Wild West saloons
represented the very ideals of the American West. From small camps to
established towns, they were a fixture
of settlements across the frontier. While there was plenty
of drinking and gambling, saloons also served as an
important social gathering place. But contrary to their depiction
in westerns, life at a saloon wasn't all rigged poker
games and shootouts. Today, we're exploring what
Wild West saloons were really like in the Old West. But before we get started,
be sure to subscribe to the Weird History channel. And let us know in the
comments below what other Wild West topics you
would like to hear about. All right, let's cozy up
to the bar and order us a mule, Skinner. [MUSIC PLAYING] Life on the American
frontier could be exciting. But it was also a bit lonely. After a day of farming, building
railroads, or toiling in mines, young men needed a way
to relax and unwind. Saloons offered refuge from
the isolation and loneliness of the frontier. So they did what the rest of us
do after a hard day of work-- they went out for a drink. Saloons were more
than merely bars. They were a social hub. People gather to relax and drink
with other settlers, locals, and travelers. Sometimes, they talked
business or played cards, but mostly, they
gathered to socialize. Single men would seek and
often find companionship there after a day of
backbreaking work. Though violence
and unruly behavior did often occur at saloons,
gunfights weren't as common as gunsmoke would suggest. At former saloon sites
in Virginia City, Nevada, one could find more
bottles and game boards than bullets or other
signs of violence. [MUSIC PLAYING] Now if you were creating
a frontier settlement, what kind of establishment
would you build first? A saloon, of course. Saloons served several essential
functions in the Wild West and were often the focal
point of a camp or town. Need to trade some furs
for food and supplies? Saloons had you covered. Looking for a place to sleep? Some saloons provided
dining and lodging. Communities might even hold
local elections or community gatherings in a saloon. Only in the wild, wild west
could someone drink and vote in the same place
at the same time. If a town didn't have
a church, the saloon doubled as a makeshift chapel. Drinking and gambling
would stop temporarily as a preacher would
give a sermon. That didn't mean it was always
a peaceful experience, though. In August 1884, Reverend AF
Heltman of Brighton, Colorado, held his first Presbyterian
services in a saloon. According to a
report from the time, several cowboys shouted
and hurrahed outside, and a few sent revolver
shots through the windows. The saloon keeper
reportedly quit the business shortly thereafter. Saloons were kind of like the
social media of their day, a place to find work, get news,
and engage in plenty of gossip. Saloons ultimately brought
people from all walks of life together as they moved through
towns during the expansion of the American West. [MUSIC PLAYING] Setting up a saloon
was easy at first. For a small site, it only
required tables, a tent, and some liquor. As towns thrived, saloons
grew right along with them. Owners expanded their
operations based on the success of the camp or town. It was easier for the
saloons in railroad towns to survive by investing
resources back into their establishments. Saloons and mining
camps weren't so lucky. When the gold and silver stopped
flowing, the liquor did, too. As towns grew, saloons expanded. They grew larger, moved
into permanent structures, and diversified
their entertainment. Along with improved furnishings,
the gambling options developed and created
more incentive to spend more time at the bar. Some cities saw a significant
expansion of saloons over time. Fort Worth, Texas
already had 60 saloons by the time the White Elephant
Saloon opened in 1883. After its founding in
1858, Denver, Colorado had about 30 saloons. But by 1890, that
number exploded to 478. That's a long pub crawl. [MUSIC PLAYING] While Hollywood's
version of the Wild West is undoubtedly imaginative,
it's often inaccurate. When they first started
appearing in the west, saloons were basically
just drinking tents. Even as they became more
permanent structures, most saloons remained
small and rustic. Some had wooden
floors and fancy bars, but these weren't the norm. Location played a
significant role in the type of decor patrons
found in their local saloon. Since building materials
came from whatever happened to be available
nearby, saloons looked different depending on the location. A prairie saloon might
resemble something from the set of Have Gun,
Will Travel or Maverick. Mountain saloons might look more
like a classic hunting lodge, characterized by fine
woodworking and animal heads on the walls. In San Francisco
and Seattle, saloons had chandeliers and mirrors. It just depended on
where a thirsty cowboy wanted to get a drink. But the ideal opportunity to
visit a classic style saloon was in Texas in the 1850s. Fort Worth's First
and Last Chance Saloon was just a small dingy room with
a bench in an unremarkable bar. How's that for a
classic dive bar? Three decades later, the White
Elephant Saloon seriously upped the ante with a two-story
building, fresh seafood, and only the finest
in cigars and liquor. [MUSIC PLAYING] Today, the price of
a drink is relatively consistent in major
cities around the country. Go into any bar or
restaurant, and you'll likely find similar prices
for liquor and wine. But that simply wasn't
the case in the Old West, where drink
