My great grandparents were given land in Northern British Columbia during the Yukon Gold Rush in the early 1890s, they were from California (They migrated there from Texas via New York City from Ireland via Wales where they were forced to leave in the late 1790s because of Black Bart Roberts, a family member who was also a scum-sucking, murderous pirate). They were also offered citizenship due to having trade skills, they helped build the town of Dawson Creek where my grandpa was born in 1928, the 13th of 13 kids. My grandpa's sister Yvonne had albums full of old pics and a few were of some of my family in the town's first saloon, it was basically plywood over an alley or alcove between two houses, food and drinks were served from a kitchen in the back of one of the buildings. There were a couple tables and chairs crammed in, a metal woodstove but no front or back walls, big enough for maybe 10 people if a couple didn't mind standing while they drank. A sign on one of the houses said you could also get a hot bath, homecooked meal and rent a room for the night for $1, which is equal to about $35 in 2024.
@@edwardschmitt5710 The show was set in the 1990s, my grandpa's dad was around 10-12 when the family became Canadian citizens in the mid 1890s. That would have made them my great-great grandparents, two greats, I only used one great, oops. I never watched the show but wasn't the name of the town Cliffside or something?
@@beastman1083 Would have been nice if they discovered some gold up there. My grandpa grew up like the tv show The Waltons, he was like the Elizabeth Walton of his family but the Roberts clan had twice as many kids in a house roughly the same size as the one on tv, ran a carpentry business and had a mule the youngest kids rode to school on and they struggled financially just like the Waltons too.
Sooooo... your Great Grandparents were 100 years old in 1890's then? Were given land AND were relatives of the Captn Black Bart?? WOW! Considering the life expectancy wasn't much over 50-60 yrs your story is almost unbelievable. Unless, you just made up a bunch of Irish lore that your family told you. I'd tale a closer look? A lot of families tell stories to their kids ... just sayin'
Interesting and informative. Historians did a very good job presenting actual facts from fiction. Special thanks to the salon owners/customers making this documentary possible
One of Our towns (Prescott AZ) bars The Palace burnt down. During the fire the patrons dragged the actual bar out of the building and across the street to the park. They set up the bar and continued to drink while the whole block burned down. Where do we now set off the towns fireworks ? Of course off of the roof of the rebuilt Palace Saloon. As soon as I learned that story I knew I was in the right place.
I was told by a history buff that the majority of alcoholic drinks in early saloons were actually flavored drinks, sweet and fruity , shots of whiskey weren’t the only or most popular option.
I used to know a guy who had a drink called Everclear that was nearly 100% alcohol. You could pour some into a dish and set a match to it and it would ignite with a blue flame similar to a gas range.
I love my home. I’ve worked hard to own and maintain it. …and I LOVE imagining how awesome my amenities would have been to a weary traveler in this time period… heck, to ANYONE living out west in those times. We live in a wonderful age. We need to truly begin to appreciate what we have, and start taking advantage of it in a very positive way.
We have our homestead in a ghost town of Freeland CO, 9400ft in altitude,was just a simple mining town, however mining in better climate was found, we quickly faded away, except for a few of us, and we all mainly have animal rescues of sorts. We actually got the woodstove from the old saloon/general store.. thanks for the video and taking some of the Hollywood out of our history, here in the wild west, and I assure you, it definitely was rough up here and by rougher folks,alot of unmarked graves up in the mountains. All the best .
Thank you for sharing your story! We love hearing from folks who still live on the frontier even into the modern age. It's like living amongst fossilized memories.
@@footprintsofthefrontier absolutely is, I'm surrounded by old mines dug by hand, in the craziest terrain. We are completely self sufficient with solar and wind power, back up generators of course. But you can always feel the presence at night looking across the snow valleys and the old workings, just shadows of the past. Thanks again
As a history teacher i must say you did a great job. The only thing I feel you missed was explaining that everyone drank alcohol cause water was so dangerous at tge time. No big deal but i always found students were fascinated with this fact. Great job explaining the truth about the buildings as well.
@@Gertieness yes indeed. At same time also very dangerous due to having no clue how much alcohol was in the drink or any of the other chemicals people exchanged in the drink to make more money
Great point to mention there. Thank you, I always liked most of my history teachers. Most of em anyway, there were disagreements with some for sure! Lol The blessing and the curse of monks and friars, fermenting fruit and grain was truly a distinctive turning point and/or downfall, for many civilizations.
What always gets me about Hollywood westerns is how beautiful the women are and how well kept they were in westerns .. in reality that's absolutely BS. ..
Well son, a movie has to use a beautiful actress to play a saloon girl, so that she’ll look as good to you as a real saloon girl looked to a cowboy who’d been out on the range for months.
Can you imagine waking up in a saloon on a Sunday morning back then, hung over, and you just see a bunch of old ladies and a precher looking at you with a concerned look lol.
Either they wouldn't set foot in the bar or they would bodily haul your hung over butter and plunk you down in the first pew to be forced to listen to a over long preaching at the top of the lungs of the entire congregation. ( and yes the exits would be barred by bodies even to the outhouse)
The 3 legged dog limps up to the saloon, and slams open the batwing doors, growling: "I'm looking for the man who shot my paw! Thats okay. I'll show myself out.
