File:Crystal Bar - Bozeman Montana - 2013-07-09 (9361249607).jpg

Neon sign over the entrance of the Crystal Bar, the oldest bar in Bozeman, Montana.

The Crystal Bar was founded by Hollis Harrison on April 8, 1933 -- the day after prohibition ended. The building was a former butcher shop, and hooks, wall bolts, and other items were retained as part of the bar's appeal. The back bar is an original part of the Crystal Bar, not an addition (as many believe). Hollis sold the bar to Johnny Walker (probably in the 1950s), and Walker sold it in 1982 to Doug “Grunch” Sandiland, a poker dealer in the pub. The Anheuser Bush Company made the custom neon Art Deco “Crystal Bar” sign and donated it to the bar (allegedly because so much Budweiser Beer was sold there).

Sandiland died in June 2010. He was single, had no childre, and left no will. According to court documents, Sandiland was just days away from signing a formal will that would have left the Crystal Bar to his friend, Mike McConnell. But that will was never signed, and McConnell fought a losing legal battle with Sandiland's cousins -- Mike, Roger, and Sabrina, none of whom lived in Montana -- oveer the bar's ownership.

In 2011, the Sandilands tore out the bar's office and back room and added a seven-foot-high stage. This brought live music to the Crystal Bar for the first time. The renovations were complete in 2012, and the bar re-opened. In April 2013, the Sandilands sold the bar to Seth Beemer, a local bartender.

During Dave Sandiland's time as owner, he eccentrically personalized the bar with numerous items. Among these are: • Women's bras and underwear. Many of these were collected by Sandiland himself from sexual conquests, others were items he found, and some were donated by local women. (Any woman who walked topless the length of the bar got her bra added to the collection, a free beer, and a free t-shirt.) • A wooden soldier from Army-Navy Store. • A six-foot-long, hollow Rainer Beer bottle once used in commercials for the beer in the 1980s. (The commercials talked about "wild Rainier" and how the bottles "ran in herds".) • A bellows from a smelter in Anaconda. • Two beer tap handles from the Salt Lake City Olympics; several antique beer tap handles; and various beer tap handles with Major League Baseball team names on them. • A wall of confiscated fake ID cards. • The “Brick Wall of Fame", where each brick has a brass nameplate. Anyone could buy a brick, and some very famous people have. • The goal post from the 2002 University of Montana-Montana State University football game in which MSU broke a 16-year losing streak. • The goal posts removed from Bobcat Stadium at MSU during its renovation in 2004.