Virginia City · Drink
Bale of Hay Saloon
At a glance
Bar in Virginia City, Montana, established 1869. Open seasonally. Check with them for this year's dates.
- Status
- Seasonal
- Town
- Virginia City
- Established
- 1869
- Address
- 344 W. Wallace St., Virginia City, MT, 59755
- Last checked
Virginia City saloon on Wallace Street with roots in the 1860s gold rush. Empty from 1908 to 1946, rebuilt inside its log walls after a 1983 fire, and still pouring every summer.
Details
- Region
- Southwest Montana
- Phone
- 406-843-5867
- Why it's still old school
- Square hewn log walls out front, a tin ceiling that came out of the Mint Saloon in Great Falls, and a name borrowed from the livery stable next door. They'll tell you it's the oldest bar in Montana.
They’ll tell you the Bale of Hay poured its first drink around 1863, when Virginia City was a gold boom town. J.F. Stoer was running a saloon here in the 1860s and kept at it until about 1890. Then Smith and Boyd, who had the livery stable next door, took it over and called it the Bale of Hay. Some names write themselves.
After 1908 the building sat empty until 1946, when Charlie Bovey saved it from collapse, added the front porch, and opened it as a saloon again. The state has owned it since 1997 through the Montana Heritage Commission, and different folks have run it each summer since.
A fire in 1983 took the roof. The fix went inside the old shell: a deep concrete foundation, new walls, and a tin ceiling out of the Mint Saloon in Great Falls, with the square hewn log front left alone. From Wallace Street it looks the way it always has.
It opens for the summer season. Have a beer on the porch and decide for yourself about the oldest bar in Montana thing.
Sources
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