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What Were Wild West Saloons Really Like
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May 27, 2025
The activities that took place at saloons were emblematic of the American West itself; just as settlers gambled everything to embark into the unknown, saloon patrons could bet their earnings on a friendly game of faro or poker. Saloons provided a means of survival, even offering a chance at wealth and prosperity on the frontier.
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Wild West saloons represented the very ideals of the American West
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From small camps to established towns, they were a fixture of settlements across the frontier
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While there was plenty of drinking and gambling, saloons also served as an important social gathering place
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But contrary to their depiction in Westerns, life at a saloon wasn't all rigged poker games and shootouts
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Today, we're exploring what Wild West saloons were really like in the Old West
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Life on the American frontier could be exciting, but it was also a bit lonely
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After a day of farming, building railroads, or toiling in mines, young men needed a way
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to relax and unwind. Saloons offered refuge from the isolation and loneliness
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of the frontier. So they did what the rest of us do after a hard day of work
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They went out for a drink. Saloons were more than merely bars. They were a social hub
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People gathered to relax and drink with other settlers, locals, and travelers
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Sometimes they'd talk business or play cards, but mostly they gathered to socialize
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Single men would seek and often find companionship there after a day of backbreaking work
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Though violence and unruly behavior did often occur at saloons, gunfights weren't as common as gunsmoke would suggest
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At former saloon sites in Virginia City, Nevada, one could find more bottles and game boards
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than bullets or other signs of violence. Now, if you were creating a frontier settlement, what kind of establishment would you build first
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A saloon, of course. Saloons served several essential functions in the Wild West and were often the focal point of a camp or town
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Need to trade some furs for food and supplies? Saloons had you covered
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Looking for a place to sleep? Some saloons provided dining and lodging
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Communities might even hold local elections or community gatherings in a saloon
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Only in the wild, wild west could someone drink and vote in the same place at the same time
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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
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That didn't mean it was always a peaceful experience, though. In August 1884, Reverend A. F. Heltman of Brighton, Colorado, held his first Presbyterian services in a saloon
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According to a report from the time, several cowboys shouted and hurrahed outside
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and a few sent revolver shots through the windows. The saloon keeper reportedly quit the business shortly thereafter
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Saloons were kind of like the social media of their day, a place to find work, get news, and engage in plenty of gossip
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Saloons ultimately brought people from all walks of life together as they moved through towns during the expansion of the American West
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Setting up a saloon was easy at first. For a small site, it only required tables, a tent, and some liquor
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As towns thrived, saloons grew right along with them. Owners expanded their operations based on the success of the camper town
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It was easier for the saloons and railroad towns to survive by investing resources back
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into their establishments. Saloons and mining camps weren't so lucky. When the gold and silver stopped flowing, the liquor did too
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As towns grew, saloons expanded. They grew larger, moved into permanent structures
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and diversified their entertainment. Along with improved furnishings, the gambling options developed
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and created more incentive to spend more time at the bar. Some cities saw significant expansion of saloons over time
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Fort Worth, Texas already had 60 saloons by the time the White Elephant Saloon opened in 1883
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After its founding in 1858, Denver, Colorado, had about 30 saloons. But by 1890, that number exploded to 478
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That's a long pub crawl. While Hollywood's version of the Wild West
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is undoubtedly imaginative it 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
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Some had wooden floors and fancy bars, but these weren't the norm. Location played a significant role
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in the type of decor patrons found in their local saloon. Since building materials came from whatever
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happened to be available nearby, saloons looked different depending on the location
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A prairie saloon might resemble something from the set of Have Gun, Will Travel
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or Maverick. Mountain saloons might look more like a classic hunting lodge
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characterized by fine woodworking and animal heads on the walls. In San Francisco and Seattle, saloons
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had chandeliers and mirrors. It just depended on where a thirsty cowboy wanted to get a drink
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But the ideal opportunity to visit a classic style saloon was in Texas in the 1850s
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Fort Worth's first and last chance saloon was just a small, dingy room with a bench
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and 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
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building, fresh seafood, and only the finest in cigars and liquor. Today, the price of a drink is relatively consistent in major cities around the country
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Go into any bar or restaurant, and you'll likely find similar prices for liquor and wine
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But that simply wasn't the case in the Old West, where drink prices changed depending
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on a saloon's location. Procuring liquor to remote locations was challenging, and the prices reflected as much
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A whiskier beer shot might cost 50 cents in the Yukon territory, but only half as much in a place like Colorado
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Emerging social classes on the frontier also impacted prices. Where cheap saloons provided whiskey and beer to cowboys
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the fancier establishments catered to business people and ranchers with more money to burn
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Saloons were a bit of a boys club, with women working as barmaids and entertainers in the
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form of dancing or theater. Malda Branscombe, known professionally as Big Mini, was the quintessential saloon entertainer
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Earning her nickname for her 230-pound, six-foot muscular frame, she lived and worked in the
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legendary town of Tombstone, Arizona. Branscombe was, at times, a barmaid, part-time actor, a dancer, and a prostitute
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At one point, she even became the bouncer after she physically tossed a drunk out of the door after the guy fired a shot
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into the bar ceiling. Sometimes women offered other amenities. But when it came to drinks, women persuaded men
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to buy them expensive liquor, often receiving a cut for themselves. One anti-saloon advocate, George M. Hamill
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didn't like what he saw at the saloons. He wrote about it in his 1908 book, Passing the Saloon
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saying, in Denver, when I was there, saloons were full of disreputable women
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drinking with the men right at the bar. One would come up and nudge you and say, how's things for a drink
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The barkeeper would say, yes, go on, throw a drink into her. It cost 25 cents at the cheapest to treat a woman there
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If one took a 5-cent drink and gave her the same, the bill was 25 cents
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Of this, the house kept a dime and gave her a check for 15, which she cashed at the end of the evening
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To help women avoid getting drunk while earning this money, bartenders sometimes swapped whiskey for tea or served watered-down beer
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Cheers, Barfly. Norm Peterson probably would not have enjoyed drinking in a saloon
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If patrons wanted a comfortable seat, they wouldn't find it at the bar itself. Bar stools simply didn't exist
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Instead, there was plenty of seating around tables where men talked and gambled
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Although seating was limited, there was no shortage of towels and spittoons
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Placed on hooks along the bar's front, patrons used the towels like napkins to wipe beer from
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their mustaches or upper lips. Unlike napkins, the towels were much more disgusting
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They were rarely washed and undoubtedly teeming with germs and bacteria. If that weren unsavory enough smoking and chewing tobacco were everyday activities in saloons Bar owners placed platoons in their saloons but cowboys spit on the floor anyway
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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
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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
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Sawdust, Nature's Magic Eraser. A bartender in the Old West did more than just poor drinks
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They provided security, coordinated entertainment, and often moved to other locations as demand for good
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bartenders skyrocketed. Between 1860 and 1900, the number of bartenders on the frontier jumped from 4,000 to nearly 50,000
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It was a competitive, increasingly cutthroat profession that attracted people from all over the country
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It became such a popular profession that bartender manuals started coming out around the 1860s
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With the assistance of books like Bartender's Guide, How to Mix All Kinds of Plain and Fancy
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Drinks, bartenders improved their craft and took it to an art form. Saloon proprietors wrote a few
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books themselves, like Harry Johnson's 1888 masterwork, New and Improved Illustrated Bartender's
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Manual, or How to Mix Drinks of the Present Style. Readers of Johnson's book learned not just the
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craft of mixing drinks, but also how to be a persuasive booze salesman. I bet your college
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textbooks weren't that much fun. Expert bartenders were held in high regard, earning titles like
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professor or mixologist. Like Harry Johnson and Chicago's James Malone, some even had a set of
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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
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family business due to a bad limp and ended up in the saloon business. By the 1870s, he ran a saloon
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in Wichita, Kansas. When thirsty travelers stopped by for a drink, he'd serve them a fine beverage
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then very likely sent them along to a nearby brothel run by his wife. Ah, that's a cute family
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business. Saloons were intended to be a place for men of different backgrounds to drink, gather
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and play cards. One account for the time describes a typical night
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at a California Gold Rush saloon. The people composing the crowd were men of every class
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respectable-looking men, rough miners fresh from the diggings, with well-filled buckskin purses, dirty old flannel shirts
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and shapeless hats. For the book, Legendary Watering Holes, The Saloons That Made Texas Famous
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saloons didn't always welcome any patron with money in their pockets. That image was perpetuated by Easterners
