SHERIDAN — It’s not until the sun drops from the sky that the 117-year-old The Mint Bar in Sheridan truly begins to shine.

That’s when the neon-colored horse lights up Main Street, shining like a precious stone against the smooth, dark velvet sky, just right to showcase the iconic sign.

After the sign is lit, people will soon begin to file into the bar, first in twos, threes, then eights and eighteens. They will fill the bar and spill out onto the street, wagging back and forth like the tail of a prehistoric creature. It’s impossible to tell whether they’re going in or out, but either way they don’t seem to be in a hurry. Above, Mint’s bucking horse and cowboy illuminate the iconic scene.

The cowboy rider is not the same design as the state’s carriage logo. One hand reaches toward the sky, constantly trying to achieve an impossible balance, while the other grips his cowboy hat onto his hip. The horse’s legs are also slightly different, as well as other details that make the design unique.

The bar owns its own copyright to the sign installed in 1938. The sign instantly attracted people like a magnet. It was the time when everyone started saying “Meet me at the Mint”; this often became the bar’s motto and still is today.

Neon sign is famous in its own right.

“It’s one of the most photographed things in Wyoming,” bar manager Kat Deeds told Cowboy State Daily. “And you’ll see this pop up in all kinds of magazines and travel ads. Blake Shelton used this in one of his music videos a few years ago.

This year, Shelton’s ex-wife Miranda also decided to have her clothing collection shot at The Mint Bar.

“This is some of the best cowboy neon in the country, and we try to keep it the original neon,” Deeds added. “But having people working on this is becoming a lost art. This is very expensive maintenance. A hail storm in September destroyed most of them and they were very expensive to repair.”

To the observer, there are several marks on the horse. One of them is HT, which stands for Hard Times.

“There is another brand where it says HT, and this brand belonged to a gentleman from Gillette,” Deeds said. “He used to sell his horses to the US military at the bar because his horses were known for their endurance.”

Not the Mint’s First Rodeo

Horses have played a leading role at The Mint Bar since its inception in 1907. The bar replaced the barbershop on the corner of Sheridan’s Main Street, where it still stands today.

This history begins with horse-drawn wagons bringing ice to the bar for cold beers and sarsaparilla, guaranteed to quench the thirst on a hot summer day.

Cowboys were known to ride their horses to the bar in the early days, especially during Prohibition. They would walk past the cigar shop and into the secret back room where all the “good” things were sold and also where high-stakes illegal poker games attracted the likes of famous author Ernest Hemingway.

Later, after the ban, there were still horses in the pub. There is a photo from 1936 showing a cowboy named Red Tate on horseback, surrounding a crowded bar filled with cowboys and tourists. Tate holds what appears to be a gun above his head, while the clock on the back wall appears to read 10 o’clock.

The bartender, named Willis Pointer, appears to be pouring Tate the drink as fast as he can without spilling it.

The horse is the calm in the middle of the human storm. He waits patiently like a true gentleman. It’s like he’s waiting for a drink to come to him, but all in due time. All on time.

Kenny Rogers also chose The Mint Bar and several other locations (Trail End State Historic Site, City Hall, fairgrounds, Eatons’ Ranch, Kendrick Mansion and Main) as the setting for the 1985 movie “Wild Horses.” The street where wild horses ride off into an imaginary sunset, their manes blowing in the wind.

When it comes to movies, this wasn’t The Mint’s first rodeo.

Sheridan was a popular location for filming from the 1930s to the 1950s. Many celebrities enjoyed stopping by The Mint during this time period, including legendary director John Huston, who filmed “The Red Badge of Courage” in 1951.

A Feast for the Eyes

Mint Bar’s customers are a big part of the fun at this legendary bar. A great place to people watch. Because so many people are crowding into the bar.

Cowboys and college kids. Tourists and locals. Hunters and maybe even a celebrity or two. You never know who you might see at The Mint.

Some people are dressed to the nines in fancy clothes. Others proudly wear dirt-stained cowboy jeans and beat-up Stetsons.

If people watching isn’t your thing, there’s no need to worry. There are many more things to watch. The bar is a feast for the eyes.

Taxidermy animals from all eras adorn the bar. Some are from Wyoming. But some come from more exotic places like the Yukon.

