What Were Wild West Saloons Really Like? (2024)

FAQs

What did cowboys really drink in saloons? ›

But the majority of western saloon regulars boozed straight alcohol — rye or bourbon.

The style of the doors was praised by saloon owners as they let fresh air in and smoke out while allowing a cross breeze to cold the air. They also were able to maintain some privacy by having empty doors while still enticing people to come in when they hear the laughter and music.

In the Old West, people did not always enjoy their beer cold, for their were no modern refrigerators. To keep beer cold, people would keep kegs of beer in caves and rock cellars, lined with harvested river ice. Sometimes, they would even use wet gunny sacks full of sawdust to cool beer, as well.

Prostitutes also worked in saloons and dance halls. Their rooms were normally placed at the rear of the building. These women were rarely called prostitutes and went under the names of saloon girls, dancers, scarlet ladies, soiled doves and girls of the night.

Starved for female companionship, the saloon girl would sing for the men, dance with them, and talk to them – inducing them to remain in the bar, buying drinks, and patronizing the games.

Tack pianos are commonly associated with ragtime pieces, often appearing in Hollywood Western saloon scenes featuring old upright pianos. The instrument was originally used for classical music performances as a substitute for a harpsichord.

They served lots of salty foods requiring more drinks; sardines and real oysters were staples. Spencer's Saloon advertised a menu that included “oysters in all styles, turkey, ham, Sweitzer Kase (cheese) and Limburger sandwiches, Vienna boiled sausage, hot coffee, tea and chocolate.

Daily Life Of A Saloon Girl

The girls were to dance with the men and get the men to buy them drinks. The men would pay full price for the girl's drink, not realizing that it was really just tea or colored water. The girls received a small commission on the number of drinks they sold plus a weekly salary.

But the majority of western saloon regulars drank straight liquor — rye or bourbon.

Actual gunfights in the Old West were very rare, very few and far between, but when gunfights did occur, the cause for each varied. Some were simply the result of the heat of the moment, while others were longstanding feuds, or between bandits and lawmen.

How much did a beer cost in the Old West? ›

Saloons served beer for 10 cents a glass (paying that in 1870 would equal $1.77 for a glass today).

But after the Civil War, beer started showing up in Western saloons and became very popular, as well. It had as many colorful monikers as whiskey: John Barleycorn, purge, hop juice, calobogus, wobbly pop, mancation, let's mosey, laughing water, mad dog, Jesus juice, pig's ear, strike-me-dead, even heavy wet.

But there was also an active nineteenth-century market for birth control devices, including vagin*l suppositories or pessaries (which physically blocked the cervix), syringes sold with acidic solutions for douching, and antiseptic spermicides.

Fannie Porter

While all of the madams of the Wild West lived life on the edge, Fannie jumped right over it with both feet. Her legend includes being close friends with Butch Cassidy's gang, willingly providing her brothel as a hang out for cowboys on the run, and playing matchmaker for outlaws.

The American frontier was often referred to as the "wild west" because of its lawlessness and harsh environmental conditions. With limited access to medical care and less than ideal living conditions, the average lifespan was 35 years.

Restrooms or bathrooms were uncommon in the old west times. Saloon's patrons went to the wall outside to do #1 and #2, Men and women, they just did the same as their horses, no shame involved, it was the use of those times.

In most western towns, there were more saloons than churches - and they were open 24 hours per day, seven days a week. The first saloon was established at Brown's Hole, Wyoming, in 1822, to serve fur trappers.

But the Shooting Star is no run-of-the-mill watering hole. It's a liquid landmark. One hundred and forty years after its first pour in 1879, the Shooting Star stands as the longest continuously running bar west of the Mississippi — and that includes during Prohibition.

Entertainment in the Old West: theater, music, circuses, medicine shows, prizefighting and other popular amusem*nts. The Old West (often referred to as the Wild West) holds a special place in American history.

Although expenditures for food usually comprised the largest entries on ranch supply ledgers, the cost of feeding cowboys in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries appears nominal, costing only $1.32 per day or less than 4 cents per man for a meal.

What kind of whiskey did cowboys drink? ›

Some of the whiskey going west might have started out as bourbon, but somewhere along the journey to the saloon it was often mixed with additional water, grain neutral spirits, and other ingredients to expand the supply and increase profits.

Prostitutes were called “fallen women,” because they were seen as an example of what fine, upstanding women in society should never become.

2020 COWBOY UNCUT & UNFILTERED STRAIGHT BOURBON WHISKEY | 137.3 PROOF Every now and then, Garrison Brothers releases one of the most highly-coveted bourbon whiskies in America: Cowboy Bourbon.

Historical - back in the day, bars could often be dangerous places, and the mirror was put there to ensure people would be aware if someone was trying to sneak up on them.

There were so many alcoholic concoctions in the saloons of the 19th century frontier West that each customer could choose his own poison. America's love of alcohol got its start in the very beginning, and not surprisingly, trouble began right away.

Spanning a thirty-year period, from the late 1800s until the 1920s, Hell Paso is the true story of the desperate men and notorious women that made El Paso, Texas the Old West's most dangerous town.

Wild Bill Hickok

Wild Bill may hold the title of the deadliest gunslinger in the whole West. He carried his two Colt 1851 Navy revolvers with ivory grips and nickel plating, which can be seen on display at the Adams Museum in Deadwood, South Dakota.