GREAT VIDEO SIR,IN THE LATE 50S SOME PARTS OF THE LITTLE SOUTHERN TOWN WHERE I GREW UP ,HAD A FEW PLACES LIKE THE LATER SALOONS IN YOUR VIDEO.THEY WERE FULL OF OLD MEN DRINKING TO TIMES LONG GONE.TAKE CARE
I've read that a reporter asked Wyatt Earp why town meetings in Tombstone seemed to be held in saloons. Wyatt replied "there weren't alot of YMCA's in Tombstone at that time".
In the early days of the California gold rush one of the first to arrive at a mining camp would be a Saloon keeper. He would unload 2 great barrels of whiskey onto the ground & lay 2 great timber planks across them and be open for business. Eventually, he would erect a white canvas tent behind his bar. !
While digging a plumbing ditch behind where an old Missouri Saloon stood, i found pieces of burnt wood, small burlap & leather bags bags, bits of dried veggies, many bones of cattle, pigs, chickens, bear? Yes builder sent them to local university. Seems like the drinkers built a cook-fire behind the old bar.If you added a bit of groceries to the "stew-pot" you didn't leave half drunk & starving for a bite to eat.
Funny, Hollywood movies are never accurate history lessons, but more than any other historical movies, we all love to pick apart western movies and shows. A lot of trumped up wild west mythology also originally came from east coast authors who never set foot in the west. Good video.
If some dude came into one of these real places dressed up like Roy Rogers or some other 20th century tv/movie cowboy dude, he'd have been stared and laughed at unmercifully. They wouldn't know what to make of it.
45 cents is highway robbery at that time. As recently as the 1960’s a 12 ounce beer at a reputable bar was 25 cents. To charge double that 100 years earlier is unbelievable. Actually hard to believe
"Overall. exciting events." I dunno. It was the dime novels that glamorized the West starting in the 1850s. They used a few rare moments to make it all seem like they happened all the time. But my impression from reading is that saloons were mostly routine escapes for smelly cowfolk and visitors passing through. As routine as it would be today.
I would never have drank the whiskey back then. Saloon owners would dilute it with turpentine or embalming fluid. That's why they called it Tarantula Juice, Rotgut or Coffin Varnish.
@zoftigbeatnik In the year 3065 Somebody will leave a comment underneath a covid video about the 2020 covid lockdowns and vaccines and type; "If I lived in 2020 I would have never taken the vaccine.. People were really gullible and stupid back then." Lmao The question is who's gonna look like a dumbass in regards to covid cosplay and compliance to future folk? A lot more than not. Food for thought.. were you a compliant cuck or a defiant giant that didn't take the jab? People love to talk a lot of haughty shit talk, but how many fold under pressure and get their monkey on? One monkey eats shit, the rest of the monkeys want to do it..Obey..follwer the leader..Get the jab, your Gods governments said so..if 2020 didn't show you the world has a shortage of righteous rebels then you're already too far gone.
Little Big Man (the film) has my favorite movie saloon scenes. The book also features the original type of frontier saloon, a tent or awning with a stove and a big barrel of rotgut or fire water for the "Injuns" or indigenous peoples, also for the poorer people, and in the mining areas they had some bottled likker fer them as could pay fer it.
I've been to Bodie, California a couple of times and the saloon there is awesome! The cues are still on the pool table! I also live in Longmont, Colorado, now where we have the Dickens Opera House which was built in 1881 for (I think) the cousin of Charles Dickens. It too has an awesome bar but has been renovated many times over the years with the exception of the main structure and the bar itself. Lots of ghost stories about that place!
The last time I was in a bar without bar stools was in Montana in the 1989s. It was obviously a rough place, with a row of passed out customers along one wall. I asked the bartender why there were no seats, and he said it was because patrons just threw them at each other. Another bar, this time in South Dakota, had bar stools made from large Cottonwood logs with old metal tractor seats nailed to them. Can’t throw them if you can’t pick them up!
Lol, the ladies with the poster “Lips that touch liquor shall not touch ours”. I would chose liquor over their lips zero regrets. Not really any beauties and few seem to have a foot in the grave already at time of taking the picture.
I thought the same johanea.... Then I remembered that being on the range for months on end, on some cattle drive.....them ladies start to look pretty damn fine in my book.
I was in a very small town once,(I won't say where), and there is still an operative old west saloon there. Un believable. It still had a wooden floor that had walking areas worn into it.
My great great uncle or grandfather was a preacher who did his sermons in a saloon near Golden, Colorado before Coors was there. We still have one of the chairs. Heirloom!!!