“There’s Canada goose, arctic fox, caribou and things like that,” Deeds said. “But we also have some things brought in specifically for the bar.”

Like that big snakeskin front and center of the bar. There is a long story behind this. Long but true with a Texas connection.

“A guy from Texas named Henry comes in and I don’t remember his last name, but that’s when he saw the snake skin hanging over the bar and he said, ‘Hey, that’s not a rattlesnake, I’ll show you, you’re a rattlesnake,'” Deeds said.

Three days later he came back with a huge snake skin that he had caught, which put the old one to shame. It is eight feet tall, with 27 buttons on it. And that’s what’s hanging out front right now.

The older, smaller snakeskin is also still in the bar. It’s not that easy to see. He melts into the wall, almost invisible, as if he’s dying of embarrassment.

A Story for Every Work

Deeds made it a point to learn the stories behind all the works in the bar. Every time a customer asked a question, he would say, “I don’t know, but I’ll find out.”

And learn what you did.

“People compare the bar to a museum,” Deeds said. “And that’s what actually happens. On the wall are original newspaper articles from the immediate aftermath of Custer’s last stand. “We have photos from rodeos all over the country and we have lots of photos of local people on our walls.”

One of the bar’s most iconic artifacts is the whiskey-laced cedar shingles.

There is a story behind these too.

“The bar was remodeled in the 1940s and early ’50s,” Deeds said. “And the owners paid this guy named Tuffy to sit there and burn all these brands.”

Tuffy drank whiskey while working. But eventually his work would start to get a little crooked.

“They would send him home for the day,” Deeds said. “So there are about 9,000 brands on the walls and they are specific to the region. You see them on the walls, on the ceiling, they go all the way to the back room. And they’re all made of cedar.”

During this remodeling, whole bent cedar and knotty pine were added to the bar, along with drawer pulls made from animal parts.

Deeds added that no matter how many times people have been there before, they always find new works at the bar. Like the customer who, while taking out his trash after lunch, notices a family photo on the wall that he never realized was there before.

“He said, ‘Wait a minute,'” Deeds recalled. “This is my horse!”

As he got closer he realized that it wasn’t just his horse. This was his father too.

“‘Is it worse that I knew my horse before my father did?'” Deeds said. he said. said Deeds, chuckling.

No Food But You Can Drink Like Hemingway

One thing you shouldn’t expect to find at The Mint is the food. There isn’t much about it.

Peanuts and chips if you’re lucky.

If not, Snickers bars and gum.

But the drinks selection is surprisingly extensive for a place that bills itself as a cowboy bar.

Of course, there’s plenty of beer and whiskey. In fact, there are 20 different types of whiskey and bourbon, including the hard-to-find and highly sought-after Blanton’s.

But there are also fun liqueurs like Goldschläger and Clase Azul, a Mexican tequila with a silver ball on top that can be rung like a bell. And for true tequila connoisseurs, there’s Don Julio.

There’s also Empress 1908 Gin, a fun color-changing liqueur. It turns pink when mixed with acidic ingredients, and blue when mixed with things like cucumber or simple syrup.

Pea flower liqueur contains an antioxidant called anthocyanin, which changes color according to pH. However, as long as all the ingredients remain neutral, it will remain purple.

There are quite a few cocktails, but there is no menu listing them.

For those in the know, one of the bar’s favorites is the Cowboy Colada, which consists of Pendleton whiskey and tequila mixed with pineapple and a splash of soda.

One of the most interesting cocktails they can make is the one Hemingway loved. This is particularly appropriate for the Mint and its legendary history, since Hemingway was a regular at the bar while working on his best-selling book, “A Farewell to Arms,” at the Sheridan.

The drink is a daiquiri. But it’s not the fruity, frosted candy that most people think of as a daiquiri today.

Hemingway’s daiquiri consisted of eight parts premium rum, two parts fresh lime juice, and one part simple syrup; but Hemingway sometimes skipped the sugar altogether.

“It shouldn’t taste like rum,” Hemingway said of the drink. “It shouldn’t taste like lemon, nor should it taste like sugar. It should just taste like a daquiri.

Contact Renee Jean at [email protected]

Renee Jean can be reached at [email protected].