PrintWild West Watering Holes
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Settling the Dust [LS cowboys drinking at the Equity Bar, Old Tascosa, Texas] by Irwin E. Smith, 1907.
Erwin E. Smith Foundation, Erwin E. Smith Collection of the Library of Congress on deposit at the Amon Carter Museum, Ft. Worth, Texas, LC.S59.122
The Wild West held many harsh realities, and those who inhabited it were in desperate need of a place to kick up their spurs. Saloons provided a haven for many cowboys and pioneers. The saloons depicted in film and fiction, though, seem somewhat embellished through a century of lore that separates the original saloons from their present-day counterparts. However, a look back at historical accounts proves that the first saloons were just as reckless and revelrous as legend leads us to believe.
The first bar to carry the title “saloon,” cropped up in Brown’s Hole, a settlement near the Wyoming-Colorado-Utah border. Brown’s Saloon was established in 1822, catering to fur trappers traveling through the area. Early saloons were architecturally inferior to the ones depicted in western films.
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Seven men pose outside Jim Ganson's saloon in Idlewild, Colorado; the log building has a ragged board gable roof, and two Schlitz signs are at the corners of the front. A diamond-shaped sign in the window reads "Navy." One man holds what appears to be a carpenter's square and another drinks from a bottle. A log is in the muddy road in front, and other logs, a sawhorse, and a scraggly evergreen tree are by the building; tall evergreen trees are on the mountain behind.
Courtesy Denver Public Library
Often times a saloon was simply a lean-to or a hole in the side of a hill. Weary travelers would stumble upon these shabby establishments to find a bartender serving bourbon and rye. But as towns developed, so did their libation parlors. Before long, Western saloons took on their iconic appearance, as documented in Erwin E. Smith’s photograph, Settling the Dust [LS Cowboys Drinking at a Bar]: long paneled, hand-sculpted counter; brass foot rail for cowpokes to rest their feet; large mirror behind the bar; patrons taking shots of “firewater.” The concoctions were harsher than the ones you’ll find in modern watering holes. Whiskey was generally a combination of raw alcohol, burnt sugar, and chewing tobacco. The house 100 proof “rotgut” was often diluted with turpentine, ammonia, gun powder, or cayenne.
Saloons were usually the first and largest buildings erected in new settlements, so many became the common meeting place — the infamous Judge Roy Bean even held court in his saloon, choosing his best patrons to be his jurors. When a town’s livelihood petered out, the saloon was usually the last to expire.
