Another unique feature was the artesian well in the basement. In what must have been one of the earliest versions of swamp cooling, bales of hay were stacked in the basement and drenched with water from the well. Huge fans forced air through the hay and blew it through ductwork upstairs into the theater auditorium.

During the winter, artesian well water was channeled into a boiler to create steam, which flowed into radiators to heat the building.

Nay and Spencer also found a tunnel leading out of the building and under Main Street. Inside the theater basement, to the side of the tunnel opening, was a room with rough concrete walls with old whiskey bottles here and there on the floor. "We think this was a little speakeasy," Spencer says.

The Casino Theater was built by Sims Duggins, an entrepreneur who moved from Provo to Gunnison in the early 1900s. At the time, sugar beets were the dominant cash crop from Payson to Centerfield (a town just south of Gunnison), and Duggins believed Gunnison was destined to become a wealthy, sugar-beet mecca.

In 1912, he built what Spencer describes as a "big box" as the first step in constructing the theater. Meanwhile, he turned to the Beaux-Arts School of Architectural Design in Paris to design the facade and hired a Pittsburgh company to build it. Components of the facade arrived by train and were installed in 1915.

After Duggins died in 1928, his widow hired C.E. Huish, whose family owned theaters throughout Utah, to manage the theater. Huish installed a metallic false facade over the arch and lower part of the ornate facade, and the addition ended up preserving many of the original decorations over the years.

In 1940, the Cryill E. Anderson family of Gunnison bought the theater and in the 1950s put up the triangular marquee that is still on the building. They continued to operate it until 1973, although it became less profitable as the years passed, and it faced competition from TV movies, videos and DVDs.

The theater served the whole Gunnison Valley, including not only Gunnison and Centerfield but the tiny surrounding towns of Mayfield, Fayette and Axtell. People came there for political rallies, vaudeville performances, stage plays and movies.

From 1973 to 1987, there were two more owners, and the theater scaled back to showing movies on weekends only. In 1987, while the SOS group was still trying to buy the theater, Paul Mower, owner of the Huish Theater in Payson and a descendant of one-time Star Theater manager C.E. Huish, snatched up the facility. But it wasn't profitable, and by 2004, he was trying to sell it.

With the deal done, Spencer and Nay had to face up to the reality of what they'd purchased. "The lovely elm trees out back had roots in our cast iron pipes," Spencer said. The building was also stuffed with junk.