The "Wild West" Saloons in our area (Northern Minnesota) were also rough, primitive affairs during the Frontier Years when there was lumbering, fishing, trapping, gold mining and ranching going on in our area. I've seen some of the old newspaper and history books that were published around the late 1890s - early 1900s, as well as recorded history from some of the old timers. They tell stories of frequent brawls, illegal gambling, frequent gun fights, lots of prostitution (even naming names when they were arrested), not much law enforcement, just street justice. Typical outhouses in the back where also empty bottles and trash were thrown that accumulated in big piles. Everyone had big trash piles in the back as there was no organized trash removal. If someone was thrown out of the bar, they often landed on the trash heap in the back. Some people froze to death that way and it was not unusual to find a dead body or 2 lying in the back of a saloon. With horses used as transportation, their droppings mixed with the mud and clay here created an awful stinking mire. The spring thaw and hot summers were the worst time for the stench. A lot of the colorful aspects of the Frontier and Homesteading Years when this area opened up to settlement have been scrubbed and edited out of history books to make it less offensive to the Easily Offended.
Old West saloons-the more developed ones-are similar to those found in small towns on the Northern Plains today. The last time I visited the local bar where I live in the middle of South Dakota I had friendly conversation with the locals about raising cattle and horses.
Very true! The Dakotas are rife with them. You can go as far as the northwoods of Wisconsin and find saloons mirroring those of the Old West. We were recently thumbing through photos of Medford, WI in the early 20th century and found a snapshot of a saloon that could have been taken in Tombstone, AZ.
I often wonder about the troubadours and the traveling piano players that kept the music going in the saloons. I'm sure there were hundreds of unknown players with thousands of great unknown songs that were never recorded. I'm sure blues was plays before the civil war all the early music in this country the folk music and rock and blues came from the Scott Irish people.
drinks with names like "tanglefoot and tarantula juice" lol there is even a beer called "tanglefoot" today on tap in english pubs. pretty good it is too. i'd have been well happy with that in the old west
I’ve always wondered if the whiskey and beer were brewed somewhere close or if the saloon was built closer to a brewery but when I think about a saloon is way out in the nowhere
Whisky barrels were shipped in from the larger cities. Many times some of the whisky would get drank on the way by the freighters and replaced with water or whatever. Then the barkeep would dilute it even more with stuff that could kill you. So by the time the patron got a shot it was 10% whisky and the rest water and anything else they could mix in it. Bottoms up!
While I don't think saloons were a non-stop violence pit - your description is simply too refined for a bunch of dirty, exhausted, rough men getting drunk on rot gut. My ex was a patch holder. We would go on cross country runs with his club and others. They are the closest a modern society can be to the rough and ready men of the West. (Except of course for real mountain men ). While they might be peaceful individually, let them drink, play cards and just trade lies and well ... no taking bets on what will occur.
@7:16-ish... That was one BIG tall guy... Looks like a bunch of "Micks".. But, big boy had to have been a "black Irish" or an "Irish Traveler" like the Fury 'boys'.. Tyson, specifically.. Regardless.. When it came down to fists and fighting that way, he likely had no takers.. When it came down to guns.. Bullets don't care how big or small ye may be, lads.. Or Germans.. Nords, cowboys or Indians.. Gotta say..
My grandparents and parents owned bars in the 50-69-79-80-90-2k0 years and I own one now there’s been 16 shootings 4 murders countless fights and stabbings robbery and my grandpa got shot and shot the man trying to rob him the man lost his life but my grandpa was never the same after he was shot in his stomach and it ruined his insides he even died of infection nearly 25 years after the shooting but his stomach required permanent care and routine surgery’s I hated seeing him suffer like that . My parents were robbed once and they just gave them the money and they left swiftly my bar is very upscale and I take precautions to prevent being robbed so you can’t just walk in my bar you have to be be dressed properly and there’s a cover charge on weekend nights I’ve never even had a fight beyond a shouting match and a punch thrown the main issue I have is dine and dashers they order expensive food and drinks and try to leave without paying . I always catch them and give them the option to pay up or go to jail.
In my mind a saloon was just that spot where everything happened and where everyone wanted to be. Almost like a really popular club or something but idk I wasn’t there.
The "Wild West" wasn't actually all that wild. The impressions we have today are formed by the genre of western movies. My ancestors moved west starting in 1840, and none of them died by violence. The western saloon was more like what you'd picture as a modern day neighborhood dive bar. Violent things happened, but it wasn't every day. That impression is the influence of modern day movies, highlighting the most interesting stories to make a movie.
It depends on the city in question, really. There were some mining towns or cities that were absolute nightmares to live in back then. There was constant crime, murders, drunken fights, etc. It wasn't only a TV western depiction, it was very real if you do the research. That doesn't mean that the majority of towns were the same though.
Ah, but you're paying for a product that won't instantly blind you, unlike the raw "whisky" supplied by the pioneer saloons - I cannot believe some of the ingredients!
@@shy404usernotfound . Rum was one of the commodities traded by the British and the Spanish throughout the Caribbean and other parts of the world. That's what was added to the drinking water to make palatable and we get the name for grog. The residue that was left from that production is what it's used to make fire-water. Similar to grappa which is made from the grape residue in wine production. Ofcourse in lack of sugarcane, then you use corn or barley to make whiskey or scotch and from the mash residue you can get some moonshine or fire-water which is about the same as agüa-ardiente. I forgot what is called in Greece but is something very similar as well.
I never believed the hollywood exageration of western life, but love watching westerns. It's funny to me how these people playing cards are dealing $100s and even $1000's of dollars like if it was nothing. Also the wanted ad posters offered an unbelievable amount of money that couldn't possibly be.
