TINCANBANDIT visits the Palace Saloon

 This post is a follow up to my post on my visit to Tombstone Arizona (see that post here). We also planned a trip to Prescott and part of that included touring Whiskey Row.

In the middle of Whiskey Row is the "Oldest and Most Historic Saloon/Restaurant in Arizona" known as the Palace Saloon. Wyatt and Virgil Earp were known to frequent this bar as was Doc Holliday and Big Nose Kate.

Virgil & Allie arrived in Prescott in October of 1877 by the summer of 1878 Virgil was appointed Prescott's "Night Watchman", then in November of 1878 he was elected as the Constable. Virgil was sworn in at the County Courthouse across Montezuma Ave from the Palace Saloon.

In the summer of 1879 Virgil wrote to his brother Wyatt to tell him about the opportunities in the silver boom town of Tombstone.

In September of 1879 Wyatt and Mattie along with his younger brother James met with Doc and Kate in Las Vegas, New Mexico Territory and then traveled to Prescott to meet with Virgil. It was there that the plans were laid to move to Tombstone and seek their fortunes. Who knows the plans may have been made at the Palace itself?

After learning that Virgil would be leaving for Tombstone, U.S. Marshal Crawley Dake swore in Virgil as the "US Deputy Marshal for Pima County, Tombstone Territory", the date was November 27th, 1879. (side note: this was before Cochise County was carved out of Pima County). His orders were to straighten out the issues with cattle rustling and stagecoach robberies in the area.

They loaded up their bags and boarded the train for Tucson.

The 72 miles between Tucson and Tombstone was traveled via covered wagon and probably took 3-4 days.

This is the same bar that Wyatt, Virgil, James and Doc drank at.

On July 14th, 1900, a fire broke out on Whiskey Row and the entire block was leveled. Some patrons did manage to save the bar and some barrels of beer and watched the fire from the lawn of the courthouse across Montezuma Avenue while drinking the salvaged suds.

Here is what it looked like after the fire.

The following year, the Palace and many of the other saloons were rebuilt and still stand today.