Brunswick bars MT - Blue Revelationbluerevelation.com/Brunswick/Brunswick_files/Brunswick bars MT.pdf · the heart of Paradise Valley. ... Today’s Tenth Avenue South business strip

Palace Bar – Havre MT

Patrons of the Palace Bar in Havre can’t help but notice the back bar is something special. Bar lore says the 111-year-old back bar traveled to Montana on a river boat, but the railroad is a more likely bet, allows owner Jupe Compton. Made in St. Louis, Mo., the back bar is ornately carved, with towering columns. One cabinet has stained-glass flowers. The back bar started out in Chinook, until Prohibition struck and closed down the place. In 1933, the Weyh Bros. brought the back bar to Havre and the Palace Bar. Compton bought the bar, a Havre institution on First Street, in 1974 from his dad, Ward, who had owned it since 1959. He’s not sure

how long it’s been open, though. Ward Compton believed the bar dated from 1883 and had postcards printed to that effect, calling it the oldest known back bar in Montana. Later, his son found a brass name plate dating the bar to 1903. The 100-year-old Club Cigar in Great Falls has a similar back bar, also made by the Brunswick, Balke, Collender Co. “There aren’t many left,” Compton said. “Some were lost to fire. Some got hauled to the

dump. I’m not sure ours is the oldest, but it’s a nice old piece of furniture. The historic back bar is “an awful lot of work,” Compton tells people. “Really, it requires dusting about every six months, and once in a great while, we put Murphy’s Oil on it.” Sometimes tourist say, “It would be nice if that old bar could talk.” “If it could talk, I would have had to burn the old thing down myself,” Compton said.

From the postcard of the bar: The bar, owned by Jupe Compton, features quite a bit of interesting history. Manufactured in St. Louis in 1883, it came to the area on a river boat and was used in Chinook before Prohibition turned the state "dry". In 1933 it

was brought to Havre by the Weyh Bros. and placed in the Palace Bar. As far as is known, it is the oldest back bar in Montana that is still in its original state. It retains the original finish, columns, and ornate carvings. Towering to the ceiling, it features a door in one cabinet area, done in the style of a stained glass window

Pep’s Bar - Big Sandy MT

It had an original “New Brunswick” bar-back which was transported up the Missouri River in 1860, then 50 miles overland to Big Sandy. The lady running the place bought the bar several years ago, and then sold ½ of the metal ceiling tiles to some tourist from California. Made enough money to pay for the bar. Notice the mahogany bar and white maple scrollwork. 2005

2010 – Peps had been for sale for ages and was just a shadow of its former self, an old fashioned Montana bar. Josh Danreuther bought it in 2008. Over the years It had been called Southern Comfort and The New Deal Beer Parlor as well as Peps. There are many mounted heads, including a buffalo and the strangest looking moose of all moose. The back bar, a Brunswick which he figured was made in St Louis came up the Missouri on a steamboat. It had been in there for a long long time. There are supposed to be ghosts in the old bar.

Old Saloon - Emigrant, MT

The Old Saloon and Livery Stable Steak House is 109 years old. Located 20 miles from the north entrance to Yellowstone Park, about 1/2 mile to the Yellowstone River in the heart of Paradise Valley. Brunswick Front & Back bar was built in 1902. Saloon for Sale $400,000

Nickels Bar - Helena MT

1880's back bar came to Montana on a Riverboat landing at Forth Benton and then taken by wagon to a bar in Belt, Montana which is east of Great Falls. All hand carved and now stocked with your favorite liquor.

Road Kill Bar & Café - McLeod MT

The Road Kill Bar & Café is something of a community center for the people of the Boulder Valley and cats and dogs roam the bar.

Since Will and Ginger Grundhauser purchased the Road Kill less than two years ago, when asked about the transition. They got a big kick out of that. The transition was pretty doggone easy, what with the patrons being quick to inform the Grundhausers of the way things work. “From your grille to ours,” the Road Kill motto, must remain, of course. So, too, the photograph of a visiting Brooke Shields and the tiny turquoise sink in the ladies room is practically sacrosanct.

Dancing on the bar is required, the regulars assured them, and eight ball must be played according to McLeod rules. Said rules are posted over the pool table and, while rules one and two are the fairly common, number three states that should the cue ball or cue stick hit the floor in the course of a game you must provide money for the jukebox.

Some Road Kill traditions, however, cut deeper than the quirky or droll. The moose rack that hangs between the bar and dining room will hang there until the bar turns to dust. David Martin, son of Road Kill founders, Cliff and Florence Martin, shot that moose. David was killed in Vietnam….Cliff and Florence established the Road Kill just after World War 2, but moved it in the mid-fifties from the town of McLeod to its present location, a quarter mile down the road.

Stoneville Saloon - Alzada, MT

Diane Turko's job is to get people driving by to stop here in Alzada, population 37. "I've got 13 seconds to catch their attention," says Turko, owner of the Stoneville Saloon (motto: "Cheap drinks - lousy food"). For 10 days, Turko says she makes as much money as she does the rest of the year combined. "It's the only time of the year

I have employees," Turko says. The rest of the year she opens and closes the Stoneville Saloon by herself. Originally from Huntington Beach, Calif., Turko was part of two couples who motored north on their bikes for the 1990 Sturgis rally. "One of the idiots said, 'Wouldn't it be cool to live up here?' " Turko says, and the four bought the Alzada Bar, renamed it, and opened on April Fool's Day 1992. The other couple gave up on the Stoneville Saloon and Alzada after a year and a half, "and my old man died in February 2001," Turko says. "Now it's just me." "I don't work hard," she says. "But I put in a lot of hours." The saloon is her living room, she says, and she spends her days watching television and drawing pictures when the bar is empty. 

"December, January, February, March and April, I really don't even need to be here," she says. "But it has its times. Tourists stop in in the summer and the rally is a killer time."

The Club Cigar - Great Falls MT

In “The Club Cigar” 208 Central Ave. Great Falls there is a “Del Monte” model back bar. The Club Cigar, was run for 40 years by the legendary Lena Ford, who saw it through rowdy cowboy and Indian days and managed a house of prostitution on the side. She’d take ranchers’ money and dole it out until it was all gone, spent in her place. The bar has been at this location since 1931. But it didn’t look anything like it does now until Tovson

bought it in 1978 and remodeled into gentility what had been more or less a rough-and-tumble barroom. The largest item in the Club Cigar is the 14-by-30-foot Brunswick mirrored mahogany back bar. It is the largest of the Brunswick back bars in Great Falls and is highlighted in this setting by the wood wall wainscoting and other woods throughout the place in furniture, ceiling, divider and other uses. The stained glass windows, the ancient orangeade machine and some of the other older touches in decor were rescued from a heap in the basement where they had accumulated over the years.  

