In countless movies I have seen cowboys ride into a small town in the middle of nowhere, go into the saloon, belly up to the bar, and order a drink. What kind of drinks were likely available in such places? Whiskey? Beer? Wine? Cosmopolitans? And where did the barkeep get his supply? Was it all brewed or distilled in the back room? Or was it carried by wagon train a thousand miles across the plains?
Well, according to Whisky Magazine, whisky was just about the only thing you could get, and that was carried in by wagon from Kentucky. Beer didn’t appear in Dodge City, for example, until 1879.
For a good, light-hearted exploration of the time and the drink, rent The Hallelujah Trail, directed by John Sturgis.
It depends. Even “a small town in the middle of nowhere” could have liquor brought in if it was on or close to a rail line. Taverns that were truly out in the boondocks probably served whatever corn squeezings or homemade rotgut that could be “distilled in the back room”. The cliche of strong, bad frontier liquor with names like “Red-Eye” had a basis in fact.