I used to think it would be interesting to go back and visit some of those old saloons in the old west, but now not so much. I can't believe Hollywood lied to us all these years, 😥
I’ve e asked many people to explain to me the purpose of saloon doors, why have them at all? Does anyone out there have a good explanation. Were they just a Hollywood invention?
My great grandparents were given land in Northern British Columbia during the Yukon Gold Rush in the early 1890s, they were from California (They migrated there from Texas via New York City from Ireland via Wales where they were forced to leave in the late 1790s because of Black Bart Roberts, a family member who was also a scum-sucking, murderous pirate). They were also offered citizenship due to having trade skills, they helped build the town of Dawson Creek where my grandpa was born in 1928, the 13th of 13 kids.
My grandpa's sister Yvonne had albums full of old pics and a few were of some of my family in the town's first saloon, it was basically plywood over an alley or alcove between two houses, food and drinks were served from a kitchen in the back of one of the buildings. There were a couple tables and chairs crammed in, a metal woodstove but no front or back walls, big enough for maybe 10 people if a couple didn't mind standing while they drank. A sign on one of the houses said you could also get a hot bath, homecooked meal and rent a room for the night for $1, which is equal to about $35 in 2024.
Cool Dawson's Creek was a great show!!!! Can't believe your family was like the characters on that!
@@edwardschmitt5710 The show was set in the 1990s, my grandpa's dad was around 10-12 when the family became Canadian citizens in the mid 1890s. That would have made them my great-great grandparents, two greats, I only used one great, oops.
I never watched the show but wasn't the name of the town Cliffside or something?
Wow! What a family history...! Super Awesome!
@@beastman1083 Would have been nice if they discovered some gold up there. My grandpa grew up like the tv show The Waltons, he was like the Elizabeth Walton of his family but the Roberts clan had twice as many kids in a house roughly the same size as the one on tv, ran a carpentry business and had a mule the youngest kids rode to school on and they struggled financially just like the Waltons too.
Sooooo... your Great Grandparents were 100 years old in 1890's then? Were given land AND were relatives of the Captn Black Bart??
WOW! Considering the life expectancy wasn't much over 50-60 yrs your story is almost unbelievable. Unless, you just made up a bunch of Irish lore that your family told you.
I'd tale a closer look? A lot of families tell stories to their kids ... just sayin'
Interesting and informative. Historians did a very good job presenting actual facts from fiction. Special thanks to the salon owners/customers making this documentary possible
The Spanish settlers were the first in the new world America 🌎
One of Our towns (Prescott AZ) bars The Palace burnt down. During the fire the patrons dragged the actual bar out of the building and across the street to the park. They set up the bar and continued to drink while the whole block burned down. Where do we now set off the towns fireworks ?
Of course off of the roof of the rebuilt Palace Saloon. As soon as I learned that story I knew I was in the right place.
An incredible story! Thanks for sharing, Mark.
The Spanish settlers were the first in the new world America 🌎
@@albertdeleon6272 Tell that to the Apaches.
I was told by a history buff that the majority of alcoholic drinks in early saloons were actually flavored drinks, sweet and fruity , shots of whiskey weren’t the only or most popular option.
Sarsaparilla
Sunset?
The Spanish settlers were the first in the new world America 🌎
Sarsaparilla was a popular soft drink in the early west.
I used to know a guy who had a drink called Everclear that was nearly 100% alcohol. You could pour some into a dish and set a match to it and it would ignite with a blue flame similar to a gas range.
Thank you. This was an excellent video. It was good to hear the real history instead of the fiction we see in movies.
The guy at the table with shirtsleeves and the long beard sure does look authentic with this HUGE WRISTWATCH!
Pardon me but your ignorance is showing. Wristwatches date back to the 16th century.
Or the Mac laptop and the stereo radio on the bar.
Time Traveler!
The Spanish settlers were the first in the new world America 🌎
Nice catch.
I love my home. I’ve worked hard to own and maintain it.
…and I LOVE imagining how awesome my amenities would have been to a weary traveler in this time period… heck, to ANYONE living out west in those times.
We live in a wonderful age. We need to truly begin to appreciate what we have, and start taking advantage of it in a very positive way.
i just love that you can go to one spot and get a beer, get a meal, get a room for the night, get a new job or even vote for your new mayor lmao
That's how taverns operated in New England in the 1600s and 1700s. All that you listed, plus court was held in them too.
And get a woman for the night that will do anything for a quarter and shot of whiskey.
Thank you for the videos buddy, learned a lot that I didn't know or was misinformed about!! Keep up the great work
Thank you for the kind remarks! Stay tuned, we've got plenty more coming.
The Spanish settlers were the first in the new world America 🌎
We have our homestead in a ghost town of Freeland CO, 9400ft in altitude,was just a simple mining town, however mining in better climate was found, we quickly faded away, except for a few of us, and we all mainly have animal rescues of sorts. We actually got the woodstove from the old saloon/general store.. thanks for the video and taking some of the Hollywood out of our history, here in the wild west, and I assure you, it definitely was rough up here and by rougher folks,alot of unmarked graves up in the mountains. All the best .
