The name of "Camp" was given liecause the tide of travel to and from the hills had become so great awaiting its completion, that the caravans and pedestrians congregated on either side of the valley in that immediate vicinity gave the appearance of a bivouac. That Sidney, the county seat of Cheyenne county, should frequently have gotten its name, together with a photograph giving a bird's-eye view of its principal thoroughfare, in the Police Gazette was not surprising. With the fort on it^ outskirts. the cowbov surrounding it. and the gold-

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

hunter passing through or returning with hopes of fortune high or else with disappointment weighing heavily on his heart, no wonder that numerous saloons in that vicinity became the most crowded and popular resorts in the country. The bartender was an artist in those days and he had a separate bottle for every class he was called upon to serve. The soldier on his sixteen dollars per month required a ready-mixed concoction that would bring about the desired result in one fifteen-cent draught. The cowboy, whose spirit of ever-ready comradery required more numerous potations, was given a better and a milder draught. The buoyant gold-seeker naturally craved the best, and he whose hopes had already been clashed, would take what he could best pay for -- generally known as "forty rod." Hence originated the saying that "Every drink contained a dance, a song and a fight." and it was the common lament of the frequenters of those places that if you stopped to watch a fight in one salocn, you would miss seeing two around the corner. As civilization advances, such conditions as these are surely outgrown and the change is sometimes brought about as quickly as a panorama. The North Western railroad built into the hills and the trail from Sidney to Deadwood ceased to be infested with the mounted highwayman and the animated metropolis lost its principal source of gaiety and coin.