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Saloon — Description
A Western saloon is a kind of bar particular to the American Old West. Saloons served customers such as fur trappers, cowboys, soldiers, gold prospectors, miners, and gamblers. The first saloon was established at Brown’s Hole, Wyoming, in 1822, to serve fur trappers. The popularity of saloons in the nineteenth-century American West is attested to by the fact that even a town of 3,000 residents, such as 1883’s Livingston, Montana, boasted 33 saloons.[1]
Among the more familiar saloons were First Chance Saloon in Miles City, Montana; the Bull’s Head in Abilene, Kansas; the Arcade in El Dorado, Colorado; the Holy Moses in Creede, Colorado; the Long Branch in Dodge City, Kansas; the Birdcage Theater (also a saloon) in Tombstone, Arizona; the Bucket of Blood Saloon in Virginia City, Nevada; and Judge Roy Bean’s Saloon in Langtry, Texas. Many of these establishments remained open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.