Thank you for sharing your story! We love hearing from folks who still live on the frontier even into the modern age. It's like living amongst fossilized memories.
@@footprintsofthefrontier absolutely is, I'm surrounded by old mines dug by hand, in the craziest terrain. We are completely self sufficient with solar and wind power, back up generators of course. But you can always feel the presence at night looking across the snow valleys and the old workings, just shadows of the past. Thanks again
The Spanish settlers were the first in the new world America 🌎
@albertdeleon6272 actually have a Spanish mule/horse drawn gold ore crushing wheel, one day make a video with the mules we have coming in next year.
As a history teacher i must say you did a great job. The only thing I feel you missed was explaining that everyone drank alcohol cause water was so dangerous at tge time. No big deal but i always found students were fascinated with this fact. Great job explaining the truth about the buildings as well.
I guess there was also a lot of low alcohol content beer and wine back then for that reason
@@Gertieness yes indeed. At same time also very dangerous due to having no clue how much alcohol was in the drink or any of the other chemicals people exchanged in the drink to make more money
Great point to mention there. Thank you, I always liked most of my history teachers. Most of em anyway, there were disagreements with some for sure! Lol
The blessing and the curse of monks and friars, fermenting fruit and grain was truly a distinctive turning point and/or downfall, for many civilizations.
@@erictroxell715 and how much of whatever else; i read tobacco juice was added for some 'flavor' , too (lol maybe i 'read' it here a previous time)
Throughout History the movers and shakers and decision makers were half in the bag.
What always gets me about Hollywood westerns is how beautiful the women are and how well kept they were in westerns .. in reality that's absolutely BS. ..
No shit, genius
@@markwolfshohl6562 having bad day or are you always just an A** H***
Nothing like a dog faced prostitute from 1887 after a few cups of gut rot whisky.
Well son, a movie has to use a beautiful actress to play a saloon girl, so that she’ll look as good to you as a real saloon girl looked to a cowboy who’d been out on the range for months.
Bess streeter Aldrich wrote a lantern in her hand about women who went against the rough & nasty stereotype
Can you imagine waking up in a saloon on a Sunday morning back then, hung over, and you just see a bunch of old ladies and a precher looking at you with a concerned look lol.
Either they wouldn't set foot in the bar or they would bodily haul your hung over butter and plunk you down in the first pew to be forced to listen to a over long preaching at the top of the lungs of the entire congregation. ( and yes the exits would be barred by bodies even to the outhouse)
Still happens to me!
Kristofferson knew that feeling.
@@CynthiaRockroththat's just complete fiction.
The Spanish settlers were the first in the new world America 🌎
Really well done ! ! Very informative. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it!
The Spanish settlers were the first in the new world America 🌎
@@footprintsofthefrontierThe Spanish settlers were the first in the new world America 🌎
The 3 legged dog limps up to the saloon, and slams open the batwing doors, growling: "I'm looking for the man who shot my paw! Thats okay. I'll show myself out.
Was his name Tripod?
@ChatGPT1111 You knew Stumpy McTripod?
😂😂
The Spanish settlers were the first in the new world America 🌎
I was surprised at how small Wild West saloons are. Like the bird cage for example. So small!
The Spanish settlers were the first in the new world America 🌎
@albertdeleon6272 So they are the ones that should be paying reparations correct? SPAIN OWES BIG MONEY...
@@jonmacdonald5345yeah especially in California which they owned for 300 years.
@MarlinWilliams-ts5ul Yep they definitely owe there I'm sure the Tongva Chumash, cahullia and many others would like some restitution...
Very interesting, enjoyed that, subscribed.
We appreciate it! Welcome aboard.
GREAT VIDEO SIR,IN THE LATE 50S SOME PARTS OF THE LITTLE SOUTHERN TOWN WHERE I GREW UP ,HAD A FEW PLACES LIKE THE LATER SALOONS IN YOUR VIDEO.THEY WERE FULL OF OLD MEN DRINKING TO TIMES LONG GONE.TAKE CARE
Trust me... here in Texas...in 2024... that's still happening... just a different generation
The Spanish settlers were the first in the new world America 🌎
Another deep dive on the history of our nation. I enjoy your content greatly 💪
I've read that a reporter asked Wyatt Earp why town meetings in Tombstone seemed to be held in saloons. Wyatt replied "there weren't alot of YMCA's in Tombstone at that time".
The Spanish settlers were the first in the new world America 🌎
But Tombstone had 2 icecream parlors.
I think we can all agree that hard liquor and handguns are the perfect combination.
I can't aim for shit if I've been drinking.
Ever since dead-eye was invented, it’s been all about charming banter because it’s a given that anyone IS going to be shot at least once per sitting
and something is mentally wrong with your way of thinking.
atf should be the name of a convenience market
Still works in the US today! 😅
Outstanding presentation and Thanks.
In the early days of the California gold rush one of the first to arrive at a mining
camp would be a Saloon keeper. He would unload 2 great barrels of whiskey
onto the ground & lay 2 great timber planks across them and be open for business.
Eventually, he would erect a white canvas tent behind his bar.
