BAR NONE – Round 1 – The Cowboy Bar, Meeteetse, Wyoming

By Bennett Owen

“I drank my share of whiskey…and someone else’s too…”

-    Anonymous Patron         

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To enter the Cowboy Bar you’ll have to pull on a rifle barrel …

Once inside, your first impression will be the Copenhagen lids lining the ceiling …… the copious collection of firearms adorning the walls

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… and some well-placed warning signs … But it’s the bar that will truly capture your attention.

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Produced by Brunswick-Balke-Collender … a 12-foot high neo-classical showcase, hand-crafted by Italian artisans for the Chicago World Columbian Exposition of 1893 and then shipped to the wildest corner of Wyoming by a couple of Canadians who opened the Cowboy Bar in Meeteetse. 

There wasn’t much to the town then ...

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And still, the place attracted a veritable VIP list of misfits, castaways and luminaries of their time.  Butch Cassidy was arrested here in 1894 … having run afoul of one of the west’s biggest and blood thirstiest cattle barons, Otto Franc (More in our upcoming series, 10 Germans Who Won the West).

As prohibition took hold, the liquor was delivered in milk canisters and the Sheriff simply “picked up his mail at the bar and looked the other way.”

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Legend has it that Al Capone’s personal chef served his parole in Meeteetse and took quite a liking to the place.

By the mid 1930’s high-flying Amelia Earhart was spending time here and … well, more about that in tomorrow’s post … 

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The bar is indeed well stocked, in part because it also serves as a liquor store. But the bartender confides most of the clientele tend to favor the wide selection of beers and the ever-popular “Sagebrush.” 

Current owner, Jim F. Blake, is a historian and poker player who wouldn’t confirm rumors of 56 bullet holes in the bar.  But he’s full of stories including the time a howitzer was brought in to fulfill a faithful patron’s dying wish …

The place is quiet and pleasant enough on a late afternoon … fairly dripping with untold history. But one of the regulars mentioned an “incident” a few days back that bunged up our host’s prize antique piano a bit. As if to remove all doubt about the boisterous clientele, Jim then unsheathed a one million volt stun gun … the crackle of the arc alone shied us all back a few feet.  

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Yes, the occasional horse still gets rode through the place and Jim says the last shooting incident involved an out of towner with a hat and a slogan that riled one of the locals who promptly used said cap as target practice.

“The funny thing” Jim says, “is that tourist is now a regular here.”