Silver Dollar Saloon

In 1919, the discovery of the famous Kelly Silver Mine up the hill touched off Red Mountain’s silver boom, and that same year the Silver Dollar Saloon opened as one of the first saloons in the rush. The Rand Mining District had experienced three booms—gold in Randsburg, tungsten in Atolia, and then silver in Red Mountain after Jack Nosser and W. H. Williams discovered the silver ore bodies on April 12, 1919; the mine was later worked by the California Rand Silver Mine. Originally opened in 1919 as The Northern, the business became the Silver Dollar in the 1930s. During Prohibition it operated as a speakeasy, and for a time the highway here was lined with brothels, gambling houses, and saloons. The Silver Dollar was one of 30 saloons in Red Mountain, and because the Kelly Silver Mine was then the richest silver ore in the United States, the town bustled with hundreds of miners and later many others seeking to share in the mineral wealth.

California · United States