The Nellie E Saloon

        The Nellie E Saloon, AKA "The Desert Bar", is the brain child of Ken Coughlin, who acquired the old mine in 1975.  The Desert Bar is just outside the town of Parker, Arizona on the east side of Hwy 95. (thanks Billy :-)) Ken must of envisioned people wanting to haul themselves on a hilly, rough 5 mile dirt road to an old mining camp for some good music, beer and burgers and get this...the bar is only open on Saturday and Sunday from high noon to 6 pm October thru April. Don't fret though, "if" New Years Eve falls on a weekend, it will be open that night...and only that night of the year.

While I wouldn't call it freeway traffic, between all the dirt bikes, sand-rails, dune buggies, trucks and cars, there was more than I expected.

After five miles of eating dust we get our first look at the owners house on the hill. The large chimney is a cooling tower. The bar and saloon have two of these towers, which have wet pads at the top and the cool air flows down the structure, so no fans are necessary. As you can see from the green velvet grass on the hills we got some rain about two weeks ago.

This small building was Ken's first bar at the mine. He put it up in 1983 while he was building a much larger one nearby. It's nice that they kept it, huh?

Today the bar is still under construction and it's a slightly bigger than the original one.

Best I can figure is that there are four levels to the complex that hold three bars, two stages and three or four eating venues, all open just 12 hours a week.

This old fire truck was used originally to bring in water. Now they have a good well, 360 foot deep, that supplies something to "chase" your whiskey with.

Donna and I sat on the upper level, looking down at the band playing. Bloody Mary on a Sunday afternoon hit the spot.

Finally after months of listening to cowboy, hillbilly and country music, I got to listen to Aerosmith, Beach Boys, Led Zeppelin and many more.

Here Donna is on the lowest level looking at some of the owners new construction, maybe next year we will see what it is?

Now this could be the ideal method of transportation to the bar. I would have just two obstacles that prevent me from going this course, money is #1, but fear of small planes or helicopters would prevent me even if I overcame #1.

The property was littered with some great antiques, wasting in the weather.

While climbing a hill above the bar I found some on the evidence that copper was in the area. Chrysocolla and malachite in these rocks were beacons to early the miners.

I did look for some copper or gold but failed to find anything but a wonderful time, listening to some great music with the love of my life.☺