MarketWatch:
James F. Woodson, co-founder of the popular Taco John’s restaurant chain based in Cheyenne, Wyoming died Friday, October 24, 2008. Woodson and Harold Holmes built the chain from a “Taco House” concept in 1969. Today, it is a leading regional Mexican quick-service restaurant chain with 420 locations in 25 states.
Woodson spent his entire business life in Cheyenne, except for four years at the University of Denver and military service from 1943-1945. Woodson started his business career working with his father during the late 1940s at Capital Coal Company. When natural gas became the fuel of preference, the Woodsons closed their coal company and purchased an ice company. Ironically, the land the ice company sat on is now the current location of the Taco John’s International, Inc. headquarters.
From coal and ice, Woodson expanded his business interests in the 1950s to include Woodson Realty, Eberly-Woodson Insurance, and Checker Yellow Cab. It was through his real estate business that Woodson was introduced to John Turner, who was looking for land on which to put his “Taco House,” as he called it. When Turner wanted to build another Taco House just six days prior to Cheyenne Frontier Days, Holmes — who had his own business, Holmes Camper and Equipment — stepped in and built a prefabricated Taco House in downtown Cheyenne, where a Taco John’s still stands today.
At the time Woodson said, “It wasn’t much of a building, only 360 square feet with red metal siding and yellow stripes, quite gaudy. A sign on the front of it had a devil, with the words ‘The Hottest Spot In Town.'”