!
While digging a plumbing ditch behind where an old Missouri Saloon stood, i found pieces of burnt wood, small burlap & leather bags bags, bits of dried veggies, many bones of cattle, pigs, chickens, bear? Yes builder sent them to local university. Seems like the drinkers built a cook-fire behind the old bar.If you added a bit of groceries to the "stew-pot" you didn't leave half drunk & starving for a bite to eat.
The Spanish settlers were the first in the new world America 🌎
The ghost of Aeneas Coffey just smiles…
HBO’s ‘Deadwood’ is a good representation. ‘The Gem Saloon’ operated by Albert Swearengen was accurately portrayed for the year of 1876.😎
Funny, Hollywood movies are never accurate history lessons, but more than any other historical movies, we all love to pick apart western movies and shows. A lot of trumped up wild west mythology also originally came from east coast authors who never set foot in the west. Good video.
And the saloon girls were just cocktail waitresses saving up enough money to provide a dowry to the church so they could enter the local convent.
They are not supposed to be accurate. They are supposed to be entertaining 😊
Nice and informative video.
If some dude came into one of these real places dressed up like Roy Rogers or some other 20th century tv/movie cowboy dude, he'd have been stared and laughed at unmercifully. They wouldn't know what to make of it.
…just like Marty McFly in Back to the Future 3 was
They might assume he was one of those fellers that's attracted to other men.
The Spanish settlers were the first in the new world America 🌎
The Spanish settlers were the first in the new world America 🌎
@@albertdeleon6272 No I'm pretty sure there were a lot of people already here before the Spanish scumbags showed up.😂
45 cents is highway robbery at that time. As recently as the 1960’s a 12 ounce beer at a reputable bar was 25 cents. To charge double that 100 years earlier is unbelievable. Actually hard to believe
I didn't know the wild west had laptops.... my lord you learn something new everyday 😂😂😂 1:02
"Overall. exciting events." I dunno. It was the dime novels that glamorized the West starting in the 1850s. They used a few rare moments to make it all seem like they happened all the time. But my impression from reading is that saloons were mostly routine escapes for smelly cowfolk and visitors passing through. As routine as it would be today.
Very good video. Thanks.
Great video,keep up the good work!😉👍
good documentary some like yourself put a lot time into these & it shows
Thank you! We really appreciate those sentiments.
I would never have drank the whiskey back then. Saloon owners would dilute it with turpentine or embalming fluid. That's why they called it Tarantula Juice, Rotgut or Coffin Varnish.
So, one would expect that the local undertaker was kept very busy? And likely had a deal with the saloon owner?
You woulda been too dumb to know 😂
@zoftigbeatnik In the year 3065 Somebody will leave a comment underneath a covid video about the 2020 covid lockdowns and vaccines and type; "If I lived in 2020 I would have never taken the vaccine.. People were really gullible and stupid back then." Lmao The question is who's gonna look like a dumbass in regards to covid cosplay and compliance to future folk? A lot more than not. Food for thought.. were you a compliant cuck or a defiant giant that didn't take the jab? People love to talk a lot of haughty shit talk, but how many fold under pressure and get their monkey on? One monkey eats shit, the rest of the monkeys want to do it..Obey..follwer the leader..Get the jab, your Gods governments said so..if 2020 didn't show you the world has a shortage of righteous rebels then you're already too far gone.
Little Big Man (the film) has my favorite movie saloon scenes. The book also features the original type of frontier saloon, a tent or awning with a stove and a big barrel of rotgut or fire water for the "Injuns" or indigenous peoples, also for the poorer people, and in the mining areas they had some bottled likker fer them as could pay fer it.
I've been to Bodie, California a couple of times and the saloon there is awesome!
The cues are still on the pool table!
I also live in Longmont, Colorado, now where we have the Dickens Opera House which was built in 1881 for (I think) the cousin of Charles Dickens. It too has an awesome bar but has been renovated many times over the years with the exception of the main structure and the bar itself.
Lots of ghost stories about that place!
Remember hurricane Charley's? It was a converted church
@@charlespeterson348 The crank capital of Boulder County?
It sure was...!
No bar stools. Bars are the height they are cuz they were for standing. Furniture was pretty rare on the frontier.
The last time I was in a bar without bar stools was in Montana in the 1989s. It was obviously a rough place, with a row of passed out customers along one wall. I asked the bartender why there were no seats, and he said it was because patrons just threw them at each other.
Another bar, this time in South Dakota, had bar stools made from large Cottonwood logs with old metal tractor seats nailed to them. Can’t throw them if you can’t pick them up!
@@tedecker3792both cheap and ingenious!
Plus, every Saturday night, the cowboys in the saloons were breaking balsawood chairs over each others' heads!
@@tedecker3792 LOL! 😆
I got a hearty laugh outta that story.
@@billolsen4360 And sugar glass bottles, don't forget.
Lol, the ladies with the poster “Lips that touch liquor shall not touch ours”.
I would chose liquor over their lips zero regrets.
Not really any beauties and few seem to have a foot in the grave already at time of taking the picture.
I thought the same johanea....
