The Price A Cowboy Would Have Paid For A Shot Of Whiskey In The Old West

It's a familiar scene. The visuals are grainy and black-and-white. A brooding cowboy sits hunched over the bar in a noisy saloon, weary after a long day's work. He seeks just one thing: to be left alone with his shot of whiskey. Invariably, though, a brawl breaks out, and the cowboy is called into action. He downs his drink, slides the empty glass over, and gets down to the business of fighting — leaving the more pedantic viewers wondering who would pay for that drink and, more importantly, how much that shot of whiskey would have cost in the Old West. So we did a little digging.

Let's start with the one thing that's not changed. Just like you can buy a bottle of Jim Beam for under $15 or spend up to $65,000 on the most expensive bottles of bourbon ever, the prices could swing pretty wildly in the saloons of the Old West. Depending on where, and what, the cowboys were drinking, they would have spent anything from 5 to 25 cents a shot. 

According to a discussion thread on history stack exchange, these were all either one bit or two bit saloons. Think of it as the difference between a dive bar and a fancier establishment. One bit saloons charged 12.5 cents for a drink, while two bit saloons charged double. The drink itself could be anything, from a bottle of beer to a glass of whiskey. One user on the thread does argue that since the 12.5 cents was for a glass, the adjusted price for a single shot (or 4-ounce "gill") would be around 5 cents. 

There's another legend linked to cowboys and their drinking habits that keeps popping up on social media feeds. This one suggests that the origin of the term "shot of whiskey" is tied to bullets — because when cowboys were short on cash, they just paid for their whiskey with one of their .45 cartridges. To give this theory credence, these posts often mention the fact that the cost of a cartridge and the cost of a shot of whiskey were both around 12 cents, which means the cowboys were essentially paying the same price.

This theory, however, has been debunked. A 1891 catalog from Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Co. lists a single .45 cartridge costing roughly 2.5 cents ($25 for a thousand). Given that the whiskey was 10 times more expensive at a two bit saloon, the only reason any bartender would agree to that exchange was if the gun was actually put to his head. In fact, bar owners of the time were so into the idea of making money from cowboys that they often served a free meal with a drink. It's also said they served extra salty food, which made customers thirsty, so they would keep ordering more drinks. It's the same sneaky reason salty snacks are offered at bars today.

While this might sound like a fair deal for the price, even if a cowboy was spending 25 cents at a two bit saloon, the fact is that these cowboys only made $30 to $40 a month. So, considering a single drink could cost about a quarter of a day's wages, cowboys likely expected a quality pour. Instead, many were stuck with rough, poorly regulated whiskey that probably tasted far worse than what we're used to.