What Were Wild West Saloons ACTUALLY Like?

No matter your knowledge of the wild west or experiences traveling around the western frontier, exploring ghost towns and abandoned settlements, one thing is for certain: When someone mentions the word “saloon,” you can close your eyes and picture exactly what they mean. Saloons play such an important role in our understanding of life in the old west, as they were truly the intersection of so many famous figures, lifestyles, legacies, and overall exciting events of the time period. While the ideas and imagery of saloons have been reinforced by romantic notions of the wild west era and Hollywood films exaggerating their grandeur, they are historically misunderstood, admittedly like much of the lore we associate with the frontier. Saloons weren’t necessarily the hives of scum and villainy they are portrayed as. While there was certainly the card game gunfights and drunken brawls and town-shaking scandals occurring within the walls of western cantinas, the bloodshed was few and far between. 0:00 I