The tavern, between Alexandra and Omakau, celebrated its 125th anniversary on Saturday night, getting in early instead of waiting until the actual date of December 24. About 70 people, most from the local community and all with links to the hotel, took part in the celebrations, owner Lesley Middlemass said.
"The hotel is probably notable in that its publicans have stayed a long time and there's only been about 15 different owners in all that time, " she said.
The first hotel in the area was just along the road, under the nearby poplar trees, called the "Three Horseshoes". To mark its existence, three horseshoes have been placed above one of the doors in the hotel. That building burnt down and the current hotel was built further along the road in 1886.
Its exterior walls are stacked stone with mud mortar and the internal walls are mud brick.
Mrs Middlemass and her late husband Owen bought the hotel 12 years ago.
"I'm the luckiest person in the world to live in a community like this. It really is the best place in the whole world," she said.
The tavern was well supported by the local community and was also fortunate to be on the route of the Otago Central Rail Trail, which opened in February 2000. Chatto Creek is a popular stopping place for cyclists and walkers using the rail trail.
Speakers at the celebration on Saturday night included Jim Love, of Alexandra, whose great-grandfather John Heyward was the first owner of the tavern, Bruce Duncan, of Chatto Creek and Graeme Scott, of Alexandra, who also have strong links to the hotel, and Reid Gare, speaking on behalf of the local community.
Mr Love said the hotel remained in his family's hands for the first 15 years. In those days, it was a popular stopping place for bullock wagons, serving Moutere Station, which covered a vast area of the surrounding farmland.
At its height, the population of Chatto Creek reached about 800, mainly men who were either rabbiters, miners or worked on the railway or irrigation projects, Mrs Middlemass said.