Then I remembered that being on the range for months on end, on some cattle drive.....them ladies start to look pretty damn fine in my book.
I was in a very small town once,(I won't say where), and there is still an operative old west saloon there. Un believable. It still had a wooden floor that had walking areas worn into it.
Interesting. Great video.
My great great uncle or grandfather was a preacher who did his sermons in a saloon near Golden, Colorado before Coors was there. We still have one of the chairs. Heirloom!!!
What an incredible memento to still have in the family! Thanks for sharing, Caroline.
The "Wild West" Saloons in our area (Northern Minnesota) were also rough, primitive affairs during the Frontier Years when there was lumbering, fishing, trapping, gold mining and ranching going on in our area.
I've seen some of the old newspaper and history books that were published around the late 1890s - early 1900s, as well as recorded history from some of the old timers. They tell stories of frequent brawls, illegal gambling, frequent gun fights, lots of prostitution (even naming names when they were arrested), not much law enforcement, just street justice.
Typical outhouses in the back where also empty bottles and trash were thrown that accumulated in big piles. Everyone had big trash piles in the back as there was no organized trash removal. If someone was thrown out of the bar, they often landed on the trash heap in the back. Some people froze to death that way and it was not unusual to find a dead body or 2 lying in the back of a saloon. With horses used as transportation, their droppings mixed with the mud and clay here created an awful stinking mire. The spring thaw and hot summers were the worst time for the stench.
A lot of the colorful aspects of the Frontier and Homesteading Years when this area opened up to settlement have been scrubbed and edited out of history books to make it less offensive to the Easily Offended.
Old West saloons-the more developed ones-are similar to those found in small towns on the Northern Plains today. The last time I visited the local bar where I live in the middle of South Dakota I had friendly conversation with the locals about raising cattle and horses.
Very true! The Dakotas are rife with them. You can go as far as the northwoods of Wisconsin and find saloons mirroring those of the Old West. We were recently thumbing through photos of Medford, WI in the early 20th century and found a snapshot of a saloon that could have been taken in Tombstone, AZ.
25 cents a drink! I cant imagine most people earning more than that an hour.
Josey Wales came close to depiction of a drinking establishment
Excellent history lesson
I was always surprised by how small they were!
Thats what she said
This was awesome.
I often wonder about the troubadours and the traveling piano players that kept the music going in the saloons. I'm sure there were hundreds of unknown players with thousands of great unknown songs that were never recorded. I'm sure blues was plays before the civil war all the early music in this country the folk music and rock and blues came from the Scott Irish people.
Reminds me of the zz top cameo in BTTF3
drinks with names like "tanglefoot and tarantula juice" lol there is even a beer called "tanglefoot" today on tap in english pubs. pretty good it is too. i'd have been well happy with that in the old west
jack london describes Johnny Hieneholds Last Chance Saloon in one of his books .This was on Oakland waterfront ,interesting eha! ttfn&ty
It’s still there.
I’ve always wondered if the whiskey and beer were brewed somewhere close or if the saloon was built closer to a brewery but when I think about a saloon is way out in the nowhere
Whisky barrels were shipped in from the larger cities. Many times some of the whisky would get drank on the way by the freighters and replaced with water or whatever. Then the barkeep would dilute it even more with stuff that could kill you. So by the time the patron got a shot it was 10% whisky and the rest water and anything else they could mix in it.
Bottoms up!
Outlawing alcohol worked out really well. Also, we stopped drug use by outlawing it.
Great stuff.
I want to know who placed mirrors behind the bar and how that became a trend.
Enjoyed the video
Wyatt Earp died in 1925. "The Old West" isn´t so old.
Have you been on a NYC subway lately?
1929 actually
How did they keep the beer cold in the summer?
Nobody drank cold beer.
Good job keep it up
Fascinating video. Note pee trough at base of bar at 15:40. There is also one in Comstock Saloon in San Francisco. But you better not use it.
I don't see a pee trough. I see a foot rail and a pile of sawdust to soak up tobacco spit.
@@riverraisin1 Well I see sawdust for dribbles. But belind it is a metal trough with a drain outlet.
That's funny (interesting) because a few years after opening the brand, Firewater was found to have formaldehyde in it...
@ 11:30, is that guy wearing sunglasses? @12:04, 6-year having a drink.
The way I heard it, saloons ranged from your tents to the two story room complete with chandeliers, fine art and French cuisine.
While I don't think saloons were a non-stop violence pit - your description is simply too refined for a bunch of dirty, exhausted, rough men getting drunk on rot gut. My ex was a patch holder. We would go on cross country runs with his club and others. They are the closest a modern society can be to the rough and ready men of the West. (Except of course for real mountain men ). While they might be peaceful individually, let them drink, play cards and just trade lies and well ... no taking bets on what will occur.
You’re delusional if you think people of the old west were all like asshole bikers.
@7:16-ish... That was one BIG tall guy... Looks like a bunch of "Micks".. But, big boy had to have been a "black Irish" or an "Irish Traveler" like the Fury 'boys'.. Tyson, specifically.. Regardless.. When it came down to fists and fighting that way, he likely had no takers.. When it came down to guns.. Bullets don't care how big or small ye may be, lads.. Or Germans.. Nords, cowboys or Indians.. Gotta say..
