Mint's in Montana

So it has been nearly a year since I have moved to Montana, and I have made a few observations since coming to this state. One thing I have noticed is that if there is a hillside in a respective town, the town's folk will instinctively place a letter of their respective high school or college upon that hillside. Sometimes there will be multiple letters. Bozeman, for example has a giant "M" as does Missoula, which also has another letter for their Catholic school.

Another interesting trend number of bar/restaurants named "The Mint." It seems like you can't really call yourself a real town unless  you have a bar named The Mint*.

The picture above is of The Mint in Livingston, a classic sign, bellow is the Mint in White Hall, a little less classic, but still awesome. 

If anyone is familiar with the story of Ray's Pizza, or Famous Ray's, or Ray's Famous Pizza, or any of the infinite permutations of this name found in New York City, I can only imagine that this is Montana's version of the same thing. There was probably one original "The Mint" bar located somewhere in Montana. And it was probably the coolest saloon in all of history in this state. But it is now gone, replaced by video keno machines, Bud Light, and dreams of Ron Paul presidency. Who knows.

*Bozeman is not a real town because it doesn't have a Mint. HA!!!