prices changed depending on a saloon's location. Procuring liquor to remote
locations was challenging, and the prices
reflected as much. A whiskey or beer shot might
costs $0.50 in the Yukon territory, but only half as
much in a place like Colorado. Emerging social classes on the
frontier also impacted prices. Where cheap saloons provided
whiskey and beer to cowboys, the fancier
establishments catered to business people and ranchers
with more money to burn. [MUSIC PLAYING] Saloons were a bit of a
boys' club with women working as barmaids and entertainers in
the form of dancing or theater. Maulda Branscomb, known
professionally as Big Minnie, was the quintessential
saloon entertainer. Earning her nickname for her
230-pound 6' muscular frame, she lived and worked
in the legendary town of Tombstone, Arizona. Branscomb was, at times, a
barmaid, part-time actor, a dancer, and a prostitute. At one point, she even
became the bouncer after she physically tossed
a drunk out of the door after the guy fired a shot
into the bar's ceiling. Sometimes, women
offered other amenities. But when it came
to drinks, women persuaded men to buy
them expensive liquor, often receiving a
cut for themselves. One anti-saloon advocate,
George M. Hammell, didn't like what he
saw at the saloons. He wrote about it in his 1908
book, Passing the Saloon, saying, "In Denver,
when I was there, saloons were full of
disreputable women, drinking with the
men right at the bar. One would come up and
nudge you and say, 'How's things for a drink?' The barkeeper would say, 'Yes,
go on, throw a drink into her.' It cost $0.25 at the cheapest
to treat a woman there. If one took a $0.05 drink
and gave her the same, the bill was $0.25. Of this, the house kept a dime
and gave her a check for 15, which she cashed at the
end of the evening." To help women avoid getting
drunk while earning this money, bartenders sometimes swapped
whiskey for tea or served watered down beer. [MUSIC PLAYING] Cheers barfly Norm
Peterson probably would not have enjoyed
drinking in a saloon. If patrons wanted
a comfortable seat, they wouldn't find
it at the bar itself. Bar stools simply didn't exist. Instead, there was
plenty of seating around tables, where
men talked and gambled. Although seating
was limited, there was no shortage of
towels and spittoons. Placed on hooks along
the bar's front, patrons used the
towels like napkins to wipe beer from their
mustaches or upper lips. Unlike napkins, the towels
were much more disgusting. They were rarely washed
and undoubtedly teeming with germs and bacteria. If that weren't unsavory enough,
smoking and chewing tobacco were everyday
activities in saloons. Bar owners place spittoons
in their saloons, but cowboys spit on
the floor anyway. It didn't help any when some
of the more flippant saloons displayed signs that read, "If
you spit on the floor at home, spit on the floor here. We want you to feel at home." It's kind of like having
a no smoking sign, but handing out cigars. If tobacco juice or spilled beer
piled up too much on the floor, a little dirt or sawdust
would soak it right up. Sawdust-- nature's magic eraser. [MUSIC PLAYING] A bartender in the Old West
did more than just pour drinks. They provided security,
coordinated entertainment, and often moved to
other locations, as demand for good
bartenders skyrocketed. Between 1860 and
1900, the number of bartenders on the
frontier jumped from 4,000 to nearly 50,000. It was a competitive
increasingly cutthroat profession that attracted people
from all over the country. It became such a
popular profession that bartender manuals started
coming out around the 1860s. With the assistance of books
like Bartender's Guide, How to Mix All Kinds of
Plain and Fancy Drinks, bartenders improved their craft
and took it to an art form. Saloon proprietors wrote
a few books themselves, like Harry Johnson's
1888 masterwork, New and Improved Illustrated
Bartender's Manual or How to Mix Drinks
of the Present Style. Readers of Johnson's book
learned not just the craft of mixing drinks, but also
how to be a persuasive booze salesman. I bet your college textbooks
weren't that much fun. Expert bartenders were held
in high regard, earning titles like professor or mixologist. Like Harry Johnson and
Chicago's James Malone, some even had a set of
custom made silver bartending utensils. Mixologists took their
bartending seriously. One famous recipient of
the title was James Earp. The brother of Wyatt
Earp, James sat out of the family business
due to a bad limp and ended up in the
saloon business. By the 1870s, he ran a
saloon in Wichita, Kansas. When thirsty travelers
stopped by for a drink, he'd serve them a
fine beverage, then very likely sent them along to a
nearby brothel run by his wife. Oh, that's a cute
family business. [MUSIC PLAYING] Saloons were intended
to be a place for men of different backgrounds to
drink, gather, and play cards. One account for the time
describes a typical night at a California
Gold Rush saloon. The people composing the crowd
were men of every class-- respectable-looking
men, rough miners fresh from the diggings
with well-filled buckskin purses, dirty old flannel
shirts, and shapeless hats. Per the book, Legendary
Watering Holes, the saloons that
made Texas famous, saloons didn't always
welcome any patron with money in their pockets. That image was
perpetuated by Easterners romanticizing the Old West. African-Americans, Native
Americans, Latino, Asians, or other immigrant patrons often
faced prejudice in saloons. But as towns became
