89-year-old Johnson County bar survived WWII, the Great Depression. Now it’s closed

In the thick of the Great Depression, Mary Guntert’s parents spent their Friday nights boogeying to the jukebox in De Soto’s Silver Wheel Tavern.

The country bar by a little filling station was a 1930s hot spot — hosting alcohol-free nights for high schoolers in collared shirts and long skirts. Then World War II began, and the town’s young men boarded ships for combat.

When the war ended, the foxtrot and the jitterbug were the primary methods of celebration in the favorite bar of the northwest Johnson County town.

“The wives would talk about dancing on the tables at the Silver Wheel,” Guntert said, laughing. “I looked at them like, ‘I can’t imagine you dancing on the table.’”

The Silver Wheel continued to be a meeting place when Guntert, now 72, turned 18. It would later serve her generation’s children — grandchildren, even.

But 89 years of drinking and jiving have abruptly come to an end, maybe forever. The Silver Wheel — which survived a world war, several recessions and a pandemic — has closed.

Owner Richard Prater, 48, suffered a heart attack and shuttered the bar a few weeks ago. Prater had owned it a little over a year under the name Prater’s Silver Wheel Tavern.

“I’m just gonna have to let it go or else my health isn’t gonna get any better, I’m afraid,” Prater said.

The building at 8385 Penner Ave. is for sale, its lights off and doors locked. Prater said he hopes the buyer continues to operate a bar there. But some of the inquiries he’s received are from developers wanting to tear it down.

“I don’t want to see that happen,” he said. “I’d love to see it stay a bar.”

The bar with white siding and a tin roof is sentimental to Prater, too — it’s where he had his very first drink.

“It’s always been a part of my life, but it’s a lot better when I’m not running it,” he said.

The tavern’s first owner was Perry Nease, said Kathy Ross of the De Soto Historical Society. Nease bought the Lexington Grange Hall in the nearby Lexington Township and tore that 52-year-old building down. He used the lumber to build the tavern in 1934.

While its several past owners have expanded and remodeled the space, the tavern has remained at its current location. An old silver wheel leans against a tree beside a few outdoor picnic tables.

“A lot of the kids used to go out there in the ’50s and ’60s just to congregate,” Ross said.

A few once-glowing, now dull neon beer signs sit in the window. Decades of owners have lived in the second-floor apartment.

Prater said he’s heard from several regulars and longtime residents who are upset to hear the tavern has closed. But Prater said his health comes first.

“I’ve got a couple of friends who’ve owned it,” he said. “It’s just part of De Soto.”

Guntert saw it as a town meeting place, though she could count on one hand the number of times she’d been there. The Silver Wheel’s cheeseburgers were almost as popular as its drinks. Other than that, it’s probably not much different from a lot of bars, she said.

Unless you’re from De Soto, that is.

“There are probably a million Silver Wheels,” she said. “It seems like every small town has their little bar like that.”