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THE PINE
STREET SALOON
As story
tells it and rumors has it...
By
Benford "Buffalo" Standley
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After two years
on the road with Merle Haggard
working with him on his documentary
and his work with
me on my documentary on the Father
of Country Music, I needed to leave
the road and hang with my kids in
Paso Robles. When I mentioned
to Merle
that I was going
to live in Paso back in 2006, he
said, "Hey...What is the name of the
old Saloon
there?" I said, "Hmmmm,
Pine Street Saloon."
He said, "Yep that's
it...I remember
it from my days traveling out of
Bakersfield."
Hag was always
complaining that there are so few
Saloons left, now's there only
theaters and big
concert arenas. He would say,
"I'm a bar band and I am running
out of places to
play."
On the Department
of Parks and Recreation Historic
Resources Inventory regarding
the Pine Street
Saloon building it says, "This two
story structure is one of the oldest
buildings in down town Paso."
In fact plaque on the Saloon has:
1860 circa
Rumor has it that
in the late 1800's twas a raw wild
west section of town down Pine
Street,
where cattle men drove herds into
town, where cowboys partook of
refresh-
ments in one of
the 15 saloons. There were 3
banks in town during these times.
On Pine Street,
also known as "skid row" every
Saturday there were horse races
as entertainment
for cattlemen, ranchers and town
folks. It is said that these
were
going on during
the days that
Jesse and Frank James
were hanging out in town, unknown to
most people and they were seen at
the dances and around town... |
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In 1888 J.
Campbell operated a saloon at
1236-1238, the original site of
the Pine Street Saloon
before the 2003 San Simeon
Earth-quake. For many
years back then it served as a
saloon, a billiard parlor and a
card room. It was one of
the oldest brick structures in
Paso Robles. South and
right next to the building at
1234 Pine St. where now
the famed
Pine Street Saloon is
kicking up dust nightly,
the brick building that housed
the first Pine Street Saloon
was completed CIRCA: 1887/1892.
"In 1971
Pat French bought the
bar, when it had the only beer
license and was called the Red
Door. Ms. French and Jim
Johnson, the local sheriff's
deputy, began collecting the
mirrors, beer signs and other
memorabilia that now cover the
walls of this popular landmark
and civic treasure."
In 1980 Pine
Street went through a remodeling
session and at a time the name
was changed from the Red Door to
what is now known as "The
Pine Street Saloon".
In 1996, the Saloon started
serving liquor from a full bar.
In 2001 the Saloon moved next
door to its current location at
1234 Pine Street.
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Right next to Ray's Card Room is the
original
Pine Street Saloon, just
to the right is the wood structure
that is now the Pine Street Saloon
where you see the truck on the far
right parked in front of the Saloon. |
The two story redwood
building, with the "Western False
Front", which at the time, was for sure
not "False" in that it was built during
the
true days of the wild
west. What we call "false" now was
right out of the wild west in a time of
cowboys, stage coaches, and the Pony
Express...
Back in those early
days it had a narrow balcony at the
second floor level. "Old records
give some indication that the first
floor was used
as a saloon, and the
second floor a boarding house, and as
story again tells... a Bordello.
You can just see the ladies of the night
out on
the balcony luring
the cowboys and ranchers up to their
rooms...sometime in those early days it
housed the Cosmopolitan Hotel and a
saloon. In the
1890tys it was known as the Young Hotel.
It was a popular hotel where delicious
food was served at reasonable rates.
In 1960 it became the
Estrada Bar. But, now and maybe
forever known as the
Pine Street Saloon.
The Pine
Street Saloon has had a very interesting
list of pickers and grinners, actors and
characters belly up
to the bar,
shake a leg, or actually ride their horse
into the Saloon...
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Now this is a old timey Saloon
buckaroos
Name how many Saloons you see
this happen
in the 21st Century... |
PIONEER DAYS |
Ron French
Proprietor of the famous Pine
Street Saloon
A long
running patron of the Pine Street
Saloon
and
friend of Pat French was Chief
Fallen Rock
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Below is a
list of some outlaws & characters including
Chief Fallen Rock,
that have
been belly-up to the bar at the Pine Street
Saloon...
so the
story goes
Jesse
James
rumor has it and hear say
Frank
James
visited Paso several times
Merle
Haggard
great memories of Pine St
Saloon
Nicolas
Escarpio rode with Poncho
Villa
Mel Gibson
actor/producer/director
Sam Elliot
actor
Robert
Mitchum
actor
Glen
Campbell
songwriter, music star,
session guitar
Sandy
Koufax
baseball star
Ramblin'
Jack Elliott
the legendary
Gary Busey
the one and only
Robert
Carradine
of the Carradine dynasty
Kacey
Musgraves
huge present rising country
star
Bernie
Taupin
songwriter partner with
Elton John
Chris
Felver
author/photographer/filmmaker
Jack
Tempchin Eagle's song writer
Chief
Fallen Rock patron for years
with great stories
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Louie Ortega
Grammy Award winner
Paula Nelson
Willie Nelson's daughter
Connie Nelson
- ex wife of Willie Nelson
Kenny Lee
Lewis Steve Miller Band's lead
guitar
Nick St.
