With trophies located throughout, Ole’s Big Game Steakhouse perfectly embodies its founder and namesake, Ole Herstedt.
While in Colorado, Rosser “Ole” Herstedt was offered $50 to pitch against his friends’ opponent. Fully aware of his reputation as an outstanding ball player, it was a sure thing. He followed through on his end of the bargain, but the friends, unable to string together a few bucks, instead offered him a walnut bar that had been built for the Plains Hotel in Cheyenne, Wyoming. He took it.
By this time, Ole had been operating a grocery store in the small town of Paxton, Nebraska, where he was born and raised. With rumors of Prohibition being repealed, Ole calculated that a fancy new bar would look right at home in the place he planned to open in a building that his parents owned. It would also give him a leg up on any competition.
That building at 123 N. Oak Street was among the first built in town and served as the home of Howard Miles’ hardware store. Ole installed the bar and opened Herstedt’s Bar just one minute after the 21st Amendment was ratified. He never looked back.
At 29 years old, Ole was a young man with lots of energy, which served him well as he worked long hours, sometimes opening at 6 a.m. and not closing until after 1 a.m. Some days he even played cards afterward. He earned a reputation as a good bar operator, and with the help of his mother, Hattie, it became a popular spot with the nearby farmers and ranchers. It really came alive during hunting season after the hunters arrived in town. They often ended their nights at the bar with a game of cards while sharing what they bagged that day. In those days, no woman other than Hattie went near the place.
Ole fell in love with big game hunting, and starting in 1938, it led him to every continent over the next 35 years. His obsession also had a profound impact on his business, which he renamed Ole’s Big Game Bar in 1949. By that time he had completely remodeled the building and began mounting and hanging the trophies from his travels around the globe. His trophies included a moose from Canada, black bear from Alaska, and a red fox from England, among many others. In some ways, his bar and grill operated more as a sporting goods store, with guns, ammunition, and fishing gear available for purchase. The building, with its neon lights depicting a cowboy and an American Indian along with its oval windows, purposely made it hard to miss.
By 1969, he had acquired his prized possession, a polar bear that he bagged from an ice floe in the Bering Strait. During his hunting career, he acquired more than 200 trophies. While the trophies drew large crowds, people were also drawn to his bar for its wild game dinners and the films he recorded during his safaris. Ole stopped hunting in 1973 but continued to operate the bar, which gained a national following and appeared in publications across the country. It became an attraction all on its own as drivers traversing I-80 and those on their way to Boulder to watch the Huskers play the Buffaloes often made a stop. It even attracted celebrities such as heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey, actor Robert Duvall, boxer Sugar Ray Robinson, and many professional baseball players.
Ole was ready to retire by 1986 but failed to find a buyer at the time. His son Corky, who had helped him run the bar since 1973, wasn’t interested in taking it over. While his preference was to keep the bar in Paxton, he began making arrangements to sell his trophies to friends in South Carolina who intended to open a bar of their own. He eventually found a buyer who was determined to keep the establishment in town.
A Paxton native himself, Tim Holzfaster thinks of himself primarily as a curator whose responsibility it is to pass what may be the state’s most famous bar and grill to its next owner in good condition. Tim even expanded the bar after purchasing the adjacent Swede’s Cafe. Ole continued to visit the bar that had become his legacy until he passed in 1996.
Just as popular today with locals, hunters, and passersby, Ole’s continues to pay tribute to its larger-than-life founder.
Content written by Omaha Exploration. If you enjoy my content, you can follow or subscribe on my Facebook page, sign up to receive emails or make a donation on my website. Thank you and keep exploring!
Omaha Exploration is sponsored by @Rockbrook Mortgage Inc.
Click here to learn about opportunities to sponsor Omaha Exploration!
Bonus pics
Some older photos of the bar and exterior. Courtesy of Ole’s.
Subscribe
Type your email address below to be notified when a new story is posted.
Follow me on
Sources
- https://olesbiggame.com/our-story/
- Omaha World-Herald archives, 1996, 1986
- Keith County News, Paxton Offers Ole’s Big Game Lounge, 1964
- Paxton Times, 1949
Leave a Reply