KBIA's Business Beat

Karen Miller woke up and saw a flashing lights out the window of her home in Arrow Rock, Missouri. Miller works as the general manager of the J. Huston Tavern, which is the oldest continuously serving restaurant west of the Mississippi River. This wasn’t something someone would typically see in the small town of Arrow Rock, which has a population of 56, Miller said. So, she decided to investigate. Initially, she said she thought the lights were from the highway patrol. As she walked down the street, she ran into another resident who told her what was going on. “They said the tavern was on fire,” Miller said. “Then I started running.” An electrical fire started by a freezer had caused the blaze. The tavern had caught on fire by a freezer under the counter inside the kitchen. Luckily, firefighters were already working on putting out the fire by the time she arrived to the tavern. The kitchen, which was built in the 1950s, was destroyed. The rest of the tavern, which was built in 1834,