Cowboy Whiskey Men

 

     

Foreword:   Media heroes from comic books to motion pictures, the American cowboy is the iconic symbol of the Old West.  Likely beginning as young ranch hands, as they aged some cowpunchers looked for less taxing, more lucrative employment.  What naturally came to mind was the saloon and the whiskey trade.  Here are the brief accounts of three such cowboys, each of them with a unique story.                

In 1886 a 26 year old Missouri-born ranch hand rode his horse up to a South Dakota stage coach station that held a saloon. The next day he owned the place and thereupon was launched the career of Daniel P. Roberts, also known as “Devil Dan.” Little did he realize that the trajectory of his career also would make him part of a Presidential Inaugural.

When that wilderness station subsequently grew into the boom town of Belle Fourche, Roberts in 1905 opened a new drinking establishment on the main street that he called The Stand-Up Bar.  Robert’s saloon was a cut above the average. As the centerpiece of the house he bought an ornate Chicago-made Brunswick bar and saloon outfit, featuring an elegant cherry wood back and matching front counter.  

No sooner had Roberts opened the Stand Up Bar, however, than he was embarked on the trip of his life. A cowboy acquaintance of his had been one of Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders. When Roosevelt was inaugurated as President in 1905 the man conceived the idea of having a cowboy section in the Inaugural parade, convinced the President-to-be, and recruited Dan. 

Shipping their horses by rail ahead of them, the cowboys, including future movie star Tom Mix, followed in their own railroad coaches, having a raucous time. In Washington, as shown here, Roberts and the others were reunited with their ponies and rode around streets of the Nation’s Capitol to exercise their mounts.

For the parade, security agents allowed the riders to carry pistols in their holsters as part as their costume, but the guns were unloaded. Riding eight abreast in the parade, they were cheered lustily by the waiting crowds. As they passed the reviewing stand President Roosevelt is said to have jumped up, clapped his hands and shouted: "That's bully!”  

Returning home, Roberts took up the role of saloonkeeper in earnest. Like other Western cow towns, Belle Fourche was a wild, wide open place. The main street was known as Saloon Street because of all the “watering holes” located there. Said one observer:  “The cowboys wanted to gamble, to drink and dance, and they wanted girls. The merchants of Belle Fourche saw that the cowboys had what they wanted.”  Among them was “Devil Dan” who operated the Stand Up Bar until South Dakota went “dry” in 1917.  

Shown below is a letterhead for the The Valley Saloon, a drinking establishment in the small but violence-ridden town of Saco, Montana.  It identifies the proprietor as a man named “Tom Dunn.”  In January 1897 the proprietor was writing to a wholesale liquor dealer to complain about shipping charges on his recent order.  But “Dunn” never existed nor would the saloon owner using that alias live beyond the following year. 

 

Tom Dunn was, in truth, Ed Starr, a member of several well known outlaw gangs.  According to Helen Huntington in her book, War on Powder River,  Starr was regarded as a “vicious nonentity” and “a killer for killing’s sake.”  When he arrived in Saco, shown here, Starr was on the lam from Wyoming, the cowboy gunslinger who had killed a United States marshal.  When he showed up in northern Montana, Starr/Dunn built a reputation as a skilled cattle broker and was appointed deputy livestock inspector for the region, reputedly compiling a good record.  

Old habits die hard, however, and in 1898 about nine miles from Saco Starr/Dunn, shown here, became involved in selling a string of horses, some of them apparently rustled.  In this scheme he had as a partner another notorious Western “bad man” named Henry Thompson, known as “Long Henry.”  When the time came for the two to settle accounts on the stolen animals, they could not agree on a division of the profits.  

The dispute led to gunplay.  Although Starr/Dunn wounded Thompson, he did not drop him. , Also an expert markman, Thompson almost simultaneously fired thee times.  The first bullet struck the cowboy saloonkeeper in the heart, killing him instantly.  The other two shots hit him in the body as he fell to the ground.  A Montana newspaper noted:  “Dunn was widely known as an expert with a gun and his friends could never understand his poor marksmanship on that occasion….[Dunn], probably, in getting off that first shot, lost the delicate balance which usually sent his bullets dead center.”   

The glass paperweight at left bears the photograph of a man riding a buffalo and bears the legend:  “Bob Yokum’s Buffalo, Pierre, S.D.”  It provides a window into the feats of a South Dakota saloonkeeper in training buffalo — the American bison — to pull a wagon or sleigh, be mounted and raced, and, most famously of all, engage in bullfighting in Mexico.  In his early  years, Yokum is said to have engaged in “the old ranching and cowboy life of the American West,” eventually becoming a United States marshal and later opening a saloon in Pierre.

Obsessed with training buffalo, Yokum after considerable effort taught them to draw a carriage.  Yokum’s next feat was training his buffalo being to be ridden.  The animals were said to “loathe” the saddling process and upon being mounted for the first time were known to buck fiercely trying to throw the rider.  With patience, the saloonkeeper was able to accustomed the shaggy beasts to a passenger, as shown above.  In addition, he was able to race them, both against other bison and against horses.  They were faster than the horses.

Yokum’s singular feat was introducing a bison into a Mexican bullring.  The idea was hatched during the winter of 1906-1907 to see which was the more dominant animal — a fighting bull (toro) or the American buffalo.   Loading one eight-year old male buffalo and one four-year old in a boxcar a group of South Dakota men that included Yokum headed to Mexico.  Yokum made sure there was plenty of alcohol in the baggage to make the trip a more pleasant experience.

After a seven day trip the group arrived in Juarez just in time for the afternoon show of four regular bullfights and as the finale the American buffalo vs. Mexican bull.  According to one account, the older buffalo, named Pierre, was released into the ring where it walked calmly to the middle:  “When the attendants released a red Mexican bull into the ring, he immediately spied the buffalo and charged. The bull aimed for the buffalo’s flank; but at the last second, the buffalo pivoted and the bull hit him head on…and was knocked back on his haunches.”  A second and third charge yielded the same result.  “On the fourth attempt, the bull again hit the buffalo head, was stunned and fell to the ground.  Then the bull rose up, fled from the buffalo and tried to climb out of the ring.” 

Reveling in victory, Yokum, shown here, went back to his buffalo farm and to operating saloons in both Pierre and Ft. Pierre.  When the latter town under “local option” went dry about 1910, he reluctantly was forced to shut down one establishment.  The Pierre saloon was closed in 1917 when South Dakota voted in prohibition.

Note:  Longer vignettes on each of these cowboy whiskey men may be found on this website.  “Devil Dan” Roberts, April 18, 2012;  Tom Dunn/Ed Starr, March 5, 2020; and Bob Yokum, November 9, 2018.