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Boomtown Saloons

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One of the first businesses to appear in a mining camp was a saloon. These institutions addressed the need of miners seeking a drink, but most saloons also offered warm, homey settings. In the early days, saloons also functioned as courtroom, church, and community center as needs arose. The Comstock saloon followed this pattern, echoed throughout in the mining West. The businesses appeared early and diversified quickly.

Nineteenth-century authors described Virginia City with about one hundred saloons at its height in the 1870s. Their writings implied this was a terribly inebriated society. Single men dominated Virginia City, so saloons figured prominently as popular refuges after a hard day’s work. In fact, the ratio of Virginia city saloons to adult men was similar to places like Chicago or cities in the East.

Saloons catered to every taste and aspect of society, making them as diverse as they were numerous. Some were ethnic establishments, serving only the Irish, Mexicans, or African Americans, for example. Many offered billiards or gambling. A few combined target shooting with drinking. Most offered food. Some saloons were open to families including women and children, while others served only men. Prostitutes frequented a handful of saloons, which offered back rooms for that business.

Most saloons catered to the working class. These were called “bit saloons” because a drink or a cigar cost only twelve and a half cents. Wealthier patrons frequented “two-bit saloons” where drinks and cigars cost a quarter.

Movies and television have made the setting of the saloon familiar to an international audience, taking the institution beyond reality into the realm of myth. The saloon is part of shared memory where good confronts evil and heroism is tested with flash of steel or a clenched fist. In reality, saloon violence was rarer than the popular impression would expect. Saloons were varied and generally quiet, safe retreats where it was possible to eat, have a drink, and play card games with friends.

The Discriminating customer: These were posh.  Polished mahogany & crystal chandeliers
Sazerac,
Almack’s
Mammoth
Golden Age
Occidental
St. Nicholas

The Miner Crowd: These were called “snuggeries”
Cozy Home,
Miner’s Retreat
Fancy Free
scores of unnamed “Dives”: These were downstairs usually.  
They served a local Brandy called Washoe.  It was stronger than “Minnie Rifle” or “Chain Lightning” 
Straight Whisky was the standard drink.
Connoisseurs drank Whisky toddies, mint juleps.  
The population at night more than doubled as men emerged from mines to line up for drinks and to dance in hot cellars with hurdy-gurdy girls.
Offering someone a drink is:  “Put in a blast?”  or “What’s your poison?”  “What’s the regular?”
Sipping a drink was: “I’m picking away at this one”  
A toast is: “Here’s hoping you’ll strike it rich on the lower level.
A Loafer Hole is a gambling joint for poker and Faro. They enticed the gullible with piano and fiddle, sometimes with a small band to take a fling at High for Luck, Black and Red, or Chuck-a-Luck then separated them from their cash by all the clever devices known to the crooked gambler.  

Suggested Reading:

Kelly J. Dixon. Boomtown Saloons: Archaeology and History in Virginia City. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2005.

Elliott West. The Saloon on the Rocky Mountain Mining Frontier. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1979.

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“The Virginia City Yacht Club” was a drinking club for artists. It was the name of the impromptu night drinking and storytelling binges. It went from bar to bar. Whoever called and bought the first round was known as the โ€œHighโ€ Commodore of the Virginia City Yacht Club for the evening.