HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
Often called Montana's oldest bar, and the starting point for Virginia City's nightly ghost tours
344 W Wallace St, Virginia City, MT 59755
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
No cover to enter the saloon. Ghost tours carry a separate ticket fee; check the operator for current pricing.
Access
Limited Access
Historic 1860s building on a wood-plank boardwalk; ghost tours walk dirt streets and uneven surfaces
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1863 · Often called Montana's oldest bar · Virginia City National Historic Landmark District · Film location for Little Big Man (1970) · Managed by the Montana Heritage Commission
Virginia City grew out of the 1863 gold strike at Alder Gulch and briefly served as Montana's territorial capital. The Bale of Hay Saloon stands in one of the town's oldest structures, built in 1863, and is frequently described as Montana's oldest bar. The building was first used as a grocery and liquor business beginning around 1869.
By the 1890s, businessmen named Smith and Boyd took over the space and ran it fully as a saloon. They reportedly named it the Bale of Hay as a joke, after the hay bales stacked outside for the horses kept at the livery stable next door. The saloon retains original period artwork, including a piece known as Nymphs and Satyr.
The building appeared as a film set for saloon scenes in the 1970 movie Little Big Man, starring Dustin Hoffman. In 1983 a fire broke out at the rear of the saloon and destroyed the roof, but firefighters stopped the flames before they could spread to other historic buildings on Wallace Street.
In 1997 the State of Montana purchased the Bovey family preservation holdings, which included the Bale of Hay, and created the Montana Heritage Commission to manage Virginia City's historic buildings. The saloon remains a working bar and the departure point for the town's evening ghost tours.
Sources
Each evening in season, ghost tours depart from the front of the Bale of Hay Saloon and lead visitors through Virginia City's streets and alleys. The tours narrate the town's documented dark history, including the vigilante hangings of 1864, several unsolved murders, and the spirits visitors and staff have reported in the surviving 1860s buildings.
Inside the saloon, bartenders and tour guides have described bottles shifting on the back-bar shelves, cold pockets near the rear of the building, and brief glimpses of figures in period dress reflected in the back-bar mirror. These accounts mirror the broader pattern of reports across Virginia City, where the largely undisturbed gold-rush architecture has kept ghost stories in steady circulation.
The stories attach themselves to a town with an unusually well-documented history of frontier violence. The Montana Vigilantes hanged 21 men accused of road agentry in early 1864, and the town's preserved buildings each carry recorded human history. The Bale of Hay's role as the tour's staging point keeps it central to how visitors encounter that history after dark. Tour operators present the accounts as visitor reports and local tradition rather than the product of formal investigation.
Media Appearances
A working saloon in one of Virginia City's oldest buildings, with original period artwork on the walls. Order a drink and take in the 1860s interior while exploring the preserved gold-rush town.
An evening walking tour departs from the Bale of Hay Saloon, leading visitors through the streets and alleys to hear documented accounts of the town's hangings, unsolved murders, and reported spirits.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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