I am glad to learn why liquor was called firewater.
What people tend to forget is that dangerous stuff happened in saloons.
Prostitution, and poisonous alcohol to name a few.
i just love it how guys belly up to the bar and order a single bottle of whisky and a shot glass
Lips that touch liquor !! Love that picture. It came from "Little Me" i think...
"Wish I was...a Wild West hero!"
With respect to the Electric Light Orchestra, not any more I don't, LOL
So the first saloon out west was in what is present day Dinosaur Colorado?
My grandparents and parents owned bars in the 50-69-79-80-90-2k0 years and I own one now there’s been 16 shootings 4 murders countless fights and stabbings robbery and my grandpa got shot and shot the man trying to rob him the man lost his life but my grandpa was never the same after he was shot in his stomach and it ruined his insides he even died of infection nearly 25 years after the shooting but his stomach required permanent care and routine surgery’s I hated seeing him suffer like that . My parents were robbed once and they just gave them the money and they left swiftly my bar is very upscale and I take precautions to prevent being robbed so you can’t just walk in my bar you have to be be dressed properly and there’s a cover charge on weekend nights I’ve never even had a fight beyond a shouting match and a punch thrown the main issue I have is dine and dashers they order expensive food and drinks and try to leave without paying . I always catch them and give them the option to pay up or go to jail.
Good post. You know what you're talking about.
Groovy video
Dang you got a lot of videos up. TH-cam must have been dodging my subscriptions.
Actually the term shot when ordering a drink 🥃 of whiskey came from the single bullet exchanged for a drink
Does Danny Gonzalez narrate this?
I’d love to go back during the “latter” Saloons. Telling them bout 2024
very interesting. Thanks.
In my mind a saloon was just that spot where everything happened and where everyone wanted to be. Almost like a really popular club or something but idk I wasn’t there.
1:20 2 shots of votkaa..😂😂😂
Well done
The "Wild West" wasn't actually all that wild. The impressions we have today are formed by the genre of western movies. My ancestors moved west starting in 1840, and none of them died by violence. The western saloon was more like what you'd picture as a modern day neighborhood dive bar. Violent things happened, but it wasn't every day. That impression is the influence of modern day movies, highlighting the most interesting stories to make a movie.
It depends on the city in question, really. There were some mining towns or cities that were absolute nightmares to live in back then. There was constant crime, murders, drunken fights, etc. It wasn't only a TV western depiction, it was very real if you do the research. That doesn't mean that the majority of towns were the same though.
Those pioneers would shit themselves if they saw what a shot of whisky costs these days.
Ah, but you're paying for a product that won't instantly blind you, unlike the raw "whisky" supplied by the pioneer saloons - I cannot believe some of the ingredients!
@@longfadeit’s closer to $20 but yes, 50 cents in 1840 was a LOT of money for a drink.
At 12:01- Little kid sitting at the table in the saloon... WITH A BEER!!!
Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name
Hollywood Westerns are not suppose to be accurate. They are suppose to be entertaining 😊
Fire water = Agüa ardiente. A type of raw alcohol made from the residue of sugarcane process.
P. S. Or of any kind of fruit and grain.
No it's literally not. It's whiskey made from grains. Sugarcane was not something grown in the US.
@@shy404usernotfound . Rum was one of the commodities traded by the British and the Spanish throughout the Caribbean and other parts of the world. That's what was added to the drinking water to make palatable and we get the name for grog. The residue that was left from that production is what it's used to make fire-water. Similar to grappa which is made from the grape residue in wine production.
Ofcourse in lack of sugarcane, then you use corn or barley to make whiskey or scotch and from the mash residue you can get some moonshine or fire-water which is about the same as agüa-ardiente. I forgot what is called in Greece but is something very similar as well.
@@shy404usernotfound . P. S. The Greek fire water is called Ouzo, and it's made from fennel seeds, aniseed and some other stuff.
So "Saloons" were like today's....wait for it....BARS!!!!!! Who wudda thunk it!!!!!
I never believed the hollywood exageration of western life, but love watching westerns. It's funny to me how these people playing cards are dealing $100s and even $1000's of dollars like if it was nothing. Also the wanted ad posters offered an unbelievable amount of money that couldn't possibly be.
I used to think it would be interesting to go back and visit some of those old saloons in the old west, but now not so much.
I can't believe Hollywood lied to us all these years, 😥
Wow they were literally serving poison. Yum 😊
Well welcome January 1st to y'all stopping by. He is going to bust myths 😂. Oh Noooo! 😅
I love the Hollywood Western idea of a saloon. 👢🤠🐎
Most of "Hollywood" westerns do a very poor job of accuracy in their depiction of the true "Old West".
Yet the real truth wouldn’t sell tickets to a movie!
old overholt was the most popular whiskey.
Thanks for a great vid
I’ve e asked many people to explain to me the purpose of saloon doors, why have them at all? Does anyone out there have a good explanation. Were they just a Hollywood invention?
Ahahaha, found ya Lenny!
"What's your poison?" wasn't just a metaphor. 😮😂