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In 1881 the Mint wasn't much more than a bundle of boards stacked up around a bar, but it sat right in the middle of a boom town like a disheveled gent ready for a party. The previous summer, Dan Scribner's dog chases a rabbit into a badger hole and then clawed out a sizable mound of dirt, trying to finish the job. When Dan looked closely at the tailings being heaped up, he found flecks of silver everywhere. The badger hole became the Minnie Moore Mine which produced between 10 and 15 million dollars worth of ore and breathed life into Hailey. Within months The Mint and saloons like it sprouted along Main Street and, entertained a burgeoning population. By the summer of 1881 Hailey counted among the town's reputable merchants, lawyers and doctors - 18 saloons, 12 gambling parlors and a row of "cotes for the drabs on River Street."
Over the years The Mint like the town itself, survived the gunfights and shootings, the hangings, fights, two major fires that gutted most of the business district, and another fire set of by the explosion of a bootlegger's still. The Mint endured the Panic of 1893 when the region went "deader than a lime (stone) fossil" and held on for better times through the Depression changing hands from time to time. After World War II, Pedro "Pete" Guezuraga one of the many Basques who lived in the valley, bought the Mint. His connection to Spain brought the Mint an international reputation. Wallace Young, Pete's hunting companion, became proprietor in 1964, and he and his wife Lavona served as cooks while managing the Mint for the next thirty years. Legend has it that deep beneath the floor was a tunnel, a relic of the Mint's history, still leading towards what was once Chinatown.
As each new owner added his own imprint, the Mint grew from a helter-skelter building to a fine painted clapboard, then to a brick building with a claim to permanence. The fancy places touting liquors, imported wines and exotic cigars, the music halls and the chop houses, all quickly became the dust of history. Of the 18 saloons operating in 1881, only the MInt survived to become as respectable and brash as an old time politician.
Today we are proud to present The Mint as a Billiard Hall and Nightclub. On our main level you can enjoy a full bar and five Brunswick billiard tables. Upstairs our nightclub provides world-class sound, through our sound system as well as our acts. Some of the notable acts to make their mark on The Mint stage are: Bo Diddley, B.B. King, Charlie Danials, Los Lobos, John Pepper, Stephen Stills, and of course - local favorites, Bruce Willis & the Accelerators. Check out our events calendar or call 788.MINT for weekly updates.
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