The Little Saloon Called The Snug

The Snug Bar during its heyday on Croy Street in Hailey

In 1898, a small saloon called The Snug Bar opened on Croy Street in the newly-bustling town of Hailey. The little tavern would become a hub for the town, not only as a well-frequented watering hole, but eventually also as an intersection of history.

The Snug Bar in the 1950s

Within the walls of the bar, miners would celebrate their finds, Prohibition came and went, early pioneer relics covered the walls, and many libations would be enjoyed by locals while swapping tales of the “good old days” with the long-time bartenders of the Snug.

Even celebrities heading to Sun Valley would stop in to “see the curios.” In the 1940s, Ernest Hemingway would stop for a drink during one of his frequent visits to the Wood River Valley. As he looked over the relics displayed in the bar, he noticed an homage to poet Ezra Pound, his one-time friend and mentor. Pound was born just blocks away in a small house in Hailey in 1885. Hemingway was surprised to have stumbled upon his hometown, having spent years with Pound in Paris during the 1920s.

The last proprietor of the Snug, Al Lewis, was known in the community for his vast and eclectic collection of historic objects, which he started as a young man and proudly displayed on every surface and wall in bar. The Blaine County Courthouse had even gifted Lewis the original gold scales of Rocky Bar, Idaho, which served as the original county seat of then-Alturas County, later becoming Blaine County. After Lewis’ death in 1963, the bar was closed. And most of the relics were sold along with the building.

Many of these historic relics from the Snug have found their way back to Hailey after many years. The Museum holds a display of the Snug, showcasing many items and stories it held.  One such item is a leather-bound guestbook that sat on the well-worn bar of the Snug, its pages full of often messages from patrons and visitors to the small establishment over the decades. One inscription from 1948, by local Sheriff Les Outz, reads appropriately, “Bars come and go, but The Snug lives on forever!”

Al Lewis ready for business