Bar hopping

At Miller's Crossing, two heavy planks hang overhead, names and dates carved into the parquet wood inlay. The display is the old bar from Miller's Cave, the Crossing's former self, located across Park Avenue in the dungeon of a building on the south end of the Walking Mall downtown.

This week, the staff at Miller's Crossing will celebrate 10 years in their Park Avenue location with four days of live music, drink specials, giveaways and, of course, birthday cake.

Miller's, and the family the bar is named after, have played a part in the history of downtown Helena for 36 years, weathering five moves, and as many overhauls to keep up with changes in the bar business.

For the Millers, the phrase "change is the only constant" is more than a cliché - it's a business strategy.

It was 1968 when Lynn Miller bought a share of the Buckhorn Bar on Main Street. Just a few years ahead of Helena's urban renewal, the bar was located the Union Block where Broadway dead-ended at Last Chance Gulch.

A few years later urban renewal took down the Union Block and pushed the Buckhorn down the gulch to the Horskey Block on the corner of Sixth and Main. There, Lynn Miller bought out his partner and the bar became known as Lynn's Buckhorn.

It was there that Bonnie, Lynn's daughter and current owner of Miller's Crossing, picked up her first bartending shift, against her father's protests.

"He didn't want his little girl to be tending bar," she said. "The original Buckhorn - it was a tough bar, and when we moved up to Sixth and Main, it was still pretty tough. It was the tail end of a time we can't even imagine now. The bar business has changed so dramatically."

Those changes started with the legalization of gambling. Cashing in on the opportunity, Lynn brought in a card dealer for poker games and started a live keno game.

A dramatic fire in 1980 took the Horskey Block and Lynn's Buckhorn with it. But within weeks, the Buckhorn was open again - this time, below the Gaslight Cinema. Bonnie and her brother Rich built the bar from salvaged flooring. The finish was barely dry on the bar when the Millers opened the doors for business.

"My dad, he had a great sense of humor and patience. He didn't let stuff get him down," Bonnie said.

Their customers followed, and while business was good in those days, rent downtown climbed, so in 1982, the family picked up their bar - literally, all in one piece - and moved to the basement at 625 Last Chance Gulch, where the family started construction all over again and changed the name to Miller's Cave, after the cold stone walls and cavernous feel of the new location.

Video gaming was in full swing, and casinos were going up everywhere. Bonnie said her dad brought in a few machines, and, in an attempt to compete, began selling food.

When Bonnie wasn't behind the bar at the Cave, she was in the kitchen cooking home-style lunches alongside her mother. Bonnie started picking up other duties as well.

"Helena hadn't had any music for years, that's when I started doing music," she said. "I always said the reason we do music is because I love to dance."

For many years, the Cave did well, but like every venture the Millers set out on, change pushed the family on.

"I remember it was a September morning and dad and I stood outside the bar, and he said we got to get out of here," Bonnie said. "We were just sinking farther and farther into the ground - literally."

Lynn was committed to staying downtown. He moved the bar out of the cave, across the parking lot to 52 S. Park, changing the name to Miller's Crossing.

"He recognized how bars were changing," Bonnie said. "I think getting above ground with some light - I think he liked it."

Lynn passed away in 1998, and Bonnie officially took over operations. She stayed with the music, working more well-known regional bands into the local lineup.

"Our business when we moved up here got a little more up-scale, but just like dad was at the Buckhorn, he welcomed all kinds of people," she said. "That was something we'd always had - that neighborhood bar atmosphere."

The Millers' first customers from the Buckhorn still frequent the Crossing, though they're fewer in number every year. Those old guys and all the familiar faces that have followed are the reason Miller said she's still working the bar.

"Friendships. That's the hook that keeps you in the business," Bonnie said.

Reporter Laura Tode can be reached at 447-4081 or by e-mail at laura.tode@helenair.com.