Roughest Bar? Where?

[AxeMan]

Another thread got me thinking about this.  What is the roughest bar you have ever been in including the worst bar fights?  I mean tables and furniture flying like in the western movies.

For me it was either the old Wild West on 50th St. or Esmarelda's at the Edmonton Inn at the muni airport.  You could bet on one fight at least every Friday or Saturday night.

I remember one fight at Esmeralda's where a hockey goon Craig Berube got into it with a bunch of guys and tore up the place pretty good.  Table I was at got smashed by a guy thrown on it. 

[walleyes]

As a career rig hand with 28 years on the road I can honestly say there aren't that many old bars I haven't been in. I have traveled this province from corner to corner and seen the best and the worst. Spent a bit of time living in Edmonton when I was just getting going in life and ran with a pretty rough crowd bikers/natives fresh out of the north from some nasty reserves,, we used to frequant a few biker bars around the province, been in every so called zoo there is,, was raised 30 miles north of Lac La Biche in a sawmill yard in the middle of 2 indian Reserves,, my point is,, I know what rough is, I know what its like to have to watch your back and beleive me I am no stranger to dust ups. With that said one of the wildest bars for fights and the one where you couldn't trust anyone just a bunch of dirty pricks looking for fights was the old stripper bar in Peace River. I can't recall the name of it now,, its been shut down for a few years the town finaly had enough and pulled the plug on it. Tables and chairs bolted down, the stripper floor was nothing more than some unpainted plywood screwed together the cops were parked outside everyday by 6 and never bothered to leave they just rotated out. Like I said I have ran in some dark places but for the most part if you minded your buisness you were always left alone,, but not that place people went there for one thing and that was to scrap and prove themselves,, if there was no fight happening one was started just because. It was one nasty shit hole. Glad those days are over for me.. I shutter sometimes to think where I would be in my life if I never would have met my wife,, that girl literaly saved my life !!

[Paul]

Much like walleyes I travelled around a lot for work when I was younger and been in bars from rainbow lake to Tulsa Oklahoma. The last time I was in a fight is well over 20 years ago, I was always adept at diffusing aggressive people,one time in Joliet Illinois a guy wanted to beat me up because he said I was a cop, I poured on the friendly Canadian accent really thick, he ended up buying me a drink instead. Again like walleyes I have been in every small town zoo, from slave lake right to brooks. A few come to mind like the almac in lac la biche, billys outlaw inn in slave lake. Never had too many problems though. I recall there used to be a t shirt around lac la biche with an angry looking native and something about the toughest town in Alberta.

[walleyes]

Much like walleyes I travelled around a lot for work when I was younger and been in bars from rainbow lake to Tulsa Oklahoma. The last time I was in a fight is well over 20 years ago, I was always adept at diffusing aggressive people,one time in Joliet Illinois a guy wanted to beat me up because he said I was a cop, I poured on the friendly Canadian accent really thick, he ended up buying me a drink instead. Again like walleyes I have been in every small town zoo, from slave lake right to brooks. A few come to mind like the almac in lac la biche, billys outlaw inn in slave lake. Never had too many problems though. I recall there used to be a t shirt around lac la biche with an angry looking native and something about the toughest town in Alberta.

That was old Jeep Burke.. He was the one of the town drunks,, and the town maskot of all things.. Not a bad old guy never hurt anyone just a drunk. He is actualy a great uncle of Rene Bourque the hockey player. I am not sure why Rene changed the spelling of his name,, funny thing is now all the Burkes in Lac La Biche changed the spelling of their name and how you say it.. It was always said Birk,, now its said Bork ?? Proud of their heritage I guess ??

Lac La Biche and the the Highschool was always regarded as the toughest Towm/Highschool in Canada,, funny thing is growing up there we never viewed it as such,, its just the way things were.. It definetly was a tough place though I guess.. It never took much to get a scrap going,, but they were clean scraps you know.. No knives or weapons,, just good ol fist fights. It was a common thing to have traffic stopped on main street and have a good scrap going,, the vehicles would pull over and the crowd would gather around and watch,, pretty common place. Even the Police would roll up and let it play itself out then once the boys or girls hit the dirt they would shut it down. Very rare charges were layed,, just send everyone home.. We were all watching a good scrap one time,, some of the boys from Plamondon came over and got into it with some of our boys,, all was good until one of them boys went to the trunk of his car and pulled out a table leg,, that was it,, couple of the older boys that were standing watch went up to him,, gave him a slap on the head and set the rules straight,, no weapons,, grabbed the table leg and kicked him in the ass and sent them on their way lol.. It was a tough town,, but we had our rules.. The natives living in some of the nrothern communities would kill each other often, I think that had a lot to do with its reputation as well. They would start dinking and drink for days until someone got killed or died,, same there. The cops would go up,, get the body, do a bit of an investigation and leave, sometimes the guy would be found sometimes not. I don't think they tried to hard. What was the point, they would be out in 6 months anyways,, just let them settle their disputes.

[AxeMan]

Lac La Biche was/is bad for sure.  Me and a buddy were in the Almac for a beer after fishing and a local lady took a liking to me.  I didn't think I was going to get out of there alive.  She wasn't about to take no for an answer......lol.  In Lac La Biche, I am scared of the women never mind the men.....

[sureshot]

I used to bounce at the kingsway inn back in the early 90's that place used to get out of hand. Worst fight I've been in was outside Ernie O's in Edson in 1990 my two roommates and I got jumped by 7 guys there my one roommate was killed. I was a regular at Esmeralda's I remember a lot of good fights there.

Andy

[AxeMan]

That's bad about your roommate, Andy.

Ya, I forgot about the place at the Kingsway (downstairs), wasn't it called Truckers or something like that.  It was bad.

[NBFK]

The high level bars are rough. I also remember watching a fair share of bare knuckle boxing in slave lake at "jimmys" while I was working.

[sporthunting]

Had my electric ave days in calgary always good for alot of fights never could figure out why 5 cent draft and $1 high balls was a bad idea.  Worked the rigs for awile so hit most of the bars in ever little town in Alberta.  In Edmonton some of the biker bars were rough, The West had its moments. Worst night I can remember was a bar in Calgary called Spagutichis (probably spelled wrong) but ended up in the parking lot in a good brawl and a buddy got hacked up pretty bad with a machette.

Did alot of fighting in my day. Im much better now lol.

[unclebuck]

The Black Horse in Loon Lake, Sask.  When I lived there in the early 70's, it was a segregated bar, natives on one side, and whites on the other.  Dare any native cross the line, he would get his behind whipped up badly by the 6'6, 280 lb. barkeep.  It was my first experience in a situation like this, and found it to be quite enlightening, to say the least.  They had firepits out back with all the wood that you could burn.  More than once, while having a wobbly around the fire with one who is now my wife of 40 yrs, interracial scraps would break out.  Hang on to your beer and anything moveable and watch the action, because if you did not have a good hold on your beer, chances were it would go flying over the fence, along with anything loose that was on your table.   

[Lurch]

They all have moments - some more than others.

Down south - Bridge Inn and Alec Arms in Lethbridge. Cook County Saloon/Wild Rose honorable mention. The Zoo in Brooks.

The Mill at Chetwynd BC and can't remember the name - but the place in Babb Montana also.