traces to 1859, when the International Bowling Saloon became one of the first businesses on the site the year Golden was founded. The Overland House hotel built there was Golden's largest building; Colorado's Territorial Legislature met in it in 1865, and Generals Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan stayed there around the Civil War era. The Overland House was torn down in 1911 and replaced by the two-story masonry building that stands today. Beginning in 1985 the Buffalo Rose became a well-known concert venue, and after a 2016 purchase by a local developer and an 18-month renovation, it reopened in May 2019 as a restaurant, bar, and event center.
In 1868, outlaw 'Heartless' Edward Franklin of the notorious Musgrove Gang was cornered and shot by Denver detectives in a shootout at the Overland Hotel on this site.
What to order: The Sky Bar, a rooftop-style bar and stage with a retractable glass roof hosting free outdoor patio concerts, anchoring its identity as 'The Pulse of Golden Since 1859.'
How solid is the claim?
Colorado’s oldest bar — the evidence
The Buffalo Rose in Golden is our featured pick for the oldest bar in Colorado, with a claimed founding year of 1859. The 1859 date refers to the site (the International Bowling Saloon, then the Overland House hotel), but the original building was torn down in 1911 and replaced by the current structure, and the venue closed for roughly 18 months in 2018-2019 for renovation. My Brother's Bar in Denver (1873) claims the oldest continuously operating bar space in the state, and other 19th-century saloons make competing continuity claims, so 'oldest bar in Colorado' depends heavily on definition.
Competing Claims
Other Colorado establishments with a stake in the title: