Saloons & Cattlemen’s Bars
The Bucket of Blood, The Stockman’s, The Mint and the Silver Dollar were some of the names of Montana bars but the changing attitudes towards liquor has left its mark on the culture of the west one way or another.
Imbibing a bit too much of the tangle foot might have you waking up here in the Butte Jail.
By S.F. Roberts
The two-hundred plus years since its inception there has been massive changes in the economy, culture and landscape of America. The western U.S., urbanized by a lawless lust filled search for mineral wealth and land, is still changing, catching up perhaps with a civilized mentality which has been hard pressed to take hold. In my sixty years of living in Montana I have seen numerous changes; the use and enjoyment of the land, the rise and fall of industry, the spread of urbanization and water use. I was raised on the hi-line of the state, a lonely barren stretch of land where there was no speed limit. None of us took much notice, frankly, and most used discretion. My mother wasn’t going to speed down a gravel road in a snow storm with three kids in the back seat before seat belt laws. There was a pervasive level of common sense which occasionally broke down and resulted in death. Up until the 1970s many a tourist traveling across Montana would comment on the fact that when you hit the Idaho border you could put ‘the peddle’ to the medal. When the speed limit was fifty-five it felt like hell on earth to many here, who for years had driven, eyes on the road, hands on the steering wheel and gobbling gas to cross the great mass of land in the state. Fences have proliferated and land sectioned up cutting off access to the wide-open spaces. Towns widened their circle of buildings becoming urban centers or fell into dust. Industry came and went, eating away the land, polluting it, and leaving generational workers with no source of income. One of the last vestiges to fall in recent years from that lawless Wild West era is the use and abuse of liquor. Driving while intoxicated laws came into existence in my adult years, prior to that no one much paid attention. While living in Missoula in the 80s and 90s bars pitched in money to pay for cab service for intoxicated patrons, taking their keys. Progressively the DUI laws have worked their way into the tavern busin