Entry No. 30 — the Missoula file — filed under: roadside-oddity
World Famous 50,000 Silver Dollar Bar
This sprawling roadside stop just off I-90 near the Idaho line is studded with over 80,000 dollar coins embedded into the bar top, walls, and surfaces, a collection started in 1952 that grows by a couple thousand each year as travelers add their own. More than 12,000 are genuine antique silver dollars (Morgan and Peace pieces, the oldest an 1876 Seated Liberty); the rest are Eisenhower dollars. There's even a single coin set into the floor. Beyond the glittering walls, the complex piles on classic Western kitsch with a casino, restaurant, gift shop, and mounted oddities.
The story
In 1952, