The Haden Saloon

The first “Haden Saloon” token I acquired had the same obverse as the token pictured above but it was aluminum and the reverse was good for 5c in trade and measured 21mm like the brass example pictured. I got it in trade from a Pocatello gun collector who also collected tokens for a short time. According to him the person he got the token from said that his father had gotten it years before from a saloon in Teton Valley, Idaho.

The town of Haden, Idaho, not to be confused with Hayden Lake in northern Idaho, was located on the north end of Teton Valley and was settled in the late 1880's. It received a postoffice in 1890 and had around 200 residence at that time. Coal was discovered in the mountains on the west side of Teton Valley in the 1890's. Haden served as the first nights stopping point for the wagons hauling the coal to the railroad at Market Lake, Idaho.
The community grew through the early 1900's and had several hotels, a couple of general stores, a livery stable, a lumber yard and a saloon. In 1913 the U.P.R.R. decided to build a branch line from Ashton, Idaho to Victor, Idaho which served as the starting point for trips into Jackson Hole, Wyoming and the southern entrance to Yellowstone Park. The branch line was built in a straight line from Ashton to Victor and ended up bypassing Haden. A railroad depot was built in 1914 next to the railroad about 3 miles east of Haden. The exodus quickly began from Haden and the town of Tetonia was established. Within a few years the town of Haden had pretty much been deserted. Today the site is a cow pasture with none of the original buildings remaining.

A book entitled “Saloons of the American West” by Robert L. Brown(1978), pictures the brass token above and attributes it to Colorado. I checked with several knowledgeable Colorado collectors who doubted the attribution to Colorado. I had no proof that the token was actually from Haden, Idaho but suspected it might be. I acquired a nice brass 12 1/2c example of the token like the one pictured above from the John Gold collection but I still wasn’t sure of its attribution.

Thus began my efforts to get permission to metal detect the old town site in hopes of finding a token that would prove the attribution. The old farmer that owned the land was very hesitant to allow people on his land since some bottle diggers had left large holes on his land without permission. Anyway, after several hours of talking he grudgingly gave me permission.


I detected the site four times without success although I was finding a fair number of artifacts. The ground in Teton Valley is mostly rocky and is very difficult to dig and I was getting discouraged. The 5th time proved to be the charm. I had invited Dan Lute to come over and we decided to give Haden another try with our new smaller detector heads. About 11:30 A.M. I got a good signal and out popped a brass Haden Saloon token like the one pictured. I yelled at Dan but he couldn’t hear me so I waited until we took a lunch break to show him the token. It proved the token was from Idaho and was a real thrill to find. I traded Dan the token I had dug since I still had the nondug example from the Gold Collection. Unfortunately I had already sold the 5c aluminum example before I was sure of the attribution.

The next summer G-Man and I were again detecting the town site and just as the sun was setting I found another brass Haden Saloon 12 /12c token. It is the one pictured above and was in such good condition that I trade G-Man my nondug example and kept the one I had found. Several of us have detected the site several more times since then and we’ve found some John M. Swisher maverick tokens, but no more from the Haden Saloon.

The grumpy farmer has since decided he doesn’t want any more detecting on his property despite my best efforts at persuasion.

Currently there are 3 of the brass 12 1/2c Haden Saloon tokens known. I believe the one pictured in the saloon book was the one from the John Gold Collection but I’m not positive so there may be a 4th specimen out there somewhere. There is only one of the 5c aluminum examples known. I kick myself every time I think how dumb I was to sell it.