Nicholas bass player for
Steppenwolf
John Andrew
Parks
songwriter/performer
Tennessee
Jimmy Harrell
local country performer
Tony James
tv and music star
Norm Sancho
from Jack Tempchin's band
Rick Rosa
bass player Neil Young
K.M. Williams
legendary blues player
Travis Howard
Miranda Lambert songwriter
Greg Kinnear
movie actor
Lauren
Francisca
Internet star
Bryan Lloyd
great one man show on keyboards
Michael Tozzi
guitar and harp player
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Rising
fast Country Star
Kacey
Musgraves
at Pine Street Saloon |
Travis Howard, hit song writer
for
County
Mega star Miranda Lambert |
Kenny
Lee Lewis lead guitar for Steve
Miller
Band for 30 years, and Internet
sensation
Laura Francisca |
Jesse James
as he
looked when hiding out in Paso in
1868-69,
or
thereabouts
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Called the last of the
"old-time beverage-purveying establishments
of a bygone era in a town that once boasted
dozens of such places."
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Bernie Taupin and
Norm Sancho
Bernie is Elton John
songwriter/partner
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Louie
Ortega, Eliza and
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
two
Grammy Award winning artist... |
Nicolas Escarpio
who rode
with Poncho Villa |
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Louie Ortega, Kenny
Lee Lewis,
who has been playing lead guitar for
the Steve
Miller
band for the past 30 years and the
great
John Andrew Parks on the
right |
Paula Nelson Band,
and yepper that is the
daughter
of the one and only Willie Nelson |
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Jack
Tempchin, Eagles' hit songwriter
of
Peaceful Easy Feeling, Already Gone
and more
photo
Richard Bastian |
Robert Carradine, John Andrew Parks,
Louie
Ortega, and
Bryan Lloyd |
James
Dean walking down 12th St. with
Pine
Street behind him...start the rumor |
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Connie Nelson
(ex Mrs. Willie Nelson) Paula
Nelson, Kerry Swallum, of Willie
Nelson's
Luck Films and
filmmaker/author/photographer
Chris Felver on right
photo
Richard Bastian |
Merle
Haggard, who told Benford he
hung out some at Pine Street
Saloon years back and his pal
Benford
Standley,
producer/writer/carnie |
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Nick
St. Nicholas
bass
player for Steppenwolf |
The one
and only Gary Busey
boards the Pine Street Saloon Lemo
for a
ride back to Hollywood...no kiddin'!!!!
photo
Richard Bastian |
Robert Carradine,
actor/musician
of the
great Carradine movie dynasty |
Matt Kettmann in his
article in
Smithsonian Magazine talked about his
six-man entourage embarking on what he
called "the most authentic and
doable old-school tour of
the West Coast" and saying, "Our
visits to a handful of Santa Barbara and San
Luis Obispo county’s longest continually
ale-slinging establishments would indicate
that ghost stories may be as old as the
saloons themselves." A number
of times in the Smithsonian
talked about the
Pine Street Saloon and stories owner
Ron French told them "his security cameras
were picking up a presence...but was it a
mere illusion or something more ghostly,"
Matt asks...
The Smithsonian Magazine
articles goes on to say:
First opened by Ron’s mother, Pat French, in
1971, the Pine Street Saloon ditched its old
location in 2002 to move into the circa 1865
building
next door. That was just in time to avoid
the massive Paso Robles earthquake of 2003,
which knocked down their old brick building
but only
tilted their new wooden structure. French,
it turns out, might just be the most
hospitable saloonkeeper on the planet,
having refurbished the
upstairs brothel rooms into a boardinghouse
of sorts to accommodate overly inebriated
guests and purchasing a limousine to drive
such
patrons home for free, so long as they’re
within Paso Robles’ city limits.
more: smithsonianmag.com/travel/The-Historic-Saloons-of-Central-California.html#ixzz2MG6n24SR
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Chris
Felver,
filmmaker/photographer/author |
Amy
Estrada from A-town, now writing
songs in Nashville & Chuck
Ward,
in
Georgett Jones Band, daughter of
George Jones & Tammy Wynett |
Tennessee Jimmy Harrell |
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Movie
shot at Camp Roberts in 2002
and cast
and crew stayed in Paso Robles |
Greg
Kinner,
in We Were Soldiers
and hung
at Saloon with Mel and Sam |
Mel
Gibson, Sam Elliott
and Greg Kinner hung out at
the Pine Street
Saloon
while outside of town filming the
movie "We Were Soldiers" |
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Chris
Kenner also in We Were Soldiers
and at Saloon |
Mike
Tozzi |
Super
model
Elanie Lee and Buffalo
Benford |
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Rick
Rosas, Bass for Neil Young's
Crazy
Horse Band |
Norm
Stephens, played lead guitar for
Merle Haggard,
Lefty
Frizzell and Hank Thompson |
Cass
Warner, filmmaker Granddaugher
of one of
the
founders of Warner Brothers, Jack
Warner |
Paso Robles has a rich
history entwined in the
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Jesse and
Frank James
taken in the mid 1870's
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With all the
movies, dime novels, articles and
books written about Jesse James
and his now
famous James Gang
from back in his day to now, have
all created a great and legendary
tale and
makes Jesse and
Frank James two of the most famous
outlaws in American history.
