MONTANA BARS (1989-1998)

As as a basic neighborhood guy who spent a lot of time in the bars of working-class places, even now, when few are left,  I know a lot of bars and I know a lot of neighborhoods, particularly what you would call blue-collar ones, where “The Bar” was where you spent one-third of your life, another, at a minimum, one-third in labor, and the rest in family, church and sleep. On the level of God, country and family is the neighborhood bar.

You could probably stratify the blue-collar bars from cheap sleazy “dives” to cheap clean establishments, and, accordingly, became the ones either forgotten or remembered. A lot of joints I know, I would call the second last stop on the line. And if you were in the truest of loser cities, that could be quite interesting. None of the Montana bars here fit in that category, to the ones back home that I speak of in terms of loss.

OK, so, their significance is lived, not thought of, but has been forgotten by loss of so many truly industrial neighborhoods. But I would shoot them anyways just because they’re so damn pretty. That is, to say, they are pretty old, styled-by-neon and wood, and pretty rough and character-filled and pretty dangerous sometimes, at least, because they are places where you put your money and liquor, for better or worse, where your mouth is.

Liquor was, at one time, in America, currency, and the Whiskey Rebellion was to decide who would control both money and liquor in America

Upon first coming to Montana in 1989, it was impressive. There were landscapes of tremendous scale and beauty, and there was an abundance of industrial splendor. To accompany all that, Montana has some of the best bars I’ve ever seen in my life.

It’s said that, in the state of Montana, there is one bar for every 1,633 residents, making it the state with the most bars. North Dakota holds the title for most per population density. Regardless, go there, particularly, if you drink. There’s so many that are there, it’s not funny.

Here’s a taste, of an impossible task, which would be the complete capture of all the interesting bars in Montana, shot in in a way that shows an appreciation for that – the Montana Bar in Great Falls, the Western and Oasis Bars in Great Falls and Sonny O’Day’s Bar in Laurel are all gone. Club Moderne in Anaconda burnt up pretty good in a fire, but actually came back to life and is operational, but this gem was the best looking blue-collar bar i had ever seen, and, unfortunately, most of the original interior was lost.

But that’s how Montanans operate. Who does that these days? To bring a bar so far back from such great loss, and not an empty field, or new retail. It’s just like when the M & M closed  it’s doors for the first time in 100 years. It was, for people like me, similar to the loss of the World Trade Center. But it came back, like it was, and, yes, in much different times where a service way has taken over a blue-collar way of living.

Sonny O’Day was a well-known character in Montana, and came to Laurel by way of another industrial town, Butte, where he owned nightclubs in the Walkerville neighborhood, but was really known in a larger sense as a boxer, fight promoter and commissioner in Montana.
Times have changed, though. Ask Sonny, or me, for that matter. I should say that times have flipped more than they have changed. The flip is the dominant quick change mode that goes hand in hand with reinvention, sometimes mixed with political correctness and economic freedom, masking a mostly profit motive. But somehow some of these places retain their character and existence amidst the age of the flip that has bought up, redveloped, torn down and flipped in a real estate sense, so many, I guess you could say, authentic things.

The bars of Butte Montana were as numerous as the ones in Johnstown Pennsylvania but were also really good looking places in the pantheon of working peoples’ bars. Johnstown had an absurd number of bars, many could be small, all were truly worn. The M & M, probably the most known and loved bar in the state, featured a greasy spoon counter across from the bar and a large gambling room, the usual animal heads on the walls, but was no Hollywood movie set, but rough and lived, at least when I was in there in the 1980s and 1990s.

“Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, The M&M first opened in 1890, operating 24-7 for well over a hundred years. The following is an excerpt from the National Register plaque outside the front door:

“Sam Martin and William F. Mosby were the first of many proprietors of the legendary saloon, eatery, and gambling house that has operated here since 1890. Although Martin and Mosby’s tenure was short, Butte’s love of nicknames endured and their initials remain as the M&M. For more than a century, the M&M never rested, serving customers around the clock. The doors were always unlocked; each subsequent owner ceremoniously and publicly disposed of the keys. The M&M catered to miners coming off their shift while the kitchen served bountiful breakfast at any hour of the day or night. When Prohibition hit, the M&M followed other Butte bars, officially becoming a cigar store. Cigars sold in the front discreetly cloaked the speakeasy in the back room, where the liquor continued to flow. The 1940’s Art Deco ground-floor facade, the M&M’s spectacular neon sign, and the vintage 1890’s upper level have been refurbished, restoring architectural vitality to a landmark that has provided food, drink and diversion to generations of Butte residents.”

The M & M was saved from permanent closure, it flipped owners a few times, and has been running for years. Of all bars in the state it’s the one i spent the most time at, and i was not expecting this, but this always happens, eventually.

Links about Montana bars.