The Great American Bars and Saloons of the Old West - Cylinder stoves & Potbelly Stoves

Thumbing through the shelves at Barnes & Noble, we were rewarded with a great book find, a book entitled The Great American Bars and Saloons by Kathy Weiser (Chartwell Books Inc., 2006.). This is a coffee-table book with kick. Hardcover, 2006, 224 Pages.

Kathy Weiser presents the story of the old West, bars and saloons; a fascinating story told in fabulous contemporary photos from the 1850 to the 1930s. This book is rich with photographs coupled with captions and narratives that provide historical background and tell textured stories about the people, the life style, architecture, politics and so much more. Weiser preserves through word and picture a beloved piece of America’s history.

We at the Good Time Stove Company especially enjoyed this book because it included more than a dozen pictures including the Antique Stove. These photos document the use of cylinder stoves and potbelly stoves in the bars, saloons and the Old West from 1850-1930.

On page 23, you will find a classic potbelly stove in McSorley’s Old Ale House in East 7^th Street NYC, established in 1854 and laying claim to being the oldest tavern in the city.

On page 138 is a Stewart cylinder stove heating the Cosmopolitan Saloon in Telluride, Colorado. The picture looks like it came right out of an Old West film. It is complete with roulette/faro table, vested bartender and even Marshall Kenneth Maclean at the end of the long polished bar.

These wonderful wood and coal Potbelly and Cylinder stoves were the workhorses providing for the heating needs of the Old West from 1850-1930. Most thoughts of the West are associated with cowboys and outlaws and the bars and saloons in which they drank, gambled, danced and fought.

Kathy Weiser’s first venture into the publishing world takes you into the many watering holes of America’s past, particularly the numerous saloons that sprouted up during our nation’s Wild West days. This great photographic review displays hundreds of vintage photographs from California to Arizona, the mining camps of Colorado, all the way to New York and its turbulent days of Prohibition.

Online information and ordering available at http://www.legendsofamerica.com/book-descriptions/greatamericanbarssaloons.html
Kathy Weiser owns and edits http://www.legendsofamerica.com/. This is a travel site for the nostalgic and historic minded. When you travel, do you often wonder what happened at “this place” in the past? Who lived here? What were they like? How did they live their daily lives? If that’s the case for you, at Legends of America, you will find content-rich travel destinations of the American West, including Route 66, ghost towns, outlaws, treasure tales, and even a few ghosts that we bump into along the way.Filled with both vintage and current photographs, Legends of America focuses on small out of the way places and hidden attractions that appeal to the nostalgic and historic minded, giving you more than just a paragraph, we will take you there!ORDER THIS BOOK FROM KATHY WEISER ONLINE.

The Pot belly stove is the emblem of Americana. More than any other cast iron stove, the potbelly stove was used in public spaces and businesses. Pot Belly Stoves were essential to the development of this country. With the help of the potbellied stove, stores were opened, railroads built and elections won or lost. These wood stoves were designed to heat large public spaces so that crowds could gather and cluster around the warmth of a wood fire. These cast iron wood stoves were of a superior construction and the Potbelly Stove endured the most rigorous and extreme conditions heating our country’s homes and rail roads across the country during the great Western Expansion…[continued]