City Bar & Casino - Great Falls

Shortly after the start of Prohibition in 1917, founder Charlie Watson was a partner in a cigars, confectionery and billiards enterprise downtown. Right at the end of Prohibition in 1933, even though it was the depth of the Great Depression, he risked buying the first of his own bars, the Montana Bar, just down the avenue from this one. He built his next venture, the City Bar, in 1939, the same year World War II broke out. Some people told Charlie his new bar would go broke because it was

too far out of the core business district. Today’s Tenth Avenue South business strip was nothing more than sand hills back then. The City Bar’s huge Brunswick back bar, a pre-Prohibition piece, was resurrected by Charlie from under an ash heap in the basement of the former Great Falls Hotel downtown. The ornate back-bar is a genuine Brunswick which came up the Missouri on a steamboat in the l800s.  

As Charlie's son Bill Watson tells the story, the new bar was first called The Last Chance Saloon but soon after it opened, a decision was made to change the name. They held a contest and the lucky winner got $25. And the City Bar got lots of publicity in the bargain. Charlie lived just long enough to see the City Bar really take off; tragically, he died in l943 of a heart attack at the age of 57. From that point on, till l956, Annie Watson ran the tavern with her nephew, a thumb-less Irish bartender named Alex McCune. When Bill Watson graduated from college in l956, he took over the operation with his brother Bob. In the years since Charlie's passing the place had turned rough---it was too much for Annie to handle. So Bill and Bob laid down the law: no more rowdy behavior. They kept a sawed-off pool cue behind the bar to back up their word. By 1990, the bar business had gone a bit flat---new attitudes about drinking and stiffer laws necessitated a change in direction. This time it was Brad's turn to make a bold move. Food had always been a part of the City Bar's service, but only on a small scale.Now they decided to take it to the next level by starting a full kitchen.

The Mint Saloon – Great Falls MT

The back bar of Great Falls' "The Mint" Saloon, which was once frequented by Charles M. Russell.

Sid Willis, proprietor of the Mint Saloon in Great Falls (one of Russell's favorite bars), allowed Russell to drink there in exchange for paintings, and by the time of Russell's death had amassed a collection of 90 oil paintings, watercolors, drawings, models, wax sculptures, and ephemera. In 1948, Willis put his bar and collection up for sale. A "Charles Russell Memorial Committee" unsuccessfully

attempted to raise the purchase price to keep the "Mint Collection" in Montana. Texas newspaper publisher Amon G. Carter purchased the collection for $200,000 in 1952 and established the Amon Carter Museum to house it.

In 2013 The CMR Museum held the “I Beat You to It”: Charles Russell at the Mint, a special exhibition organized to honor the museum’s 60th anniversary this year. The exhibition brings back to Montana six major Russell oil paintings, as well as watercolors, sketches, and memorabilia from Sid Willis’s famous Mint saloon collection. Highlights of the special exhibition are The Hold Up (1899), Russell’s masterpiece from the late 1890s, and Buffalo Hunt No. 26 (1899), one of the artist’s most famous buffalo hunt scenes and a favorite painting from the Mint Collection.

Sid A. Willis was born at Bentonville, Arkansas on June 5th, 1867. At the age of 18 he came out West, eventually going to work for the N Bar N Ranch near Miles City, Montana in 1888. In 1890 he moved to Glasgow and worked in the meat market business. Four years later, Willis became the first elected Sheriff of Valley (Glasgow) County and served until 1896. In 1897, Willis went into the hotel business, opening the Shelton Hotel at Havre and a year later moved to Great Falls. He briefly worked at the Anaconda smelter at Black Eagle before opening the Maverick Bar. In 1908, Willis sold his interest

in the Maverick and went in as a partner in the Mint Saloon. He worked for years to establish what is now the C.M. Russell Gallery and Museum in Great Falls and was a long time fixture behind the bar with a large black cigar clenched in his teeth, dispensing advice. Willis sold the Mint in 1945.

Years ago, across the avenue from where this statue stands today, you could have stopped in to The Mint saloon. It was a favorite hangout of Charlie Russell's and the back bar from that saloon is displayed at the Russell Museum in Great Falls. The former location of The Mint is now the Tap House Grill and Lounge and the adjoining Quality Inn.

The Hold Up painted by Russell in 1899 was bought by a private collector for $5,167,000. In 2008.

Montana Hotel Saloon - Anaconda MT

The saloon inside the popular Montana Hotel in Anaconda, Montana was elegantly adorned. Like other saloons of the period, it featured a long wooden bar with a foot rail, but, unlike many others of the time, this one included bar stools, and no spittoons can be seen on the floor. Behind the bar, three arched mirrors are framed by ornate pedestals and carvings and the space is filled with bottles, glassware, and a cash register.

In 1954, the building was purchased by Edison and Bell, Inc. of Kalispell, Montana. The firm operated the hotel until 1959 at which time, plans for demolition were considered.  The

Citizens of Anaconda formed the Montana Hotel Corporation and purchased the structure, renaming it the Marcus Daly Hotel. A restoration project was undertaken in 1964 but in 1975, heavy financial burdens and potential bankruptcy faced the Montana Hotel Corporation. The following year, the building was sold to a local developer and a year later, it stood abandoned. Then, an aggressive program of structural renovation was begun, including the removal of the hotel's two upper stories.

Marcus Daly's beloved race horse, Tammany, was immortalized in the Montana Hotel Bar via an inlaid wooden portrait gracing the barroom floor. No one was allowed to walk on this part of the floor.

Midway Bar - Anaconda MT

The Midway Bar, Anaconda, recently celebrated its 130th birthday. “We haven’t been able to determine exactly when it opened, but a 1920 edition of the Anaconda Standard said it was 1883,” said Rick Ivankovich, representing the fourth generation of Ivankoviches to operate the bar. Michael Ivancovich, who spelled his name with a “c” when he immigrated to the United States from Yugoslavia in 1869, made his way to Anaconda in 1879. In 1883 he opened a wine and confectionary business, common in the West in that era, at 312 E. Commercial Ave. Michael sent for his nephew Dan, who spelled his

name with a “k,” in 1910 to help him with the business. Dan decided to move the liquor business to a new building at 314 E. Commercial, and he called it the Midway Bar. He purchased a back bar from the Brunswick-Blake-Collender Co. The ornate bar and counter cost $159, but an inch-and-a-half thick mirror was $214.50. The two items were shipped to Fort Benton via riverboat and then by horse-drawn freight wagon to Anaconda.

An Urban Renewal project targeted the Midway building for demolition. Dan salvaged the back bar, the cash register and an ornate clock before the building was torn down. He moved the bar back to the original 312 E. Commercial location, so the Midway Bar could continue to operate. Rick, who is Dan’s grandson, began working in the family business as a youngster, running errands, cleaning, “you name it,” he said. Rick purchased the Midway in 1993.

Windbag Saloon Helena MT

Dorothy Josephine Baker (c. 1916 – May 14, 1973), also known as Big Dorothy, was and American madam in Helena, Montana in the mid-20th century. She ran a brothel officially known as "Dorothy's Rooms" on Last Chance Gulch in Helena from the mid-1950s until it was shut down in a police raid in 1973. Baker was the last in a long line of Helena madams. While Helena had a thriving red light district in the late 1800s, most brothels in Helena's red light district were shut down following World War I. The prostitution business then moved downtown, with a madam named Pearl Maxwell opening a brothel in that area by 1918. The building that came to house Dorothy's, called

the St. Louis Block, was built in 1882. It originally was a dry goods store, and over the years had business tenants that included bars, a Vaudeville theater, bowling alley, bootery, and bank. The location also was briefly a furniture store. The upstairs was first opened as a bordello by Ida Levy in 1927 during Prohibition, naming it "Ida's Rooms," using a common euphemism to mask the true nature of the business. Levy also owned the Silver Dollar Bar downstairs. Baker took over the brothel business about 1955 from Levy. While Baker's heirs had to sell the building because the urban renewal construction downtown had blocked the ground floor entrance, forcing out a retail tenant, the bar reopened in 1976 as "Big Dorothy's Saloon," and the remainder of the building reopened with retail businesses soon after. Today, the main floor is occupied by two businesses, a bar and restaurant known as the "Windbag Saloon and Grill", and the adjacent "Ghost Art Gallery"

New Atlas Bar - Columbus MT

Own a piece of Montana history dating back to the early 1900's and is one of Montana's most famous local establishments the "New Atlas Bar". The sale of this property includes a full liquor license, gaming license, all equipment including 2 Brunswick back bars and business, all inventory at time of purchase, taxidermy, antiques, and office equipment. $480,000 

Billings architect Curtis Oehme designed the Atlas Block, constructed in 1915-16 of locally quarried sandstone. Rusticated pilasters project above the roofline, and a checkerboard patterned frieze enlivens the cornice.  On March 27, 1916, Mike Jacobs and Tom Mulvihill held a grand opening for the Atlas Bar, which occupied the west half of the building. Divided into several “departments,” the Atlas offered a smoking room and cigar stand; a billiards parlor, decorated with the bar’s famous animal mounts; a saloon; a three-lane bowling alley; and a sandwich shop. A separate “ladies entrance” opened to a “ladies sitting room.” Boasting one of the best preserved bar interiors in Montana, the Atlas retains its pressed metal ceilings, oak floors, and a Brunswick-Balke-Collender

mahogany front and back bar, adorned with Corinthian capitals and three half arches

decorated with lion heads. A second Brunswick back bar on the opposite wall is now used only for decoration. Owners sold soft drinks, ice cream, cigars, and sporting goods during Prohibition, reopening the bar after its repeal in 1933. Members of the Mulvihill family continued to operate the Atlas until 1997

The New Atlas Bar in Columbus, Montana has been servin’ up a brewsky or two for almost one hundred years. Built in 1906, this

old saloon doesn’t advertise itself as historic or museum-like, in fact it doesn’t advertise at all. It just "hangs out” like it always has, much like the 60 plus animal mounts adorning the walls of this old tavern. Catering mostly to the locals around Columbus, you’ll usually find just two or three people at the long bar, including Mel Gibson, on at least one occasion, who owns a nearby ranch. 

Two mammoth bars stand beneath the pressed tin ceiling, one of which was transported from a defunct saloon in Butte, Montana. Amongst the other original furnishings, you will also see a smattering of small stuffed creatures hanging or displayed in the old tavern, including a two-headed calf in a glass case.

The New Atlas Bar has been featured in Outdoor Life, filmed for a pilot of “Bars Across America,” and was recently added to the National Register of Historic Places. But for the clientele who frequent the bar on Pike Avenue in Columbus, it’s always been a place where you can cut loose and be yourself. Ronnie Rothwell, a Stillwater Mine employee, said he’s seen everything from motorcycles to horses in the New Atlas. A sign on the door says dogs are not allowed, but Rothwell points out that it doesn’t say anything about horses. When Columbus business owners Linda and Hank Davis were killed in a motorcycle accident a few years back, the locals had a motorcycle parade and one of the bikers did a burnout on the hardwood floor in the New Atlas. You can still see the dark tracks embedded in the floor, a standing memorial to the Davises.

The New Atlas, which turns 100 years old in 2016, is probably the most well-known bar in Montana, historian Jon Axline said in 2011. Tourists flock to the bar to see the 60-some mounted animals that fill the walls and some of the floor space. Owner Lars Swanson said that in addition to the bar’s signature collection of 15 elk mounts is the two-headed calf, which legend has it lived three weeks back in 1961. “My best friend’s mom said she bottle-fed the calf,” Swanson said. “She had to use two bottles at once because if she didn’t, the milk would pour out the other head.”

The original name of the bar was the Headquarters Bar, when it opened in the 1880s with owners Tom Mulvehill and J.O. Miller. Mulvehill’s son, T.P., eventually took

ownership, and the bar was still owned by Mulvehill’s descendents when Swanson bought it. The bar has served as a community gathering point more than once since Swanson took ownership. He was selling the bar for $700,000 in 2013.

Hank Loranger's Saloon 1909 Chester, Montana

The town of Chester is located on Hwy 2 halfway between Havre to the east and Shelby to the west.

One hundred year old oak back bar salvaged from a tavern in Geraldine, Montana (population around 200) and stored in a barn before found by family friends and brought here – Portland Oregon Caldera Public house

The Historic Butte Post Building - Zeppies Bar, Butte Montana

This corner landmark is part of Butte’s National Historic Landmark District. Architect Herman Kemma, who began his Butte practice in 1898, designed this attractive mining-era landmark at the end of his productive career. The two-story building of brick and concrete, constructed in 1922 for $45,000, features large arched ground-floor windows and a series of brick pilasters in the upper floor. One of Butte’s long-time newspapers The Butte Daily Post moved its printing operation into this building in 1923, without missing a single issue, and continued publication in the building until 1950.

The Pub’s tin ceiling and hard wood floors are original. The front and back bar were formerly located at the now-closed Montana Bar on Butte’s East Park Street. The Victorian-design front bar is dated 1895, and the back bar is dated 1909, and features tiger mahogany, mother of pearl with ebony and ivory inlays.

Livingston Bar and Grille, Livingston MT

The building which today houses the restaurant, was built circa 1890 as three separate structures. The two structures facing Park Street were stores, and behind them was a carriage house. You can still see the brick arches in the bar through which the horse drawn carriages entered and left. As the decades passed, a number of different businesses occupied the premises causing the building to be reconfigured as needed.

For many years this corner was a bar and dance hall known as “The

Ten and a Half.” In about 1978 it was bought, refurbished and converted into a restaurant called the NP Connection. Not long thereafter, it was sold and renamed Livingston Bar & Grille. The restaurant was purchased in 1995 by the Legendary Painter Russell Chatham and operated under his guidance until 2008. The Executive Chef/Operator (Jonathan Romans) is a 3rd generation Livingston native.

The Mint Bar and Grill - Livingston MT

It is for sale for $729,000 (2015). The building was built in 1885.

Livingston’s Northern Pacific rail hub closed decades ago, but the bar continues to thrive. During the height of the railroad era, around the mid 20th century, the Mint was rumored to have had more cash on hand than most local banks.

Current owner (2012) Merlin Moss bought The Mint Bar in Livingston in 2008 and overhauled the historic building. A 120-year-old Brunswick back bar is the focal point of the main room. The antique showpiece draws admiring remarks and curious questions from visitors. The renovation involved saving

historic elements where possible, like portions of the original metal ceiling tiles, while adding up-to-date touches that don’t look out of place.The Mint Bar in Livingston is just one of many “Mints.” Many Western towns have a bar called the Mint, because it was a common name used to attract railroad workers and others who didn’t do regular business with a bank. Livingston’s railroad history is on full display in The Mint, where photos from the Doris Whithorn collection show many aspects of town life through the years.

It was the railroad that brought early Yellowstone tourists to Livingston, where they stayed in the building that now houses the Mint Bar in Livingston, then known as the Yellowstone Block Hotel. Well-heeled easterners would travel by train to embark on a grand tour of Yellowstone National Park.By the prohibition era, the building had been bought by John, William and Orlando Hefferlin, brothers who set up a mercantile business on the ground floor. They also ran a brisk business in

bootleg liquor, earning enough regular drinkers to convince two railroad conductors to retire and buy the business, converting it to a bar when prohibition ended. The Mint was issued the first liquor license in the state after prohibition was repealed. Beneath the bar is a sprawling basement that still holds historic mementos and other treasures from the bar’s early days. Many items have been restored and returned to the public portions of the building. A massive bank vault door was hauled upstairs and installed on the ground floor. The building’s boiler is a hulking, iron beast with a 100-year warranty, and the original manufacturer is still in business. Concrete walls in the basement are up to six feet thick, and underground tunnels run beneath the streets of downtown Livingston, Stein said, connecting to other historic businesses via unseen passages. There is speculation that portions of the tunnels and basements may have been used as opium dens in the town’s early days, Stein said. Graffiti from as far back as 1903 is still visible on The Mint’s basement walls.

The theater also hosts a wide range of movies, from classics to cult comedies to documentaries and other works by local filmmakers. The Livingston Mint was known for its poker games, having as many as 15 tables going at one time, with some of the games lasting days. The bar enjoys a little Hollywood flash, having been featured in the 1987 movie Amazing Grace and Chuck and the 1992 film A River Runs Through It.

Pioneer Bar, Virginia City, MT

Things don’t look like they've changed too much in the last 100 years another Brunswick-Balke-Collender Bar; it did have both the labels showing it was an original Brunswick-Balke-Collender Bar.

Gold dust was the common currency when George Higgins built this sturdy “fire-proof stone” business block circa 1866. F. R. Merk leased the new building for his mercantile, advertising fancy and staple groceries, liquors, Queensware, woodenware household implements, and a tin shop with “prices to suit the times.” Harrington, Baker & Company sold boots and shoes here

during the 1870s, and E. L. Smith located his department store on these premises in the late 1880s. At the start of Prohibition in 1918, this was the Little Club Saloon. Like other such businesses, the club switched to advertising soft drinks until saloons were again legal in 1933. The present Pioneer Bar has served as a popular watering hole and gathering place since 1947. Although its ground-floor window openings were “frontierized” in the 1960s with rough boards and smaller panes, the impressive stone façade of this gold rush era landmark has changed little since the 1860s.

Last winter, an employee of the Pioneer Bar received an unusual request. "Oh, I don't think I'll ever forget it. They were doing an animal shoot in Nevada City and the photographer had been in here several times and he really liked it and he thought he should get a wolf onto the bar to take a picture," said Rozy, an employee of the saloon. The photographer got what he wanted and Animals of Montana brought in a wolf for the photo shoot. The bar was closed for a short time while the animal walked up and down the bar and the photographer snapped his shots. But Animals Of Montana owner Troy Hyde did not have the necessary permits for the shoot and he was charged with a misdemeanor. (news article 2015)

Before landing in the Pioneer bar in Virginia City the ornate back bar resided in Michael Healys Radio Bar at 219 N St in Butte. After Prohibition Healy became a bootlegger and the back bar which arrived in Montana at Fort Benton on a steamboat was sold to the Pioneer bar for $1.

Early in the 1900’s Michael Healy arrived from Ireland in Butte. He owned several liquor establishments in Southwestern Montana. When prohibition went into effect, he used the establishments to sell tobacco, coffee, and candy in the front of the house while successfully running speakeasy behind closed walls. He was well known as a moon shining bootlegger but well positioned politically with his circle of friends including law enforcement, attorney’s, and judges. Upon retirement he sold his beautiful back bar from his most famous establishment “Radio Bar” as a gesture to a friend for $1. This oak masterpiece made its way up the Missouri River on steam boat to Fort Benton, was moved by horse and cart to Butte and can be seen today in use at the historic Pioneer Bar in Virginia City, MT. (Photo of Healey not the back bar)

The Crystal. Bozeman MT

The Crystal Bar is the oldest bar in all of Bozeman and has operated out of the same downtown storefront and had the same name since at least 1933. That’s the same year prohibition ended and the earliest date found on an old liquor license in the bar. Hollis Harrison was the owner – he sold to Johnny Walker and he sold to “The Grunch” (Doug Sandiland) in 1985; he passed away in 2010 and now the bar was for sale again in 2013. Doug died trying to get some guns and maps appraised at the public television show Antiques Roadshow in Billings. He collapsed and died of heart failure.

The building wasn’t made to be a bar. In the late 1800s, it was a slaughterhouse. The building's exterior has had the same coat of paint since the 1920's when the building was a butcher shop. Evidence of the butcher business is still evident today - if you look up at the ceiling you will see the bolts that used to hold the butcher rails. The back bar was built in the 30’s as an original part of the bar.

“Buford the Bull” who was ridden by Alex Karras in the movie “Blazing Saddles” was in the bar (Yes, he was alive at the time).

Bannack, MT - Skinners Saloon

This building, originally built on Yankee Flats was moved to Bannack in 1863. Owned by Cyrus Skinner, a known outlaw and suspected gang member of the Innocents Gang (Henry Plummers Gang), the saloon quickly became one of the wildest places in town. During its heydays, there were a number of shootouts in the saloon, including one where a bullet went astray, punched through the wall, and killed a woman across the street. On another occasion, two gamblers in a dispute, drew their guns and blasted rounds at each other. Though neither gambler was killed, a bullet

killed a drunk man who was passed out on the floor. The owner, Cyrus Skinner, was later hanged as a road agent. 

Hole in the Wall Miles City MT

The Hole in the wall (was the Stockman bar) is connected with the 600 Cafe. They have an amazing bar and back bar that you can just imagine coming in on a steam boat from St. Louis in the 1800's. 

Met Cafe - Miles City MT

The 600 has been in the same place since 1947. The Stockman Bar is now the Hole in the Wall. The Miles Howard Hotel, Met Cafe and Golden Spur burned in the 80's. The Montana Bar is where the Montana has been since 1913 (well, 1908 but the current building dates from 1913). U.S. Garden restaurant building is still there. The Bison is, well, the Bison. The Wibaux building burned in 1964, Log Cabin Cafe down to the Texas Club taken down by the bank for expansion.  

Montana Bar - Miles City MT

The Montana shaped neon sign represents a century-old experience to those who enter. A look into the right-front window shows the now extinct Audubon Big Horn Sheep. At the outside entrance lies the name of ‘James Kenney’ in tile, who bought and moved his bar here in 1908. Beyond the entrance are partitions of glass, one of which bears a bullet hole caused by a gentleman whose gun went off accidently, while checking at the door. Beyond that is the beautiful original tile floor, and to the right is the authentic stand-up bar, which came by steamboat in 1912. Bar stools have been added in these modern times. To the left/center hang the fans suspended from the original

embossed tin ceilings. The men’s room still has the original marble urinal, still in use today. A 1914 double-drawer National Cash Register sits on the back bar.

Owner Blake Mollman, who took over last year after seven years tending bar at the Montana Bar, said he's entertained to see people step into the bar for the first time. "They stare at the back bar and say, 'Gorgeous!'" he said. The ice box is still in place (but now kept cool with electricity instead of blocks of ice cut from the river). One of the most notable mounts is the lead steer from the last cattle drive from Texas to Miles City, a re-enactment in 1995, Mollman said. Open since 1908, the Montana Bar is on the National Register of Historic Places. The building has an even longer history, dating to 1893. The Montana Bar survived a near miss. In 1985, a fire burned an adjacent building and damaged their mutual wall. The building sat condemned until locals stepped in to save it. The burned building is now a veterans park.

The Kenney Block in which the bar stands started as a brick saloon, but in the early 1900s was a well-regarded saddlery, the only saddlers between Billings and Dickinson, N.D. James Kenney, an Englishman who was part

owner of a coal mine nearby, changed the one-story saloon into a two-story block in Renaissance Revival style in 1913. Miles City was booming at the time, with bumper crops, a growing population and a two railroads converging in the city.

5 Mile Bar, Casino and Grille - Butte, MT

The place had 2 separate bar areas, the front being the centerpiece with a large 1895 Brunswick back bar. The highway out of Butte to the east went south, along what is now Harrison Avenue and ultimately over Pipestone Pass to Whitehall. The route was marked by inns – Mile Houses – at least at 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, and 18 miles from the heart of uptown Butte, the last one about five miles east of the Continental

Divide. The two most famous survivors are the Nine Mile, in Thompson Park, and the Five Mile, at 5100 Harrison. An inn, with a café and saloon, was probably at this location by the late 1880s and certainly by the early 1890s. The property was owned in the mid-1890s by ticket broker, cigar wholesaler, and later real estate tycoon Adolph Pincus. The original hostelry burned to the ground November 13, 1902 (a kitchen fire). Frank Cash (1858-1931) was an Austrian immigrant who came to the U.S. about 1886 and was in Butte by 1891, and after a short stint as a miner he began to work as a saloonkeeper. About 1905 Frank Cash moved out Harrison Avenue to a house and saloon across from the present Five Mile House, which was built probably by 1904 or 1905. In 1906, family lore says the flip of a silver dollar allowed him to buy the Five Mile (if it had gone the other way, the owner of the Five Mile would have bought him out), and the family had many decades of connection to the place thereafter. In addition to managing the Five Mile House, Frank was the regional distributor for the Wurlitzer Music Company in Butte. Frank left Butte when prohibition started in 1919 after which his daughter Louise Kall managed the Five Mile and her daughter (Louise) and granddaughter (Donna Anderson) ran the place well into the 2000s.

2011 - Rick and Beverley Tuxill want to restore the reputation of a longstanding Butte watering hole to the friendly, neighborhood bar it once was. The Tuxills took over operations at the Five Mile Bar on Nov. 30, 2010, and believe things are starting to turn around. “We’re trying to fix the former reputation of this bar and make it a more comfortable, homey place where people could come and feel welcome,” Beverley Tuxill said. The couple, who moved to Butte from Helena, have been working for the past year to give the bar a friendlier environment. Rick Tuxill said they have brought in new clientele and pushed out the wilder elements that gave the bar a bad name in past years. Rick Tuxill plans to remove boards that are blocking the windows on the front of his business at 5100 Harrison Ave. to let in more light. He also found an old ticket window in front of the building that had been covered and converted to a coat closet. He plans to restore that old window to its original look.

1974 picture

An old story said the Five mile Inn still contained two “new old stock” Wurlitzer Automatic Harps, two Wurlitzer DX orchestrions and many parts and music rolls in the 1950s. Charlie Bovey tried to buy them but the owner thought the offer was too low, so Ozzie Wurdeman later went there to buy them as Charlie’s agent. In the 1980s, the late George Baker was able to purchase the remaining Wurlitzer parts and music rolls from the Five Mile Inn.

Brewery Saloon - Kalispell MT

The Brewery Saloon/The Palm was constructed by Charles Lindlahr as a saloon associated with the Kalispell Malting & Brewing Company. The Brewery Saloon started as a one-story, 25’x 60’ brick structure built in the spring of 1892. When opened, the Inter Lake described it as “one of the neatest and best furnished bar rooms in the state,” with new oak furniture purchased from Brunswick & Balk Collender, manufacturer of bar fixtures. The saloon opened on June 30, 1892, before the brewery was constructed. The bar itself was oak with a mahogany bar top, and the saloon featured French mirrors and brass trimmings. An 1894 advertisement for the Brewery Saloon mentioned “Choice Wines, Liquor and Cigars, Kalispell draft beer on tap at 5 cents per glass. Free lunch served at the bar.” That same year the Lindlahr brothers installed two lights that were “more brilliant than day,“ and by 1895 the saloon was connected to the brewery by telephone.

The saloon was notably one of the first brick buildings along Main Street. The windows on the first floor (now filled in with brick) reveal how the building was once free-standing. In 1900, Charles Lindlahr added the soon-

to-be notorious second floor, which was built to provide the men-only Kalispell Club with rooms for reception, reading and billiards. Charles later added card rooms, bathrooms and Kalispell’s first bowling alley. “Gentlemen” pursued more bawdy endeavors at the Brewery Saloon an anchor of Kalispell’s early red-light district. In 1919, the first of a few government interventions took place when ownership was adjusted by court order. James Jorgenson and Albert Dreesen became the owners and renamed the establishment “The Palm.” During Prohibition, The Palm sold fishing gear, smoking supplies, candy and fountain drinks to stay afloat (and veil the illegal purveying of libations). After Prohibition, the building continued its rather tumultuous history. Even as recently as the 1970s, police raids snagged illegal gambling operations.

The building also endured what many historical preservationists would shun as a “typical, modern ‘70s remodel.” Fortunately, the original Victorian-era façade was meticulously restored in 2001. Consequently, the building looks much like it did in 1904 – some 110 years ago. It currently houses an antique store.

Polson MT

Steve Lozar's museum of Montana brewing history is located above the screen printing and embroidery shop, Total Screen Design: “Montana’s premiere source for advertising apparel since 1967. Lozar, who also teaches anthropology at Salish-Kootenai College and serves on the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Council, comes by his interest in Montana breweries naturally.

His great-grandfather Joseph Lozar, a Slovenian immigrant, opened a saloon in East Helena in the 1800s (and lost it in a card game, only to gain it back when the new owner failed to pay his taxes). The bar, mostly intact, and back bar, all but demolished, were recovered by Lozar from the rubble after the building was torn down, and painstakingly restored by his cousin, Greg Funke.

They're part of the museum, as are countless oddities.

Kalispell MT - Era Ends At The Old Pine Grove Bar 1971

The sign on the mirror says it all, the wake attracted many people in the Flathead paying their last respects to a time-honored institution which has served well the segment of the population The Pine Grove back bar is being offered for sale as an antique. It was brought up the Missouri River well over a century ago, was used in old Virginia City, served at Poison for a time, then was brought up the lake to Demersville and subsequently moved into Kalispell more than 75 years ago. The building itself almost certainly is one of the oldest in Kalispell. It's been at the present location since 1894 when it was moved in from Demersville and nobody knows for sure when it was built or how long it was there. If the walls could have spoken on closing day they would have recounted many a wild tale about girls, gambling and garrulous joshing by goodtime Charlies. They would also tell about some of the colorful characters of bygone years with such names as Cock-Eyed Jack, Jimmy the Nibbler and Chinaman Charlie. When the bar first opened in 1894 it was called the Arcade and the original owners were James A. Shelton and Nellie Phillips Haag. The Arcade was purchased in 1922 by John Churmage better known as Cock-Eyed Jack and it was then the name of the place was changed to Pine Grove Bar. Records reveal that Churmage operated the Pine Grove until 1940 when he sold the business to C. H. Coatis and Harry West. In 1942 they sold it to Archie McGlenn and the establishment has been owned by the McGlenn family since that time. What will happen to the back bar? When the Pine Grove closed Gene McGlenn gave it to his wife. She is having it appraised and an antique dealer in Spokane said if it belonged to her the price tag on it would be $10,000. So that's where the price is set now on the antique bar believed built in about 1820 and Mrs. McGlenn is in the market to sell.

More to the story – in the Central School Museum you’ll find a part of Demersville that made the trip to Kalispell. It’s a well-traveled bar and back bar built – of mahogany, burl wood and maple – in Toledo, Ohio, in 1885. It was shipped via steamboat to Fort Benton, transported by horse-drawn wagons to a saloon in Virginia City, later sold to a Demersville bar, where it arrived on another steamboat. In 1894 it joined the exodus to Kalispell, where it served in the Pine Grove Bar until 1971, moving upstairs into a speakeasy during the Prohibition years. Flathead Travel eventually housed the old back bar from the Pine Grove Hotel, as part of the décor. On July 29, 1998, a crane hoisted it into the second story of the museum.

Norms News Kalispell MT

The café and soda fountain was once a bar and pool hall – and has been a main street staple since 1938. Norm’s still has the back bar behind the soda fountain counter. Its journey was even longer than the one the old Demersville bar made: This one was carved out of Mediterranean cypress in 1880, in Italy.

Spofford Hotel - Red Lodge MT

The Spofford Hotel the first brick structure in Red Lodge was built in 1893 at the point mid-way between the train passenger depot and the thickly settled portion of the city. It was described in the Livingston Herald as handsomely furnished in pine. Thomas F. Pollard took possession of the thirty-five room hotel in 1902, renaming it The Pollard and adding

twenty-five rooms. There was a spacious lobby, dining room, bar room with card and billiard tables, well-equipped kitchen and a laundry, with bowling alley and barbershop in the basement. The dining room was a lovely room in the early days with fine furnishings, high quality hotel linens, dishes, silverware and glassware. The bar room was in front (it later became the Post Office). It had a beautifully carved mahogany bar. This famous hotel has been the gathering place of political, theatrical and many celebrated personalities. Buffalo Bill Cody spent many an evening in the lobby swapping tales with local old timers. Calamity Jane would on occasion interrupt the quietness of this old lodging place and Liver Eatin’ Johnston, noted Indian scout, who lived here in the early days, occasionally frequented the establishment.

Another famous personality who visited the hotel was the Sundance Kid, Harry Longworth. Unfortunately, he visited with a gun in his hand. He robbed the bank, which was located on the corner of the hotel, while Pollard guests watched. The infamous robber was caught, but later escaped. Since that time, guns have been banned from the hotel. Since the Pollard family last owned the hotel, it has been variously known as The Chief, The Tyler, and The Cielo Grande. In September of 1991, the Hotel Company of Red Lodge purchased The Pollard with the intention of making it one of the finest small hotels of the Rocky Mountain West. The hotel was fully restored, creating a hotel that embraced the memories of history while maintaining the comforts of today.

As seems to be the case with many old hotels, the Pollard has seen its fair share of ghost stories. Guests and employees have described both male and female apparitions. One, a man dressed in 1920s clothing, is said to hang out near the bar and play pranks.

A woman in a yellow dress is said to leave behind the scent of perfume. Staff have described strange noises and lights that turn on and off in the basement.

Snag Bar – Red Lodge MT

The historic Snag Bar offers original tin walls and ceiling. Our back bar is over 100 years-old. In the summer we offer drinks on our patio with a beautiful view of the Beartooth Mountains.

Haps Beer Parlor – Helena MT

Haps Beer Parlor has been in existence since 1935. It is one of the original bars in Helena, Montana. The original owner was Hap Schneider; he owned the bar from 1935 till 1941. The second owner was George Schneider; he owned the bar from 1936 till 1974. The third owner was Tony Bielen; he owned the bar from 1936-1974. The present owner is Don Lytle; he

has owned the bar since 1974. 

The Ponderosa – Hamilton MT

One of downtown Hamilton's most iconic bars is being renovated (2014). The Ponderosa has been a mainstay on Main Street for years. The bar's liquor license has been sold. That means the new owners need a new license to serve alcoholic drinks. But they see the bar's unique history and architecture as a plus in attracting new business. The Ponderosa has had several owners through the years, and other names, before it became the Ponderosa. When it was built in 1897, by Lewis and Sophia Peterson it was the Scandia Bar. The Ponderosa is well known for its mural above the bar by artist Sherman L. Hayes. The cattle, horses and cowboys painted there are part of the

Bitterroot's rich western history. On the other wall, another painting was discovered - a large mural of wildlife that had been covered for decades.

The Blodgett Canyon Cellars Tasting Room now occupies the premises that once housed the Ponderosa Bar, at 111 W. Main St. in Hamilton. The building has a long history, which Broughton and building owner Craig Kreider have worked hard to preserve and even showcase. 

The Bale of Hay Saloon – Virginia City MT

The Bale of Hay Saloon is the oldest bar in Montana and is located in Virginia City; it was established way back in 1863. The bar features original period artwork including the famous "Nymphs and Satyr." Spirits of all kinds can be found here and a nightly ghost tour leaves at 9:00pm.

J . F. Stoer, a dealer in groceries and liquor, occupied this building from 1869 to about 1890. Smith and Boyd then made the building into a saloon, calling it the "Bale of Hay." The front was remodeled slightly at

that time. Smith and Boyd continued to operate the Bale of Hay Saloon until 1908. The "Bale" then stood empty until 1945 when the Boveys restored it as a saloon. The main part of the Bale of Hay is exactly the way the Boveys found it, except for the ornate 1880's bar and back bar which came from a saloon in Benchland, Montana. The Boveys bought it in 1940 for 50$; it was hand-carved in Cincinnati in 1862 and shipped by river boat to Montana. Parts of the building were damaged by a fire in 1983, but the saloon was soon restored in 1985. Big, stuffed trophy heads from moose, buffalo, and other animals now hang on its walls, and old amusement machines are inside. These details made the saloon a perfect set for the movie Little Big Man in 1970.

Jersey Lilly – Ingomar MT

The present day Jersey Lilly had its beginnings as a bank in 1914, known as Wiley, Clark and Greening Bankers. On January 1, 1918, the bank was reorganized from a probate bank to Ingomar State Bank; it operated as the First National Bank of Ingomar from January until July 21, 1921, when it closed. On October 13, 1921, the bank went into receivership. In 1933, Clyde Easterday established the Oasis Bar in the bank building; Bob Seward took over the bar in 1948 and named it the Jersey Lilly after Judge Roy Beans bar of the same name in Langtry, Texas. Bob's son, Bill purchased the building in 1958, and the Jersey Lilly continued under his ownership, serving as the local watering hole, cafe and

general gathering place for area residents until August, 1995, when it was purchased by Jerry Brown. In 2011 the Jersey Lilly was sold to Boots Kope and June Nygren.

The cherry wood, back bar of the Jersey Lilly is one of two which were transported from St. Louis by boat up the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers and installed at Forsyth in the early 1900s. This bar was stored at Forsyth during Prohibition, sold to Bob Seward, and installed here in 1933; the other back bar was destroyed in 1912, when the American Hotel burned in Forsyth. The Jersey Lilly was placed on the National Registry of Historic places in September, 1994.

When the Milwaukee Railroad arrived in 1910, Ingomar

became a center of trade. Rail service ended in 1980. Between 1911-1917, an average of 2,500 homesteads a year were filed in the area, and Ingomar bustled with a bank, two elevators, two hotels and rooming houses, two lumber yards, cafes, stores and saloons. Drought and fire struck next, according to a town history. The school hung on until 1992.

Grahams – Glacier, MT

The building itself opened in 1906 and at various times has had photographs of Clark Gable and Loretta Young, who were in the movie “Call of the Wild,” which was filmed in the Mount Baker area in 1935. She stayed in a house across the street and he stayed in a cabin in nearby Maple Falls. One of the features that stands out is the old bar that’s a centerpiece for the restaurant. It was brought here from the Yukon and Sumas in 1908 - still in use. Bar was built in 1829.

Elmos Highwood Bar – Highwood Montana

Highwood is located on the ‘back road’ from Great Falls to Fort Benton. The hand-carved oak back bar, circa 1900, is an

attraction for those touring the small town bars famous for their back bars. 

 Anaconda Bar – Anaconda MT

The Anaconda Bar is for sale 2015 – An impressive Brunswick back bar that dates pre -1900`s is still in place. $68,000

Club Moderne – Anaconda MT

The Club Moderne is a bar built in the Streamline Moderne style. The interior was similarly custom-designed and remains in a high state of preservation.

There was a big party in Anaconda, Montana, on October 9, 1937. It was the gala opening of Club Moderne. The bar was—and still is—a sight to behold, with its rounded front facade and Carrara glass panels that perfectly embody the Art Deco style of architecture popular in the U.S. earlier last century. Club Moderne was built under the direction of owner John “Skinny” Francisco. The building was designed by Bozeman, Montana-based architect Fred Willson and built by local carpenters and craftspeople.

It was a family-run affair from the very beginning. And when the Francisco family put the bar up for sale in 1997, it went to the closest thing to family: long-time bartender and Anaconda native John Hekkel. When Hekkel took over ownership of the bar, it was in perfect condition. “Just like it is now,” he says. Club Moderne has changed very little since its 1937 opening day. It received modest renovations in 1948. In 1986, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Today, the interior still has its original woodworking and hardware, plus its long-time leather

furniture and Formica tables. Outside, its original sign and neon details remain intact.Yes, the bar has a place in Anaconda’s history. (“If these walls could talk…,” Hekkel says.) And its architecture brings Art Deco fans from all over. But those aren’t the only things Hekkel loves about it. “This place is as good as its customers,” he says. “Why it does so well is because of the people who walk through the doors.” 

Lulhaven Bar – Glendive MT

Closed for sometime now, the Lulhaven Bar is a classic example of Art Deco, with its black carrera glass and glass block entrance

2014 - The old Stipek Building has had many owners, but for the last quarter century or so, it hasn’t had many visitors. Now, the building better known locally as the Lulhaven is once again for sale.. The building has a new roof, has had electrical work done and has over two thousand dollars worth of building supplies on property. The asking price is $54,000

The long-road to the current state of shambles began in 1905. J. J. Stipek started building what would become The Bee Hive Cash Store which sold saddles among other items. In a newspaper advertisement dated July, 1908, The Bee Hive Cash Store offered buggy harnesses, single harness, single track harness, whips of all kinds, quirts and lashes. Stipek also added a pool hall behind the main store front. He moved from the area on Sept. 1, 1937. Subsequent owners have included Merchants National Bank, William Lindsay, Frank Turluck, John Sterhan according to an Architectural Inventory prepared by Bill Babcock of Missoula, Montana in Aug. 1987. In that time it housed offices including C. A. Rasmusson Land Office, Jone’s Hemstich Shop, Mrs. McLeod’s Tea Room, and George Scherger Sr.’s

Sandwich Shop. However, the most prominent occupant is the one that left its neon sign over the door – the Lulhaven. 

That name would be brought into existence as the result of the purchase of the property by E. George Lulham. Lulham ran away from home at age 14 to work on street cars in Milwaukee. He moved to Wibaux in 1904 and came to Glendive in 1918 where he worked for the railroad. His daughter Alice Smith Lulham succeeded him, and served as owner operator of The Lulhaven Tavern and Cafe. The tavern was located in the front of the building with the cafe in back of the building. The kitchen was in the back and opened on the alley. When opened, The Lulhaven gained a reputation as the most modern

and up-to-date bar around. Alice made the Tom and Jerry, a Christmas cocktail popular in the 19th century, the tavern’s signature drink. The Lulham family eventually closed the tavern and cafe and sold the building on Oct. 16, 1987. The building has changed hands many times since. Despite the many changes in title, no one has since opened a going concern at the location. “We have had nibbles about the building. Nothing concrete yet. Some of the ideas that people have shared with us for a ‘new’ Lulhaven include restaurants, wine bar and professional offices. All we have talked with so far have stated they are determined to keep the art deco exterior for the building. This building has great bones and is so stylized. It could be what triggers downtown returning to its past glory,” Deines said. In the meantime, The Lulhaven stands as an abandoned and disheveled reminder of a bygone era in Glendive’s past.

Headframe Spirits – Butte MT (Rocky Mountain Café – Meaderville MT)

Customers of a new distillery will have the opportunity to lean upon a relic of one of Butte’s most famous hotspots while enjoying the local spirits. The back bar from the Rocky Mountain Café, which operated in Meaderville from the 1920s to 1960s, has been loaned by the World Museum of Mining to Headframe Spirits. The distillery is expected to open by

January 2012 and the centerpiece of the taste room will be the 24-foot, eight-piece mahogany and oak bar and back bar made in the early 1900s.

It was the centerpiece of the Rocky Mountain Café, one of Butte’s most acclaimed restaurants and nightclubs, and the pride of one of its most colorful citizens. According to news stories, the Rocky Mountain was owned by Teddy Traparish, a native of Dubrovnik in modern-day Croatia, who came to Butte in 1906 at the age of 19. He worked his way up from swamper to part owner in numerous restaurants and bars in town. In 1929, after the stock market crash, Traparish opened the Rocky Mountain Café with partners Peter Antonioli and Louis Bugni. The nightclub, bar and restaurant featured a

dance floor and orchestra, a gambling room, coal-fired ranges and a bar, despite the presence of Prohibition. In 1961, with open-pit mining having destroyed much of Meaderville, Traparish closed the café. In 1966, he donated the back bar to the World Museum of Mining. Tina Davis, executive director of the World Museum of Mining, said the bar had not been on display at the museum since about 2003 and experts worried that continued storage could harm the piece.

The large two-story building across Main from Fagan’s Pharmacy in Meaderville housed a saloon (#53 Main), a moving picture theater (#55), and a restaurant (#57-59), with a meeting hall above them in 1916. By the late 1920’s, Teddy Traparish, Peter Antonioli and Louis Bugni established the first Rocky Mountain Cafe at 53 Main. That building burned in 1940 and the Rocky Mountain Café was moved down the street where it enjoyed huge success and international renown.

Hotel Metlen - Dillon MT  

Back Bar from the Bannack Mining Camp, now in the

The 1897 Historic Hotel Metlen is an impressive 1897, three story, 32,000 sq ft., brick structure, made complete with dormer windows on the third floor, topped with a Victorian tower. Like many buildings constructed around the turn of the century, the structure sits on granite stone foundation. It has two historic saloons, a dance floor, a restaurant, eight restored rooms on the second floor, and a gaming casino bar area.

The Historic Hotel Metlen, that was originally named "The Metlen Hotel and Saloon," was built by J.C. Metlen, an enterprising

businessman, to be a first-class, railroad hotel. It specialized in offering luxury accommodations for travelers, traveling out in the wilds of Montana, to attend to business in the bustling city of Dillon. It was located just a convenient walk from Dillon's railroad stop. As the ridership on the railroad decreased, their business slowly dried up. The two bars were still a hot spot with the locals. The rooms located on the second and third floor became low-cost rentals. The hotel itself slowly became a fixer-upper but by the early 1980s', the owners got their property accepted as worthy to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places, protecting the future of their building, December 13th, 1983. Soon after, they passed the torch onto a new owner, a family who loved the structure as much as the former owners did. The Metlen Hotel was closed for a time, in 2011, during a more intense renovation/restoration period that included the first floor areas, and the outside of the structure. Later in 2011, the hotel reopened as "The Historic Hotel Metlen."  In 2013, the last member of the family wished to retire, and so, The Historic Hotel Metlen, once again is for sale (1.2 million), offering "The rare opportunity to own a piece of history!"

Rainbow Bar - Hamilton MT

Walter Fox sold meat from a one-story, wooden building on this site in 1893. An 1896 expansion added an icehouse, and the building, later occupied by a confectionery and fruit stand, still stood in 1909. Not long afterward, M. L. Kelley purchased the lot to

construct this brick building, where he opened a billiard hall. Joseph Haigh ran the business as the Owl Pool Room in 1915. After Haigh moved to South Second Street, the establishment became the Rainbow Bar. Later remodels significantly changed the façade, but the interior still boasts a pressed metal ceiling and an oak back bar. Decorative, durable, and fire resistant, metal ceilings proved popular from the 1890s through the 1920s. The back bar is decorated with stain glass panels featuring stylized branches laden with apples

110-120 Main Street Hamilton was the Peterson Block. Andrew Peterson built this two-story brick building in 1911.The main floor housed the Brunswick Barber Shop, Billiard Parlor and Card Room, and the Valley Liquor Store. The second floor was the European Hotel, operated by Peterson until 1935. The east portion of this building was razed in the 1950’s to make room for what is now Citizens State Bank. The remaining structure still reflects the past.

Miller’s Dark Horse Saloon & Bar - Worden, MT

The building was one of the first here in Worden 1911. It was built to be a mercantile but was not paying off so the first owner (Mr. Jones) turned it in to a bar. So in 1913 the back bar was boated up the river to get here. But It has not always stayed a bar. During the prohibition it was a pool hall and cigarette stare. Some say there was even Bathtub Gin in the basement. And had a poker room upstairs. Dick and Dixie have had it for the last 20 years and hope to share some of the fun and history with you. 

The bar was recently for sale