cities, these groups built their own
establishments. saloons that exclusively served Irish
immigrants, African-Americans, and men of German heritage
developed alongside each other, with each one catering to a
specific group of drinkers. One of these was
the Boston saloon in Virginia City, Nevada. First opening its doors
in 1864, the saloon was located outside the
city center at first, but relocated to the town's
bustling district by 1866. Operated by William
Brown, the saloon was famous among
African-Americans until it closed in 1875. After it closed, a
California publication called Pacific Appeal
mourned the loss of the thriving establishment. But its story was far from over. In 1997, the city discovered
remnants of the old saloon. A full excavation
took place in 2000, uncovering evidence of
a successful upscale establishment that
served high quality food and had regular
female customers. [MUSIC PLAYING] While it may have been Brett
and Bart Maverick's specialty, poker wasn't the
only game in town. Faro, a game
popularized in Europe during the 17th
and 18th centuries, was considerably more popular. It was fast, easy to pick up,
and had better odds than most other games of chance. What's not to love? Faro used a single deck of cards
with players, called punters, and a dealer, named a banker. The dealer placed 13 cards
on the table and took bets. Then he flipped over
one card for himself and one card for the player. Bets on the same suit
of a dealer's card were losers, while
bets on players' cards earned some cash. Players could place multiple
bets on different cards. And the inclusion
of multiple players made it popular among
gamblers of all stripes. Poker was still commonly
played, joining three-card monte and roulette tables in the more
elaborate gambling facilities at some saloons. Gamblers often met
with mixed success. The combination of
drinking and betting usually parted saloon
patrons from their funds. But it was all part
of the experience. As one Montana cowboy explained,
"When I would get into a town, I wanted to have a good time. I usually took a few
drinks and sometimes got into a game of poker and
generally left town broke." [MUSIC PLAYING] Just like our TV stereotypes,
gambling, alcohol, and violence sometimes played
a role at saloons. Violence was usually caused by
one or both of the other two. Drunken men might come to
blows over perceived cheating at cards or just start a brawl
because, well, they're drunk. Drunken brawls could
lead to big trouble. On October 5, 1871,
one such altercation led to Marshall James Wild
Bill Hickok unwittingly slaying a fellow officer, who
had come to his aid. During a brawl that had
spread out into the street, a saloon operator named Phil
Coe engaged in a gunfight with Hickok. Coe fired a few
shots and claimed he was trying to
shoot a stray dog. Hickok decided to
arrest him for firing a pistol within city limits. Then without warning, Coe
shot at Hickok twice more, hitting the sidewalk and
the tail of Hickok's coat. Hickok pulled his gun
and fired three times, hitting Coe twice
in the stomach. Coe died a few days later. The third bullet accidentally
struck Marshal Mike Williams, who'd heard the commotion
and rushed to Hickok's aid. The event marked
Hickok's last gunfight that would haunt him for
the rest of his life, which tragically ended in a saloon. In 1876, Hickok was
playing poker at Nuttal and Mann's Saloon Number
10, a saloon located in Deadwood, South Dakota. Hickok was seated with
his back to the door, holding a pair of aces and
eights, the dead man's hand. The door burst open, and
he was shot in the head point blank by Jack McCall. This variety of violence led to
concerns from social reformers. The rise of the
temperance movement during the late 19th century
raised their own concerns about the saloon's
role in society. Groups like the
Anti-Saloon League and the Women's Christian
Temperance Union attempted to stop
drinking at saloons. One of their leaders,
Carrie Nation, took a decidedly more
violent approach. Nation took her puter hatchet
and marched into saloons, shouting, "Smash! Smash! For the love of Jesus, smash!" She'd proceed to destroy
as much liquor and saloon property as possible. She was arrested
more than 30 times, but became a celebrity within
the temperance movement. For a time, she even
marketed souvenir hatchets. Various factors led to
the saloon's decline, including employers
demanding sobriety during the workday
and local health codes banning some of the less
than sanitary aspects of the establishments. Bans on gambling
and prostitution were introduced around
the American West, striking a blow to saloons
across the frontier. As cities grew and expanded,
the various services saloons provided disappeared,
replaced by specialized businesses or institutions. Saloons lost their
customers as civilization steadily encroached. The establishment of
Prohibition in 1919 was the final nail in the
coffin for the Old West saloon. And the world virtually
disappeared from everyday use by the end of
Prohibition in 1933. Some original Old West saloons,
like the White Elephant in Texas and Silver
Dollar Saloon in Colorado, still stand today. But it's probably
best to grab a drink at your own local watering hole. After all, sometimes
you just want to go where everybody
knows your name. So what do you think? What would you order
at a Wild West saloon? Let us know in the
comments below. And while you're at it, check
out some of these other videos from our Weird History.
