While the Strater’s story began in 1887, the Barker Family’s Strater history started when Earl A. Barker Senior purchased the Strater Hotel in 1926. Earl was then President of the Burns National Bank in Durango. His view of the banking business was that it was “good to get out of.” Up until 1933, Earl Sr. had to deal with the Prohibition years. There is a story of bootleg liquor being stashed under the Strater elevator! In 1938, construction on the “back 40” began – adding an additional 40 rooms which was completed in 1941. Earl, Sr. guided the company for 28 years before handing the reins to his son Earl Junior in 1954.

In 1954, Earl Barker, Jr. and his wife Jentra Barker returned to Durango to assist Earl Sr. with operating the hotel and were the major influence in the hotel’s amazing restoration which began in 1957. The hotel’s maintenance staff, headed by master craftsmen Charles Schumacher and Bill Miller, restored the hotel with authentic American Victorian walnut furnishings and features — today, the world’s largest collection. One of the best stories of Earl Jr.’s vision for The Strater was in the resurrection of The Diamond Belle Saloon in 1957. Learn more of this story by downloading this history sheet about the Diamond Belle.