Virginia City, Nevada · Founded 1876 · Building: 1876, following the Great Fire of 1875
Virginia City's 1876 saloon, operated by the McBride family since 1931, with a violent-name legend and a complicated Boston Saloon connection.
The Bucket of Blood Saloon occupies a post-fire building at 1 South C Street in Virginia City. The McBride family has owned and operated the saloon since Versal McBride purchased it in 1931, a continuity documented by Nevada newspaper coverage and state tourism material. The business is part of Virginia City's mining-town mythology, but the stories behind its name, its claimed hauntings, and its relationship to the Black-owned Boston Saloon need more careful treatment than most retellings provide.
William A.G. Brown began operating the Boston Saloon, a business serving Virginia City's African American community.
Source: Nevada State Historic Preservation Office, Historical Marker No. 266, “African Americans and the Boston Saloon”
The Great Fire of Virginia City destroyed the Boston Saloon building and much of the town's commercial core.
Source: Nevada State Historic Preservation Office, Historical Marker No. 266, “African Americans and the Boston Saloon”
The present Bucket of Blood building was constructed following the Great Fire of 1875.
Source: Travel Nevada, “Bucket of Blood Saloon”; Bucket of Blood Saloon history page
Versal McBride purchased the Bucket of Blood Saloon, beginning the McBride family's ownership of the business.
Source: Nevada Appeal, “Bucket of Blood Saloon owner celebrates 75th birthday,” February 12, 2003; Nevada Appeal, “Longtime Comstock resident Don McBride dies,” April 20, 2006
The Nevada Appeal identified Marshall McBride as the day-to-day manager of the McBride family's Bucket of Blood properties.
Source: Nevada Appeal, “Bucket of Blood Saloon owner celebrates 75th birthday,” February 12, 2003
Don McBride died after decades working at the Bucket of Blood; the Nevada Appeal reported that he had transferred control of the saloon to his sons eight years earlier.
Source: Nevada Appeal, “Longtime Comstock resident Don McBride dies,” April 20, 2006
Marshall McBride described the family's ownership history in a Silver State Sights video, saying the family had owned the saloon for 88 years.
Source: Silver State Sights, Episode 46, “The Bucket of Blood Saloon,” March 2, 2020
Travel Nevada described the saloon as a McBride and Sons business, stating that the bar had remained in the McBride family since the 1931 purchase.
Source: Travel Nevada, “Bucket of Blood Saloon,” September 26, 2022
Every claim gets rated. A business's own website can never earn "documented."
The explanation is repeated by ghost-tour and tourism material, but this research located no contemporary Virginia City newspaper account, coroner record, court record, police record, or proprietor account substantiating the story. It is a vivid origin legend, not a documented explanation of the name.
Travel Nevada says the Bucket of Blood was constructed over the Boston Saloon remnants. Nevada's State Historic Preservation Office instead places the Boston Saloon site uphill and to the left at the corner of Union and D Streets, now occupied by the Bucket of Blood parking lot. The state marker directly contradicts the claim that the saloon building stands over the Boston Saloon.
The Nevada Appeal reported that V.L. or Versal McBride purchased the business in 1931, that Don McBride helped run it, and that control passed to his sons before Don's death in 2006. Travel Nevada later described the bar as continuing under McBride and Sons ownership.
Ghost-tour businesses describe extensive paranormal reports at the Bucket of Blood, but this research found no independently published investigation, aired episode, or evidence review focused on the saloon. A haunted reputation is documented; a paranormal cause is not.
The Bucket of Blood building dates to 1876. Travel Nevada identifies the Washoe Club as Virginia City's oldest saloon and says it reopened after the Great Fire in 1876; the Bucket should not claim an unqualified oldest-saloon title without a documented opening chronology comparing all surviving businesses.
The Bucket of Blood was built directly atop the Boston Saloon.
Nevada's State Historic Preservation Office places the Boston Saloon at the corner of Union and D Streets, uphill and to the left of the historical marker, at the area now occupied by the Bucket of Blood parking lot.
Source: Nevada State Historic Preservation Office, Historical Marker No. 266, “African Americans and the Boston Saloon”
The Bucket of Blood's name is documented proof of nightly Wild West killings.
The bloody-sawdust explanation is repeated as lore, but no contemporary record was located establishing it as the origin of the name.
Source: Ghost City Tours repeats the story; no primary source found
The Bucket of Blood is Virginia City's oldest saloon.
The existing structure dates to 1876. Other Virginia City establishments, including the Washoe Club, also claim earlier or competing saloon histories, so an unqualified oldest-saloon claim is not established here.
Source: Travel Nevada, “Bucket of Blood Saloon”; Travel Nevada, “The Washoe Club Haunted Museum and Saloon”
The Bucket of Blood survived the collapse of the Comstock boom because it became a family-held local institution rather than merely a relic of the mining era. The McBride family carried the business through the twentieth century, while Virginia City's National Historic Landmark status and later tourism economy supplied a new audience. Its strongest history is not a generic Wild West blood-and-gunfighter tale; it is a documented multigenerational business story at a site near the former Boston Saloon, an important African American Virginia City institution.
The present Bucket of Blood building dates to 1876, after the Great Fire of 1875 destroyed much of Virginia City's commercial center. Travel Nevada and the saloon's own history both give 1876 for the current structure.
The Bucket of Blood Saloon in Virginia City, Nevada, occupies a building constructed in 1876 after the Great Fire of 1875 destroyed much of the town's commercial core. The McBride family has owned and operated the saloon since Versal McBride purchased it in June 1931 — a continuity documented by Nevada Appeal reporting in 2003 and 2006 and confirmed by Travel Nevada as recently as 2022.
The Bucket of Blood is owned and operated by the McBride family. The Nevada Appeal documented the family's purchase in 1931 and later transfer of control to Don McBride's sons, while Travel Nevada identified the present operation as McBride and Sons in 2022.
The usual story says the saloon received its name because buckets of blood-soaked sawdust had to be removed after violent fights. Ghost-tour material repeats that explanation, but this research found no contemporary newspaper, court, police, coroner, or business record that verifies it.
Travel Nevada identifies the Washoe Club, which reopened after Virginia City's 1875 Great Fire, as the town's oldest saloon — not the Bucket of Blood. The Bucket of Blood's own building dates to 1876, after the fire, and this research does not support an oldest-in-Virginia-City claim for it. Nevada's oldest documented saloon overall is the Genoa Bar & Saloon in Genoa, Douglas County, tracing to 1853.
No. Travel Nevada says the Bucket of Blood was built over the former Boston Saloon, but Nevada's State Historic Preservation Office places the Boston Saloon site at the Bucket of Blood parking lot near Union and D Streets, not beneath the current saloon building.
William A.G. Brown operated the Boston Saloon between 1866 and 1875 as a business serving Virginia City's African American community. Nevada's State Historic Preservation Office says the Great Fire of 1875 destroyed it and identifies its site near the present Bucket of Blood parking lot.
The Bucket of Blood has a documented haunted reputation in Virginia City ghost-tour material. This research found no qualifying named paranormal investigation, aired television episode, published report, or independently corroborated evidence establishing paranormal activity at the saloon.
The Bucket of Blood Saloon is at 1 South C Street in Virginia City, Nevada, in Storey County on the historic Comstock Lode.
1 South C Street, Virginia City, NV 89440
(775) 847-0322
Visit for a still-family-run Virginia City saloon and the nearby marker explaining the Boston Saloon's more fully documented history.