LOCAL
yon d e r
Honky-Tonk Heaven by Bob McCullough
IF
indeed Bandera is the “Cowboy Capital of the World,” then one of the key contributors to that reputation is Arkey Blue’s Silver Dollar, touted as the oldest continuously operating honky-tonk in Texas. A red door at 308 Main Street, leads to a wooden stairway that takes fun-seekers down to the basement of the Bandera General Store and into another world – a mix of live country-western music, sawdust-strewn dance floor for serious boot-scootin’ and massive amounts
of memorabilia. Built in 1921, the building housed The Fox Hole night club until the 1940s when it became the Silver Dollar. Singer-songwriter Arkey Juenke took over operation of the business in 1968 and began performing classic country with his Blue Cowboys band. “Arkey left Fredericksburg after high school for Bandera, where he spent 10 years at Lost Valley Dude Ranch as a wrangler and entertainer before acquiring the Silver Dollar,” says Bandera native Vivian Schmidt, Arkey’s com-
BANDERA
HILL COUNTRY TRAIL REGION
SPRING 2022
13
