These Old Photos Of Wild West Saloons Capture The American Frontier In All Its Gritty Glory
Fade in... A Clint Eastwood-type character bursts through the entrance of an imposing saloon. With six-shooters on his hips and menace in his grin, we know things are about to get wild. Sure, we’ve all seen the movies, but did American frontier barrelhouses actually have two-way doors? And what did cowboys really get up to after a long day in the fields? Well, saddle up, partner, because these 40 photographs are about to reveal the rootin’-tootin’ reality of the Old West’s many watering holes.
40. Orient Saloon – Bisbee, Arizona (1903)
The dapper suits. The sea of fine hats. The gambling table transfixing almost every eye in the room. If those clues are anything to go by, it seems there could be some real money at play here. And with precious metals in abundance at the time, there was plenty of cash to be had in boomtown Bisbee. Who’s for another game, then?
39. Table Bluff Hotel and Saloon – Table Bluff, California (1889)
Out in the frontier, men had to graft every which way they could to get by. And Seth Kinman, the man responsible for these magnificently assembled – yet somewhat freaky – chairs, did just that. The hunter-come-craftsman took his work all the way to the top, in fact, even presenting one such perch – made of wapiti antlers – to President Lincoln.
38. Wyatt Earp’s Northern Saloon – Tonopah, Nevada (1903)
A fabled jack-of-all-trades, Wyatt Earp was known far and wide across the American West – and not primarily for his barrelhouses. The frontiersman, you see, also grafted as a hustler and a fugitive before becoming – no kidding – an officer of the law. But perhaps the most legendary chapter of the man’s life was his role in the shootout at the O.K. Corral, a brief but bloody clash in which several men lost their lives.
37. Matt H. Kerais’ Tavern – Kenosha, Wisconsin (1890s-1900s)
It’s a tale as old as time – or at least as old as drinking dens. A small, local joint, the same faces in there every night. The barman knows each drinker’s tipple of choice. But then the familiar routine is interrupted as an outsider walks in. And how is this bold interloper greeted? By a scene not too dissimilar to the one pictured here, perhaps, the room a chorus of steely glares, suspicion and stale spilled liquor.