Jesse and
Frank's uncle
Drury James, is one of the founders
of Paso Robles, and bought into the
town and
ended up owning
the hot springs, in that he thought
the town would make a great health
resort. The
story goes Drury
was passing through on a
cattle drive to sell cattle to the
gold miners in San
Francisco and
stopped off the rest and lay in the
hot springs on Spring Street, and
was so amaze
at how it healed
him from his saddle sores that the
idea begin to develop in his mind.
It is said that
Jesse James took shelter with his
Uncle, who hid the outlaw under the
alias “Scotty”
from the militia,
sheriffs and bounty hunters at his
Paso Robles hotel and his ranch
where Jesse
and Frank worked
as Vaqueros, and later on started
hanging in the Pine Street
Saloons...the time
recorded in a
number of tales is in 1868 to 1869.
A number of
stories tell of Jesse and Frank
James coming to town to attend
dances and horse races...
we can only
assume and take the "dime novel
liberty" to imagine that Frank and
Jesse James did in
fact come into
the bar at the present location of
Pine Street if not for a beer or a
shot of something a
little stronger,
or even to frolic with one of the
girls in the brothel upstairs, and
substantiate the rumor
that they had
come to this saloon that has been
passed down for decades. In
1885, Jesse is shot in
Nashville.
After a gun fight with the militia
that had come to his mom's house he
decided to head to
the West Coast to
hide out. Brother Frank James,
his brother, took the train, and
Jesse took a
steamer around
the Horn from New York, because of
his gun shot to the lungs the train
or horse
back would have
been too hard on the ailing outlaw. |
His Uncle hid out the
outlaw Jesse and his brother Frank, and
story goes that Jesse came a few times a
week to the hot springs from his uncle's
ranch, and healed his gunshot wound in
the hot sulfur waters that had been
healing springs for thousands of years
to the Salinan
Indian Nation who
lived near. Then came the Spanish and
the Catholic Church and established Casa
del Paso de Robles. In 1813, after
running the Indians
off, they built a shelter over the
springs.
After a year or so in
Paso Robles it is told that Jesse and
Frank were getting a little wild around
town, and there was some saying they had figured out who
Jesse was and because of Drury's status
in the town no one did anything, but he
thought best to get them out of town...
so he personally took
them to San Francisco where he bought
them both steamer tickets around Cape
Horn to New York, before it was discovered he was
hiding the famous outlaw James brothers.
Years after Frank James returned several
times to Paso Robles, though
hard to find
much information on his times
here...
A number of articles
on the saloon action on Pine Street
during these late 1800s, which was the
exact time that Jesse James and
his brother Frank were
hanging out in Paso Robles.
Have no doubt that Jesse and Frank James
hung out on Pine Street...and no
doubt that
their uncle
and founding member of Paso
Robles spent time on the famed
Pine Street.
Want to
know some more about the
Street that was known as "Skid Row" and
did you hear about the tunnels under
Paso? What brought James Dean to
Paso Robles before is final
ride here to
town...want to know some more of
the geology and stories about
subterranean
underground
rivers of sulfur, gold and
minerals running hot and cold in
Paso, stories of
Clint
Eastwood and Marilyn Monroe,
Barbara Streisand and stories
untold about the great
Salinan Tribe
that settled the area before the
Spanish even knew what a
Catholic was, or
a sword, or
car shows and wine...
READ MORE ON PINE AND SPRING
STREET
By Buffalo Benford
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Drury James, uncle of Jesse
and Frank
James, cattleman, rancher, and the
man
that had to vision to take the hot
springs
and turn Paso Robles into a health
resort.
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Research from and
Thanks to:
Depart. of Parks & Recreation
Historic Resources Inventory
El Paso Robles Area Historical
Society
Number of pictures above taken by
Richard Bastian
Main Street Association
Pioneer Museum
Self Guided Walking Tour of
Historic Buildings
Daniel Blackburn
Paso Robles Business Directory
And the 30 or so people that I
got stories from...
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INFORMATION
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AND
LINKS TO INFORMATION
STORIES YOU HAVE HEARD
RUMORS AND TALL TALES
PLUS STORIES ON THE
TUNNELS UNDER PASO
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