Cold Beer and Ice Cream in the Old West?

They did! They really did have it. I could have survived back then after all! lol.

Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!

Well, actually the signs they used to advertise their beer said "Cool Beer" not cold beer! And even then it was a big luxury because back in the 1800's people were used to drinking their beer at room temperature. I know, these days it would take some getting used to, especially in the heat of summer.

Believe it or not most of the saloons did have ice though. They used to cut ice from frozen lakes and rivers and take it to specially built "ice houses" or caves or ice cellars and it would keep all summer.

Down in the deeper South they would bring it in on special ships from Canada or New England. They could also make ice with a chemical reaction using ammonia nitrate and there were ice companies in Southern California in the mid 1800's which did this.

It must have been expensive though because I haven't found any information on that in the traditional Western Territories like the Great Plains. But yes, even without modern refrigeration they had the ability to serve cool beer and make ice cream.

By the way, many of the Amish here in America still cut out blocks of ice from rivers and ponds:

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I know people don't associate the Old Western town with ice cream and soda fountains but in the 1870's these were quite popular, especially with the ladies.

I know that when one of the famous descriptions of the gunfight at the OK Corral came out people thought it was a fraud because it said that the Earp brothers walked past an ice cream shop on their way to the corral and people didn't believe there was such a thing back then! lol.

But historians researched the town of Tombstone and sure enough, there was an ice cream shop on that street. It was more the ice cream sodas that became the rage and not just ice cream, that came later. They started their soda counters in drug stores or pharmacies and not saloons though.

Here is a great photo of an old soda fountain in Junction City, Kansas. The year was 1890:

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The flavors listed on the left are as follows:

• Don't Care
• Coffee
• Nector
• Orange
• Banana
• Ginger
• Wildcherry
• Sarsparilla

And on right is listed:

• Chocolate
• Pineapple
• Rasberry
• Strawberry
• Lemon
• Vanilla
• Root Beer

And then at the bottom is Coca-cola which was being pushed as a health drink. Look at this wonderful ad from the 1890's for Coca-cola:

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Wow, that stuff was miraculous back then! lol. Classy ad though. Ok, back to the soda. The ice cream soda waters were made with cold ingredients: cream, flavored syrups and soda water. All natural flavors of course.

Soda water machines were needed to create the drink, and they were really big like the one shown above. Around 1874, ice cream started being substituted for cream to create the new ice cream soda concoction.

Here's another one. I like the way they were so ornate with custom woodwork, just total class:

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In 1879, owner of a confectionery in Fort Scott, Kansas by the name of Julius Cohn said "The boss new summer drink is ice cream soda…. It is just immense!"

And in 1882 the newspaper The Placer Herald described ice cream soda as "Ice cream and one soda in a moonlight sonata of perfect harmony.”

What's entertaining to me is that with the ladies going crazy over this new treat, you had all these rough cowboys taking their women to the soda fountain! lol. That image is just funny to me because I know that's what happened. And it had to lend some civility to the rough and tumble cow towns.

This one had to cost a fortune: