Saturday, October 30, 2010

The Silver Dollar in Ghent, Minnesota

Last night I read with the amazingly talented Kyle Minor at the Marshall Festival at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, Minnesota, and after the reading the festival's organizer, my good pal Anthony Neil Smith, took Kyle and me and a grad student in creative writing (Dan Vierck, remember that name) over to the nearby town of Ghent to the Silver Dollar, the first bar in Minnesota--not the oldest, but somehow the first. The distinction apparently has to do with a long-ago change in the liquor laws of the state, but no one could quite explain the exact nature of the claim.

In any case, they have one of the best old bar signs I've ever seen. Here's Kyle, standing before it like a badass.

5 comments:

  1. The "one comment" curse strikes again!

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  2. I did a little interweb poking around. Apparently the Silver Dollar received the first liquor license granted in Minnesota after the repeal of Prohibition. I guess if they want to fussy about the wording, there were bars before Prohibition which are older, but this is the first bar under the new liquor laws.

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  3. You guys have all the fun!! Awesome sign by the way.

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