
For Sale: The Only Bar in a 14-Person Montana Town - objections
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/cool-bar-montana
======
beart
I took a trip to Eastern Montana, to a 'town' of about 20 people. Turned out
the local pastor was from my home town 5 states away.

It's such a different way of living - and difficult to imagine without
actually going there and experiencing it.

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Vysero
Wow, I have lived here in Montana for 33 years and I have never heard of
Ingomar. Don't let the article fool you. There are probably at least 100-200
other similar bars for around the same price in towns which are relatively
close to the same size.

~~~
mitchty
I grew up in North Dakota, this bar sounds like a lot of small town bars I
grew up around. I'm sure you're right on them being a dime a dozen, our
"local" aka 20 minute drive away bar had unpaved roads and also yes did have
spots for the horses.

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Mikeb85
Asking price seems rather high. I'm sure you could find an abandoned building
in Montana and turn it into a bar for far less than $225k.

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edf13
Your paying for the business + history

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ewhanley
In Montana, you're paying for the liquor license. It's not uncommon to see
hole-in-the-wall bars in 2000 person towns go for $1 million. They are quota-
ed and similar to the NYC taxi medallion system.

~~~
Reedx
Does that actually recoup? Or are they buying those licenses to use in more
populated areas? (curious if they are tied to the town or not)

~~~
ewhanley
As with Uber and medallions, the increasing popularity of craft breweries able
to operate with an inexpensive license has led to some big legislative
battles. The Montana Tavern Association (MTA, liquor license holders) try to
crush the craft breweries every legislative session. They have limited the
taphouses to some extent: they can only serve four pints per person per day
and they have to close at 8 PM. Also similar to Uber vs taxi drivers the
general public likes the breweries and the MTA struggles to maintain a popular
image while trying to legislate away erosion of their license values.

~~~
TomMarius
Is that in the USA? Sounds very unbelievable to me, here (in eastern EU) we
demonstrate if people try to limit opening hours few days a year!

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DubiousPusher
For real, buying this kind of business in Montana is extremely risky. I lived
for many years in an area that's very popular with tourist/sportsmen including
quite a few famous Hollywood types. There are many lakes with lodges around
there. My family got to know many people who would by a place like that and it
ruined many of their lives. Divorces, bankruptcies, the whole gamut. It's very
hard.

~~~
casefields
These always look like fun, interesting deals to outsiders but unless you have
someone with local knowledge, I wouldn’t trust any of them.

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pgrote
I've always wondered about the data missing in Google Maps. For instance, when
you go to Ingomar, MT and look at street view, the car got to the entrance of
the town and the data just stops.

[https://goo.gl/maps/WVTAChPsBUiRjnoX9](https://goo.gl/maps/WVTAChPsBUiRjnoX9)

Did the camera die? Did the car get a flat? Did someone forget to turn
something on?

~~~
ben174
Maybe they stopped at the bar and got inebriated and forgot to complete their
mission :)

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vonnik
Native Montanan speaking here. I think the Montana equivalent to YC's "build
something people want" is "build bars where people live." To do the opposite
makes for a lot of slow afternoons.

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9nGQluzmnq3M
If this tickles your fancy, there are plenty of Australian outback pubs on the
market for similar prices:

[https://www.commercialrealestate.com.au/news/six-classic-
aus...](https://www.commercialrealestate.com.au/news/six-classic-aussie-pubs-
for-less-than-400000-48032/)

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wanderer2323
"Behind one end of the bar sits Jefferson Peters, octopus, with a sixshooter
on each side of him, ready to make change or corpses as the case may be. There
are three bartenders; and on the wall is a ten foot sign reading: 'All Drinks
One Dollar.' Andy sits on the safe in his neat blue suit and gold-banded
cigar, on the lookout for emergencies. The town marshal is there with two
deputies to keep order, having been promised free drinks by the trust.

"Well, sir, it took Bird City just ten minutes to realize that it was in a
cage. We expected trouble; but there wasn't any. The citizens saw that we had
'em. The nearest railroad was thirty miles away; and it would be two weeks at
least before the river would be fordable. So they began to cuss, amiable, and
throw down dollars on the bar till it sounded like a selection on the
xylophone.

(The Octopus Marooned by O. Henry)

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ctdonath
With the onset of Starlink, I expect such locations could experience a
population boom. With urban housing prices skyrocketing (demand exceeding
supply = bidding war), many are discovering the only thing they need to live
where they actually want to is reliable high-speed low-latency internet. The
land is cheap ($150,000 for 321 acres in Ingomar, Montana), the region
attractive (drove around there this summer, very nice), just need a good data
feed. Leverage it right, and that old bar could spawn a happenin' site for
remote workers.

~~~
planteen
Right this minute you could find very fast internet (fiber) in rural areas
with very inexpensive housing. I have a relatives in the Dakotas & Nebraska
with better internet than I have in Denver. Some of them live in town and some
of them live in the country. A lot of it seems to depend on local government
having the drive to get rural access funds from the FCC.

As another said, eastern Montana could be brutal if its not something you are
used to. There are extremely hot and extremely cold days (in the -30s degrees
F) possible. It will be really windy and really brown (its very dry) for much
of the year. You might also be shocked by how much some people drink/use other
substances and how they get around when incapacitated. (There is no
Lyft/Uber). There will not be a lot of young singles around, either.

I personally don't think there will be a big boom because of Starlink for
housing. At the end of the day, internet is just a small factor in what makes
a place desirable to live. Climate, distance to city/airport, local bars &
restaurants, scenic beauty, and local activities all factor a lot, too.

