Drinking Wyoming: The Dive Bar On The Northeastern Edge Of The Cowboy State

BUCKHORN — The first impression those entering The Buckhorn get is that there’s 1970s green shag carpet all over the ceiling and the walls.

The bar, which sits 30 miles northeast of Newcastle and just few miles west of the South Dakota border along the CanAm Highway to Deadwood, is fairly dark inside, so it takes a little time for eyes to adjust.

That’s when it becomes clear that the fluttering, floating shag carpet is really dollar bills, flying in the breeze of the open doorway. Thousands and thousands of bills, most of them with dates, and funny little messages.

The sheer number of bills produces an immediate sense of wonder. After seeing that, who could fail to walk further into the bar? Clearly, this bar is winning an unofficial popularity vote with all those bills pinned to its wa