According to the book, God’s Country by Clara Vaughan Hatcher O’Brien, the current Hard Times Café building was originally built in the early 1930’s by Alfred Nelson as a replacement for a small building that had burned in his lumber yard.
It was purchased by Prentice and Al Wood, a couple experienced in food service, who came to Eagle Bay looking for a place to establish a restaurant.
They purchased the place from Nelson in 1948 and remodeled it into a downstairs restaurant with living quarters on the second floor. They named the business Toboggan Inn and placed a replica of a toboggan on the roof of the front porch.
Due to its catchy name and reputation for good food, the restaurant soon became one of the more popular places to eat in the Adirondacks. Seemingly ahead of its time, the Woods were the first to introduce a salad bar to the area.
The Woods sold the Inn to Carl and Doris Shorey Evans in the mid-70s, who operated under the Toboggan Inn name and format for two years before being reverted back to the Woods.
It stood vacant for approximately two years before Scott Thompson of Beaver River purchased it from Prenice Wood on July 8, 1980 and renamed it Hard Times Café and Saloon.
