Dixon bar still making history

In 1812, David Thompson established a trading post near his namesake town of Thompson Falls and began traveling up the Flathead River exploring and trading furs with the Native Americans.

A small post was established in Dixon, which was formerly known as Jocko City but renamed in reverence of Gov. Joesph Dixon. The town was a division point for the Northern Pacific Railroad and by 1904, it had grown enough to open its own Post Office. 

The Dixon Bar, being the only bar in the town, has the honor to this day of holding the longest continuous liquor license in Montana.

In the early 1970s after a day of ice fishing, James Welch, Richard Hugo and J.D. Reed paused at the Dixon Bar. Welch was a student of Hugo’s creative writing program at the University of Montana and the two were good friends. 

After a few libations, Reed, who was already a well-known poet, Welch and Hugo struck a bargain that they would each write a poem about the bar and then publish all three in one magazine. They gave themselves two weeks to finish the poems. 

The title of the poems was "The Only Bar in Dixon" and somehow, they were sent to The New Yorker and printed in the same issue. With this publication, Welch's career as a poet was launched and a legend about a solitary bar was created. 

The establishment became the favorite watering hole for Welch and Hugo and some of their original poems adorn the walls today. It is a member of the Academy of American Poets which is right up Doug Reum’s alley as he too is an author and poet. 

“I was born in Polson 60 years ago and lived here all my life,” he said recently while stocking the beer cooler. 

A patron will also notice sketches from the early 60s made by now-famous cartoonists, local work from Salish artists, Harley Hettick photography, and commemorative Lewis and Clark decanters that have never been opened. 

Reum discovered 50 brand new factory sealed Velvet Pipe and Cigarette Tobacco containers that he has been selling to biker customers over the summer. 

“I came on board 125 days ago as a bartender and jokester. That’s what Joann has me here for,” he laughed. 

Joann Maughn is the owner whose health has been better but since her husband, Bud, passed two years ago, she has been determined to keep it open. It almost closed because JoAnn moved her bed in and lived there, which isn’t legal. 

“And she didn’t have a service certificate for her dog, and they couldn’t have a dog in here, they told her,” Reum shared.

Joann now lives in a mobile home behind the bar and a permit for her dog has been obtained.

There are locals who are daily regulars but most of the customers are Montana 200 commuters who have driven by before and always said that someday they’d stop. 

“It’s really because it a legend on its own,” Denise Burland said. “Generations of people have been customers and so many of us who grew up in the area still stop by.” 

Michael Pablo was Burland’s great-great grandfather and was a pioneer in the CSKT Council. Her parents owned the Smoke House Bar in Polson, then The Other Place (Bar) in Arlee. Like many people, she left Montana but returned after 20 years as home kept calling her. Burland handles the weekends bartending as she has a full-time job in Pablo.

Over Labor Day weekend, Reum said about 10 people came in with one man who did all the talking. He was a Black man about 6-3 and 220 pounds with dreads.

"They drank for an hour before he said, ‘Well we gotta switch to Jack Daniels because they sponsor all of my videos and I’m shooting a music video in here today.’” Reum recalled. 

“The hell you say! And who are you?” Reum asked.

When singer Shaboozey told him who he was, Reum replied, “Never heard of you, no offense.” 

Shaboozey sang a few lines of "A Bar Song (Tipsy)," and Reum caught on. Permission had been granted by JoAnn the day before to film the music video, but she’d forgotten to tell Reum. 

“I’m in there (the "Highway” music video) a couple of times as well as scenes from the Plains (Sanders County) Fair and the (Moiese) Bison Range.” 

Reum has had people come in since asking to have selfies taken with him and look around the bar after watching the video.

One may think of Dixon melons in late summer, but the Dixon Bar is open at 11 a.m. every day of the year.

    The historic Dixon Bar in Sanders County holds the longest continuous liquor license in Montana. (Monte Turner/Mineral Independent)