Armstrong, then came from Alliance and built a story and half frame near the depot, where he opened for a time. A colored tramp painter came along and Armstrong had him print a sign upon the roof, in letters seven feet long. It was not a neat job, and not evenly spaced. Armstrong made him paint another "N" on the name, so that until the building burned some years later, the first sign to greet the eye of the stranger at the station was "S-A-L-O-O-N-N." Dan McAlseese, of Sidney, once owned this place.

The saloon was short-lived in Scottsbluff, and went out of business by a seven to one vote in 1907, since which the town and city has been consistently dry. There has been some boot-legging, but no more than in other places of equal size and importance. The officers are generally very vigilant, and are constantly picking up those whom are bent on infractions of the liquor laws.

Early Days in Scottsbluff With the building of new towns, there is always the spirit that at first challenges the authority of law. Not however with the lawless spirit, but with the spirit of independence. They want no restraining influence, no interference with what they are doing. The old west was more inclined to this than the newer towns. Yet, when Scottsbluff came into existence there were numbers of the old regime, who took it upon themselves to give the new town a touch of high life -- to stage a sort of a realism to the order, or lack of order that once obtained. This throwback of ten or twenty years was the end of the wild west in Scotts Bluff county. Naturally, there were some really lawless episodes instead of relaxation, for the evilly inclined always take advantage of a condition and throw in with innocent amusements and sometimes transform them into orgies that should not exist.