Long Branch Saloon

Long Branch Saloon
Interior of the Long Branch Saloon
General information
Status	original destroyed by fire in 1885.
Architectural style	False-front
Location	Dodge City, Kansas, United States
Opened	c.1874
Destroyed	1885
Owner	Chalk Beeson, William H. Harris, Luke Short, and others.

The Long Branch Saloon was a well-known saloon in Dodge City, Kansas from about 1874 to 1885. It had numerous owners, most notably Chalk Beeson and gunfighter Luke Short. The establishment provided gambling and live entertainment, including Beeson's five-person orchestra. It was the scene of several altercations, shoot-outs, gunfights, and standoffs often associated with cattle towns in the American wild west, the most famous of which was the 1879 Long Branch Saloon Gunfight, in which Frank Loving killed Levi Richardson.

The saloon was built as the result of a wager between cowboys and soldiers playing ball. Bets were placed and if the cowboys beat the soldiers, the soldiers agreed to provide building materials to construct a saloon.

Chalkley Beeson, a wealthy farmer and rancher, and William Harris bought the saloon in 1878. Harris named it after his hometown of Long Branch, New Jersey. It was a plain storefront bar with little ornamentation, which was typical for frontier saloons of the time. The saloon prospered until the railroad replaced the cattle drive. The establishment burned down in a fire in 1885, and was never rebuilt.

The saloon soon became the most popular and refined saloon in Dodge City. Beeson was a talented musician and led a five-piece orchestra that played nightly. The Long Branch Saloon served milk, tea, lemonade, Sarsaparilla, all types of alcohol including champagne and beer.Anheuser-Busch was the original beer served at the Long Branch. Drinks were kept cold in the winter from ice that came from the river; in the summer ice was shipped by train from the mountains of Colorado. Gambling ranged from a game of five cent "chuck-a-luck" to thousand dollar poker pots.

The saloon hosted many Old West characters, including Clay Allison, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Loving, Dave Mather, Town Marshal Charlie Bassett, and brothers Bat, Ed, and James Masterson.