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romanticizing the Old West. African-Americans, Native Americans, Latino, Asians, or other immigrant patrons often faced prejudice in saloons
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But as towns became cities, these groups built their own establishments. Saloons that exclusively served Irish immigrants
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African-Americans, and men of German heritage developed alongside each other, with each one catering
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to a specific group of drinkers. One of these was the Boston Saloon in Virginia City, Nevada
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First opening its doors in 1864, the saloon was located outside the city center at first
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but relocated to the town's bustling district by 1866. Operated by William Brown, the saloon
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was famous among African-Americans until it closed in 1875. After it closed, a California publication
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called Pacific Appeal mourned the loss of the thriving establishment. But its story was far from over
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In 1997, the city discovered remnants of the old saloon. A full excavation took place in 2000
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uncovering evidence of a successful upscale establishment that served high-quality food and had regular female customers
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While it may have been Brett and Bart Maverick's specialty, poker wasn't the only game in town
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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 not to love Farrow used a single deck of cards with players called punters
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and a dealer named a banker. The dealer placed 13 cards on the table and took bets
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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
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while bets on players' cards earned some cash. Players could place multiple bets on different cards
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and the inclusion of multiple players made it popular among gamblers of all stripes
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Poker was still commonly played, joining three-card monte and roulette tables in the more
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elaborate gambling facilities at some saloons. Gamblers often met with mixed success. The
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combination of drinking and betting usually parted saloon patrons from their funds
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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
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sometimes got into a game of poker and generally left town broke
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Just like our TV stereotypes, gambling, alcohol, and violence sometimes played a role at saloons
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Violence was usually caused by one or both of the other two. Drunken men might come to blows over
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perceived cheating at cards or just start a brawl because, well, they're drunk. Drunken brawls could
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lead to big trouble. On October 5, 1871, one such altercation led to Marshal James Wild Bill Hickok unwittingly slaying
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a fellow officer who had come to his aid. During a brawl that had spread out into the street
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a saloon operator named Phil Coe engaged in a gunfight with Hickok
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Coe fired a few shots and claimed he was trying to shoot a stray dog. Hickok decided to arrest him for firing a pistol
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within city limits. Then without warning, Coe shot at Hickok twice more
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hitting the sidewalk and the tail of Hickok's coat. Hickok pulled his gun and fired three times
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hitting Coe twice in the stomach. Coe died a few days later. The third bullet accidentally struck
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Marshal Mike Williams, who'd heard the commotion and rushed to Hickok's aid. The event marked
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Hickok's last gunfight and would haunt him for the rest of his life, which tragically ended in a
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saloon. In 1876, Hickok was playing poker at Nettle and Man Saloon No. 10, a saloon located in
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Deadwood, South Dakota. Hickok was seated with his back to the door
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holding a pair of aces and eights, the dead man's hand. The door burst open, and he was shot in the head
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point blank by Jack McCall. This variety of violence led to concerns
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from social reformers. The rise of the temperance movement during the late 19th century raised their own concerns
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about the saloon's role in society. Groups like the Anti-Saloon League and the Women's Christian Temperance Union
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attempted to stop drinking at saloons. One of their leaders, Carrie Nation
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took a decidedly more violent approach. Nation took her pewter hatchet and marched into saloons
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Shouting, smash, smash, for the love of Jesus, smash, she'd proceed to destroy as much liquor and saloon property
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as possible. She was arrested more than 30 times, but became a celebrity within the temperance movement
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For a time, she even marketed souvenir hatchets. Various factors led to the saloon's decline
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including employers demanding sobriety during the workday and local health codes banning some of the less than sanitary aspects of the establishments
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Bans on gambling and prostitution were introduced around the American West, striking a blow to saloons across the frontier. As cities grew and expanded
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the various services saloons provided disappeared, replaced by specialized businesses or institutions
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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
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And the world virtually disappeared from everyday use by the end of prohibition in 1933
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Some original Old West saloons, like the White Elephant in Texas and Silver Dollar Saloon in Colorado
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still stand today. But it's probably best to grab a drink at your own local watering hole
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After all, sometimes you just want to go where everybody knows your name
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