Stan Kalinski and Stan's Bar

This photo is of Stan Kalinski in Stan's Bar. His bar and his personality were well known in the area. He was born in Chicago in 1908. His family moved and settled in Brazil Creek, where his father set up shop. In the early 1920s his father disappeared. Kalinski went to work doing whatever he could to support the family, but he was unable to succeed and the siblings were split up around the state. He married Eva Kari of Hinsdale in 1927. It is said he was part of the moonshine business during the days of prohibition. Once prohibition was lifted he opened up the bar with partners in the early 1930s, during the "Dam Days." He eventually opened his own place on the 300 block of 1st Ave. S. He later moved to a different location, one block away, where he ran the bar until his death in 1979. His bar was known for the silver dollars that people left behind. Currently the bar that sat in the back, which is said to have come from Cody, Wyoming, along with several of the animal heads he collected sit at the Valley County Pioneer Museum.