Kelly's Saloon

KELLY'S SALOON
Swapping Stories: Men Downstairs and Women Up

Only men walked through these doors as long as the building served as a saloon. In 1898, L.P. Kelly paid $1500 for the business. Inside, he poured drinks to miners ready to relax, play cards and trade stories. Miners gathered around a pot-bellied stove on frosty nights. Some people say they still hear the tinkling notes of the player piano.

The men-only rule applied at all the 13 saloons in Garnet. Women shared conversation and sometimes beer upstairs with Mrs. Kelly in the family residence, entering discreetly from an outside, back stairway. Fewer beer glasses clinked as gold and miners departed. Despite the coming of Prohibition in 1919, Kelly kept the saloon open until the mid-1920s.

Artful Stabilization
Kelly's saloon received a major structural boost in 1992. For a hundred years, the saloon survived fires and storms. However, rocks placed under each corner as a kind of foundation eventually gave way. The old building started leaning and slowly settled two feet into the ground.

This unsafe structure on the verge of collapse proved the perfect challenge for stabilization. The Bureau of Land Management.

Other Stories
Gold In The Garnets
Chinese Presence
Town of Garnet Named in 1897
Family Living in a Gold Mining Town?
Riches Fade
Saving Garnet Ghost Town
J. K. Wells Hotel
Davey's General Store
Ole's Tavern
Dahl Cabin
Blacksmith Shop
Garnet School
Jail
Miners Union Hall
Adams House
Honeymoon Cabin
Warren Park
Highlights from interview with Mary Jane Morin, June 11, 1999
Letter from Hills Bros. Coffee to Mrs. Adams