~~~
at-fates-hands
> It will be really windy and really brown (its very dry) for much of the
> year.

Remember playing soccer with a guy from Montana. We were playing on a field in
the Fall that was basically all dead, yellow grass. He used to say. "Dude, I'm
from Montana, this is considered LUSH"

~~~
mitchty
> "Dude, I'm from Montana, this is considered LUSH"

Good old prarie grass, green after it rains in June. Don't put a flame near or
you'll start a wild fire brown the rest of the summer.

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dxemy
Reminds me of this little piece of news from today. They are selling a small
Spanish village using Wallapop, which is an app that could be considered a
local version of Craigslist. The price: €90M

[https://www.lavanguardia.com/vida/20191209/472142739583/vent...](https://www.lavanguardia.com/vida/20191209/472142739583/venta-
wallapop-aldea-alicante-santa-eulalia-sax.html)

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client4
Montana has some odd liquor laws, so that's likely the largest reason for the
price. There's a quota system in incorporated cities and counties, meaning
supply doesn't hit demand inflating prices. The system should be done away
with, but alas.

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ben174
Looks like it also comes with a sweet little penthouse:
[http://www.jerseylillysaloon.com/whiskey-row-
penthouse.html](http://www.jerseylillysaloon.com/whiskey-row-penthouse.html)

~~~
ben174
My bad, can't edit the above comment but I seem to have mistaken it for
another saloon in Arizona.

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RickJWagner
I'd be afraid my best customers would be alcoholics and I'd feel guilty in
running them off.

It'd be hard to earn a living off 13 other people.

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m23khan
well, for sure the owner would have town's monopoly in the bar business.

~~~
alexis_fr
Monopoly? So... do we need to split up the bar, for a fair market?

~~~
gbear605
The problem is not a monopoly, but abuse of a monopoly in a way that stops
competition. If the bar owner started charging $100/beer and then forcefully
stopped anyone else from opening a bar, that’d need to be broken up for a fair
market. Short of that, you don’t have an issue

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Isamu
Do they accept REMOTE employees?

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kempbellt
If you move there to run the bar, you'd be in a remote town and therefore I
think "REMOTE employee" would be an apt title. So... yes?

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socrates1998
This place isn't just in the middle of nowhere, it's in Eastern Montana, not
even the nice part of Montana (the west).

This place shouldn't exist. A mildly interesting story, but small town Montana
is a rough existence even if you live in pretty part.

I would not recommend anyone buying this place unless you don't mind throwing
away $200k on it.

Edit: All the down votes are coming from people who have never been to Eastern
Montana. I have. Multiple times. I lived in Montana. Eastern Montana has nice,
polite people, but it's got almost nothing going for it economically other
than oil.

There is a reason why people (especially young people) are leaving Eastern
Montana for the past several decades.

~~~
dang
Please don't cross into regional slurs. "This place shouldn't exist" is a step
into that, and we need users not to go there here.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

~~~
socrates1998
I was born in Montana. I lived in Montana. That restaurant probably hasn't
made a profit in 30 years and they are asking $250k for it.

~~~
dang
I understand, and had a feeling that that was where you were coming from.
Unfortunately, though, the internet doesn't distinguish between regional (or
ethnic or other) slurs made by the people from that place (or group) vs. the
garden-variety nasty sort—so the burden is on you to disambiguate. Otherwise
we end up with the same kind of flamewar either way.

~~~
socrates1998
1) I was referring to the restaurant. 2) I'm from Montana.

You should just apologize that you didn't understand my comment rather than
try to over explain it.

~~~
dang
It's true that by "this place shouldn't exist" I thought you were referring to
more than just the restaurant.

The thing is, though, that the burden is on you to disambiguate, otherwise we
end up with the same kind of flamewar. I don't think that's overexplaining at
all. You didn't do it, so some explanation is necessary, and this is standard
HN moderation.
[https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...](https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20disambig&sort=byDate&type=comment)

~~~
socrates1998
You are the one who started the flamewar by accusing me of something I didn't
say. It was clear in my comment that every time I said "this place" I was
referring to the restaurant. I used the phrase "this place" three times in my
original comment, all three referring to the restaurant.

Just apologize for accusing me of something that I didn't do and I will move
on.

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JoeAltmaier
Perfect place for witness protection gig?

~~~
mc3
Or for someone who broke bad a little too much.

