SAWYER - For the first time in 60 years, people can buy a beer inside Sawyer's city limits.

Leon and Jackie Bernsdorf recently converted an old bank building into a bar - ending the community's reputation as a dry town.

The community of about 300 stopped selling alcohol in about the mid-1940s.

Many of the people living there at the time were Mennonite and favored plain living and dress. They also dominated the town council.

By the early 1960s, however, many of the Mennonites had moved away and the Hilltop Bar opened in 1961 just outside the city proper.

But downtown Sawyer remained alcohol-free because of an ordinance that limited the area to only one bar per 500 people.

Peggy Redding, who moved to Sawyer in 1941, said there were three or four bars in the town at that time. She later got married and left Sawyer, returning in the fall of 1945.

"I don't think there was a bar when I moved back," said Redding, now 79.

The Hilltop, which sits above the city on the north side of U.S. Highway 52, served the community until about two years ago when it closed.

Recently, the Bernsdorfs bought the bank building and started work on turning it into a bar.

"It's got a little character," said Leon Bernsdorf. "We've got the high ceilings and the good old windows."

Beer is served where loans used to be negotiated and paychecks were deposited. And what used to be the bank vault is now a walk-in cooler.

The bar served its first drink on June 22 and Bernsdorf has been pleased with the response.

"It's been really busy. There's a lot of dry people down here. It's really been a hit," he said.

A grand opening is set for September and a new name may be unveiled at that time. The name "Bank Bar" was rejected by the state.