Saloon Keepers Have No Sense of Humor

Take a sod hut or a tent with dirt floors, add old barrels with 2 x 12’s laying on top, perhaps even include a few chickens running around on the inside, t’would be a quick description of many old west saloons. The whiskey found in such places was often made out of anything that would ferment and have a bit to it, hence that names ‘Tarantua juice, fire water, coffin varnish. These saloons were fair game for cowboys on a Saturday night. Being short of entertainers, cowboys often found themselves in the spotlight. We are left to our imaginations to conjure up scenes mixing bad whiskey, guns, half-wild horses and men with reckless abandon.

Ever pondered what it took to run a saloon out west…back in the day? Managing a business that catered to hellions, ruffians and rogues. Sure there were the homesteaders, and the honest fortune seekers, however, study history and you’ll find that a large part of the citizenry that came out west were running from something and were of less that reputable character. Those that ran these ‘watering holes’, frequented by low society, had to be capable, no nonsense men with a wary eye and a nose for trouble.