The thread on stuck in Dutch Harbor got me thinking about some of the toughest Alaska bars I heve been in. Here are my cantidates, but I'm sure there are many other contenders.

Anchorage - Montana Bar , Crazy Horse

Dilingham - Willow Tree

Dutch - Elbow Room

Yakatat - Glass door AKA Crack Whore

Soldotna - Good Time Charlies

Nome - Nugget

Kotzebue - Nuluckvik Inn - Ponderosa- unnamed native bar

Juneau - Whaler - Red Dog

Kenai - Uptown late at night


Seward - Damn I forget but it was a hoot.

How many more can you guys name?

Now Dave, which ones do you still have an unpaid tab in ???

Kenai - The red bar across from Beaver Creek.

I've had a few good times in the Totem Tavern in Wrangell, and Ruth Ann's in Craig can be interesting after 11pm.

ketchican the arctic, or ravens roost

Seem to remember a pretty tough one on Creek Street in Ketchikan when I commercial fished in college one year in the early 80's call the Shamrock.

Can't believe no one mentioned the B & B in Kodiak.
Even a docile person like myself can get in trouble there.

Good Time Charlies does not really qualify as a bar now does it? You do have to be tough to walk into this place because you may come out with an STD from just sitting down.

Naknek--Hadfields

You are 100% correct. I once saw an old fisherman in the B&B remove his false teeth an set them on the bar before beginning a fight. I fell in love there one night. But . . . .

I fell in love there one night. But . . . .[/quote]

That had to have been scary!
Did you get "Meccanized" prior to going to the B & B?
I love Tony's but with Andy gone as the owner it's not quite the same.

P bar in sitka would have to be on the list. Though it has mellowed from it's peak in the 70's and 80's.

I'm amazed no one has mentioned that famous bar halfway between Anchorage and Fairbanks "SLIPPERY DICKS HALF WAY INN"

Along with Chillcook Charlies

The Hill Bar in Craig. After all the fisherman crash for the night, the locals come out. I heard a husband and wife in the street, below my window, fighting. She yelled at him, "I thought you were still in Jail?!", Followed by one of the best left hooks I've ever seen.
Can't wait to get back up there next June...

Kev

There was alot of noise from that place when I was there Kev. A couple of processers where in port and it was noisey until 3am or so. Saw the deputy at braekfast and he said he was really busy for an hour or so.

The "Birds Nest"?, which has since burned down. It was on the way to the Kenai about 1/2 way between Anchorage and Aleyska. Up there working in May one year and my old boss and I heard a rumor that we had to check this place out so off we go...

We stumble up to the place and as we enter we nearly get KO'd by two dogs fighting in the middle of the bar and a few people cheering like madmen. Bar has sawdust floors, giant autographed panties and bras strung up on the ceiling and walls from drunk ladies who have made there way in over the years. Electrical wires hanging out from outlets and some scary ass looking people hanging out...i would imagine the place saw a few crazy bar fights in its day. Cheers

Now this would make for an entertaining Discovery Channel Documentary.

Rosie's in Pelican.

Speaking of the Bird House, I once saw my huge friend Todd - 6'8' 340 lbs, tell two big guys who were raising a ruckus in the Bird House, that if they didn't quiet down he would have to take them both outside and spank them. They quieted down.

One of the many charms of the Bird House was the bras and undies nailed to the walls and the entire dollar bills, and the sagging roof.. They also had a ptarmigan cal that they let the tourists blow. It blew a big load of talcum powder in their faces. Yeah, I miss the Alaska of the 70 and 80s.

Didja ever try the Birdhouse HOT pickles?

fp

Ruth Ann's and the Hill bar in Craig always seem pretty tame, for a good time go check out the Craig Inn sometime, the pink building with the elk rack.

The old Marine Bar (t!tty bar) in Ketchikan was the only bar I've ever been thrown out of and that was by a 60 year old gal tending bar, how was I to know your not suppose to stick your tongue out when a nip is bouncing in your face, worst part was, I never saw her coming, my buddies picked me up off the sidewalk and told me about it.

this is great! keep them coming

The first time I went to the Kenai and drove into Soldotna I was expecting a wildnerness experience. We rounded the corner near Sterling and there was Charlie Puzo's club....moved from Woodinville in the good old days in Washington when you could buy booze in the strip clubs....anyway we stopped in and were the only ones there in the morning...they had a huge screen with the famous gal with the biggest boobs in the world doing stuff I better not describe....One of the guys with me sat at the bar the goes around the dance floor....out comes on of theugliest women ever dancing for him...he refused to give her money because he was just sitting there to have a beer in the morning. We got run off which was a good thing....sleazy place.

Sometimes you eat the bar, sometimes the bar eats you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4CO_5rBWE4&feature=related

No shiat..." worlds most dangerous bars "

lol

Too funny. I have done the dropped butt in crotch wiggle, scream, go off the road thing.

I'd have to agree. The couple time we hit them last Summer,there wasn't anything happening.

It was so boring,the last couple nights we just bought a 1/2 gallon of Whiskey and got drunk in our room.

I have been to a few bars in Alaska.drove the alcan to Fairbanks inlate 80s was the anniversary of hwy .skinny dicks had the worst smelling black lab i have seen in my life laid under the table on our feet the hole night fun tav my little bro use to sleep on the pool table at night to much fun to drive home.stoped at a old army tent converted to a bar & went to a place out side of Fairbanks can't remember the name bands played all night had a coral to play volleyball in off the side of the place lots of fun place stayed open till 5 closed long enough to clean up and opened for business again in a hour or two.spent 29 days in situk doing a job for a customer .went to a little [censored] hole bar one night got so drunk with a couple of locals my helpers had to carry me out to the car.there's only two things to do in situk fish & drink.

Monkey Warf in Anchorage during the 1980's. Live monkeys and nekked women.

Vedder--You went into the Glass Door?
I still don't have the guts to go in there! That is one scary place.

Yep. Nick and I went. I think we had a good time. I lost Nick and went back to the lodge at about 2:30. He stumbled in at about 5:00.

Funny thing is about a week after the trip i found i had his wader liners. When I toldd him I had them, he said, "Thank God. I knew they were missing but was worried about how that happened.

May not be the toughest, but seems all my trips to Alaska have run through this joint...

Dave:
Are you sure Nick is not married to one of the locals now?
I am sure he was taken advantage of by one of those beauties and does not remember it!

I have been to several of the mentioned bar's in Alaska.

But try walking in to the Boothill Saloon in Daytona Beach wearing a Suzuki, Honda or any other kind of Japenese made motorcycle shirt sometime.

You don't want to experience that.

JJ's at Campbell River!!

Don't leave out the Clam Shell in Clam Gulch. It may be gone now but it was a dandy. Neighbor lady got beat up by a guy she didn't even know one night. I know because I had to patch her up. No stitches for her and she still carries the scar from my tape job!

I made the mistake of combing my hair one time while I was up there and then walking into the bar. Some smart ass commercial fisherman called me a damn lawyer and the fight was on! Once we patched it up I told him never to call me that again! Can you imagine that? What an insult!

Just next door they had one of the only real life wild west shootouts I had ever witnessed between the horse wrangler and his ex girlfriend. They both emptied their 6 guns and never hit a thing!

not to be a jerk but the elbow room is actually in unalaska. i spent my 21 b day there.

Good Time Charlies in Soldotna
Bush Company in Anchorage Everybody will agree

If I remember right, there is a little bar in Akutan but I can not think of the name just a little poduc place, but stiff drinks

Now Dave,
I was in the "Brig" one night in Wragell , AK when something set on my face, & I think it was a "Beaver" because it was hairy and had a "broad tail!"

Raft-Cat

Hey, nobody mentioned Kito's Cave in Petersburg.....if I'm not mistaken, which I could be, the #1 bar west of the mississippi for # of police calls in 1980 was the "Flame" in downtown bellingham....and #2(that year) was Kito's cave.....granted this is all "memory"......

As somone who has battled in most of the bars in Alaska, I would have to say that Kito's cave in Petersburg is the roughest, next is the beach comber's in Kodiak. the best fights alway's broke out on wet t-shirt nights on wednesdays, ( fisherman vs coasty's ) The fisherman always inflected the most damage. Then it was the elbow room, There was a reason they only had one table and a couple of chairs.
Both the shamrock and the marine bar in Ketchikan, I thought were pretty mellow, too busy looking at box ,if you know what I mean:)
The bar in Akutan was called the road house and only served beer not hard lic, at least upto the mid 90's, We were asked never to come back. I guess we drank to much beer. If you see rossy, tell her I said hi.
I've seen alot of fights and have never seen as many chairs and tables flying oh' and people too as I have in Kito's cave, and not to forget about those dam hanging licquar bottle lights they had also. I can honestly say thats the only place your garenteed to see the sparks fly too, Oh' the flying pool cues, i Amost forgot about those. Ah' the good ole days, when men were men and the boys went home early. When a guy could ring the bell and spend a thousand dollars on the house and never have to buy another drink that night, because sombody else would ring it next . Thank god I got older. All this stuff is hard on a guy.

I fished Southeast and Kodiak from '92 to '98, I never saw any bar that compared to Kito's Cave. A guy that I knew was nearly killed in a knife fight with a cannery worker there one night. Seemed like there was a fight about every third night.

I remember the Flame in Bellingham, I was too young, but dad and I would pass it everyday as we headed down to the harbor to work on the seiner.

I've never seen a fight in an Alaskan bar. I did watch a local rancher in White Sulfer Springs Montana in a bar called the Mint, reduce some hot-shot loud mouth rodeo cowboy to wet wash-cloth status before hanging him on the brow tines of a mule deer near the front door. - got sick that night and went back to our motel room to throw up all night while listening to two dudes bang the town whore in the room next door all night long.

didn't make 2 minutes in chilkoot charlies before [censored] was startin.
got skinny dick all stirred up, and left before he had a heart attack.
if you want to have some fun ? head to the moonraker in kent.
been in, and seen some crazy stuff.

As I recall both places felt like a downtown Hilton after being flown out of the Brooks range in that drunk injun's 185. I had no complaints. At any rate, you were still married back then, and that broad at the gold camp wasn't as scary as who you went home to.