No matter your knowledge of the wild west or experiences traveling around the western frontier, exploring ghost towns and abandoned settlements, one thing is for certain: When someone mentions the word “saloon,” you can close your eyes and picture exactly what they mean. Saloons play such an important role in our understanding of life in the old west, as they were truly the intersection of so many famous figures, lifestyles, legacies, and overall exciting events of the time period.
While the ideas and imagery of saloons have been reinforced by romantic notions of the wild west era and Hollywood films exaggerating their grandeur, they are historically misunderstood, admittedly like much of the lore we associate with the frontier. Saloons weren’t necessarily the hives of scum and villainy they are portrayed as. While there was certainly the card game gunfights and drunken brawls and town-shaking scandals occurring within the walls of western cantinas, the bloodshed was few and far between.
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This video is actually pretty factual according to my experiences prowling around old mining camps and other assorted ghost towns all over California and Nevada.
There were a few instances where I was able to obtain a map or survey of these old townsites, and one of the things that always struck me was the size of these old bars and saloons. For the most part, they were tiny and when I say tiny, I mean that you couldn't fit 10 or 15 people in there comfortably which explains why there were so many in these camps and towns.
As the towns grew, the bars and saloons did too and some of the ones I've seen were actually pretty damned nice with full length bars, chandeliers, billiard and card tables, and mirrors behind the bars.
Speaking of bar mirrors, they weren't always as big as the ones we've all seen in movies and TV series. Sure, the really nice bars had a decent sized mirror, but the little hole-in-the-wall dives? Years and years ago I saw a photo of the mirror that was behind the bar of the Acme Saloon in El Paso where Wes Hardin was shot and killed in 1895 - it was about the size of the medicine cabinet mirror in my bathroom and was just a plain mirror with no frame. The auction site that had it listed stated that the size and lack of frame was actually the norm for barroom mirrors back then.
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ReplyDeleteBars and saloons have been meeting places forever. Court, town meetings, drinking, gambling, whoring and just generally a place to get together with others
ReplyDeleteBars aren't a house of sin, it's a place we all fit in.
JD
My great-grandpa was a minister in Wyoming in the late 1800's. Church shared a (thin) wall with the pool hall so he had to yell to be heard over the noise of the break.
ReplyDeleteBuffalo Bill Cody built a hotel in the town he founded and named for himself. The hotel had a bar. Always one to put on a show, the backbar is cherry wood, a gift from Queen Victoria. An atypical place for lunch, nowadays. The Reuban is pretty good. https://www.irmahotel.com/gallery/
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