Many town marshals and sheriffs supplemented their meager incomes by collecting bounties. Also, most bounties were for less than $100, not the thousands of dollars one hears about in the movies.

Cowboys drank coffee on a regular basis and pretty much lived on coffee. They worked late at night, switching between shifts, and needed the jolt of energy that coffee provided.

What was the proof of whiskey in the Old West? ›

A cowgirl is the female equivalent of a cowboy.

Cowboys in the United States relished similar "chuck" (also called grub or chow). Canned and dried fruit, "overland trout" (bacon), beans, fresh meat, soda biscuits, tea, and coffee. Breakfast might include eggs or salt pork. Eggs, sometimes shipped west for considerable distances, sometimes went bad.

"Vaquero" is the name for a Mexican cowboy and the likely term that evolved into the Anglo word for cowboy, "buckaroo."

Pregnancy and childbirth were a dangerous business back on the American frontier, but the methods of contraception were equally so. Since condoms were highly expensive, most women resorted to ingesting poisonous “abortifacients” that would induce a miscarriage. Needless to say, it didn't always end well.

The Shoshone and Navajo tribes used stoneseed, also known as Columbia Puccoon (Lithospermum ruderale) as an oral contraceptive, long before the pharmaceutical industry developed birth control pills.

The best way to avoid pregnancy in the Victorian, going into the Edwardian era, was abstinence. Couples avoided sexual activity because what little they had heard about contraception seemed like an impractical thing to do.

Mullein aka “cowboy toilet paper”

If the cowboys used the large velvety leaves of the mullein (Verbascum thapsus) plant while out on the range, then you can too! Mullein is a biennial plant available for use in almost every bioregion.

Paper became widely available in the 15th century, but in the Western world, modern commercially available toilet paper didn't originate until 1857, when Joseph Gayetty of New York marketed a "Medicated Paper, for the Water-Closet,” sold in packages of 500 sheets for 50 cents.

Shootings, drownings, being crushed by wagon wheels, and injuries from handling domestic animals were the common killers on the trail. Wagon accidents were the most prevalent.

Why did saloons have swinging doors? ›

The style of the doors was praised by saloon owners as they let fresh air in and smoke out while allowing a cross breeze to cold the air. They also were able to maintain some privacy by having empty doors while still enticing people to come in when they hear the laughter and music.

In the Old West, cowboys would drink whiskey, beer, sarsaparilla, or coffee, if visiting a nearby saloon. While working on the prairie, though, cowboys would simply drink water or coffee.

Yep, a lot of whiskey was consumed. There was good whiskey and there was bad. Or, as some would say, “It was all good, but some was better.” Other than church's, saloons were about the only place where men could gather and socialize.

The Gunsmoke actors actually drank beer, but the whiskey was tea or colored water.

Rye Whiskey. Most cowboy towns were far from places alcohol was made. Beer is heavy and bulky, whiskey is the most profit per unit weight. Rye was the cheapest grain and made the cheapest whiskey.

Cowboys drank coffee on a regular basis and pretty much lived on coffee. They worked late at night, switching between shifts, and needed the jolt of energy that coffee provided.

Western cowboys, drawn west by the exploding gold rush and daily herding of cattle, meant long days of working and travelling. The solution? Coffee! It both provided them with the energy they needed each day, and it was quick and easy to make while travelling or out in the fields.

Since ice had to be hauled in from frozen lakes, ice cream was a rare treat in the Old West. Ice cream didn't become a common consumer product until late in the century.

Saloons were a cheap form of entertainment. A glass of beer cost 5 cents, a shot of whiskey 25 cents (two bits) and a premium cigar another 5 cents. A visit to a soiled dove in one of the nearby “cribs” to top off the night might cost him another dollar.

Pinto beans were the choice of the cowboys, and they were even better if the cocinero had some chili peppers to add spice. Out on the trail, the chuck wagon cook soaked beans in a pot during the day. He'd set up camp and cook up a batch, but the beans would have to be eaten right away.

How strong was Cowboy whiskey? ›

2020 COWBOY UNCUT & UNFILTERED STRAIGHT BOURBON WHISKEY | 137.3 PROOF Every now and then, Garrison Brothers releases one of the most highly-coveted bourbon whiskies in America: Cowboy Bourbon.

So what were they drinking back then? Some popular whiskey nicknames from the era offer a glimpse: mountain howitzer, coffin varnish, chain-lightning, strychnine, and tangleleg—none of which sound very appetizing. Cowboys never had a reputation for being very sophisticated connoisseurs.

But after the Civil War, beer started showing up in Western saloons and became very popular, as well. It had as many colorful monikers as whiskey: John Barleycorn, purge, hop juice, calobogus, wobbly pop, mancation, let's mosey, laughing water, mad dog, Jesus juice, pig's ear, strike-me-dead, even heavy wet.

Cowboy coffee is essentially French press coffee without a filter. Typically, this drink is made over an open flame, out on the trail, or at a campsite, where a coffee maker (or electricity for that matter) isn't readily available.

The simple ingredients included raw alcohol, sugar burnt, and a little pouch chewing tobacco. Whiskey with terrible names like “Coffin Varnish,” “Tarantula Juice,” “Red Eye,” and others was common among the early saloons. Later the word “Firewater” would be used to describe Whiskey.