There Really Was a Long Branch Saloon

 

There Really Was a Long Branch Saloon

 

Remember Miss Kitty and the Long Branch Saloon? Well, I don’t know about Miss Kitty but there really was a Long Branch Saloon.  It came about because of a bet placed between soldiers and cowboys. The cowboys and soldiers were playing ball. If the soldiers lost to the cowboys, they agreed to provide materials to build a saloon. They lost. Hence the building of the Long Branch in 1874.

 

Unlike the rowdy, free-wheeling establishments that most saloons are portrayed as, the Long Branch was a tasteful institution with a five-piece orchestra that played every night. Besides beer (Anheuser Busch) and whiskey, it also served champagne, milk, sarsaparilla and lemonade.  

     Though a classy establishment, the Long Branch saw its share of fights. The most famous: the gunfight between Levi Richardson and Frank Loving (both gamblers and gunmen), over Loving’s wife, resulting in Richardson’s death. 

There were fifteen other saloons in Dodge during the cattle drive era’s hay-day, but none nearly so well known or popular.

Today you can find a replica of the Long Branch in the historical Boot Hill Museum located at the site of the original Boot Hill Cemetery in Dodge City, KS. 

 

 

Live entertainment includes: gunfights, Miss Kitty singing and Can-Can girls dancing. Besides the Long Branch, there’s a gift shop and general store in the museum.

Sounds like a fun place to visit, doesn’t it? Maybe I’ll see you there.

 

For more cowboy trivia: cowboytrivia.blogspot.com.

 

Coop Malloy receives a telegram that his sister and brother-in-law have died and his ten-year-old niece is on her way to Texas to live with him. 

Still reeling from the loss of his sister, he receives another shock when his childhood friend Randa Lockhart steps off the stage with his niece Kallie. He's stunned to see that the little pigtailed nuisance that tagged after him and his best friend years ago has turned into a beautiful young woman. 

Randa and Kallie have barely settled in when Coop finds buffalo hunter Marvin Doolin beating the local blacksmith within an inch of his life for laming is horse. Coop steps in and when the buffalo hunter tries to kill him, shoots him. Now Doolin's four brothers are out to even the score.

When they go after Randa, they cross the line. They're about to find out that there's nothing Coop won't do, and no one he won't track down to protect the two females that have burrowed hard and fast into his heart.

Available at Amazon.

 

The Cook and the Chuck Wagon

 

One of the most important persons on a cattle drive, if not the most important, was the cook. Often times called Cookie. Sometimes, Coosie   or Soggy. He was paid more than the cowhands but probably not as much as he was worth. The man was banker, barber, dentist, and doctor to the drovers whose private possessions, that didn’t fit in their saddle bags, went into the cook's wagon box.

Among his other duties, he pointed the tongue of the wagon north every evening, so the trail boss knew what direction to head the herd the following morning.

Cookie was up before dawn to have the coffee and breakfast ready when everyone else rolled out. Then after the others finished eating, he had to clean up and head out to get to the next camp site before everyone else so he’d have the evening meal prepared when the herd halted and the crew came in.

The wagon he drove was called a chuck wagon. Charles Goodnight invented it in 1866. On the trail it was usually loaded with flour, coffee, salt pork, beans, potatoes, dried fruit and spices. Some folks credit the name of the chuck wagon for Charles, others for food, chuck being the cowboy term for chow. This wagon had a fold out counter to prepare the food on. A water barrel was stored on the outside.  Dutch ovens, which were used regularly by the cook were stored in the boot.

The cowboys had several rules of etiquette which included not tying horses to the chuck wagon so dust didn’t get in the food and after they ate scraping their plates and putting them in the ‘wrecking pan’. Leaving food on their plates was an insult to the cook.

It’s hard to write about a trail drive without including the cook. Even though a secondary character, Cookie played an important role both in Silverhill’s and the author’s heart.

 In the 1870s Brandon Wade is driving a herd of longhorns over the Chisholm Trail when a youth appears out of nowhere riding a magnificent black stallion and packing a deadly looking six-gun. In need of trail hands, Brandon hires the young man. Not until weeks later, during the middle of a terrible stampede, does Brandon learn that his young sharpshooter is a beautiful woman. A woman full of fire and passion who he burns to possess. A woman steeped in mystery who refuses to disclose her past. Alexandria O'Malley is on the run and must be able to disappear at a moment's notice. When she hires on to the cattle drive, she doesn't expect the powerful attraction between herself and her trail boss or the response of her treacherous body.

Available at Amazon. 

 

For more cowboy trivia: https://cowboytrivia.blogspot.com/

 

Cowboy Kisses News ~ Julie Lence

 

Please join me in welcoming our newest author to the team, Sandra Cox! To learn more about Sandra, connect with her on Twitter and be sure to check out her author page. 

Welcome, Sandra. We're all so happy to have you join us. 

Julie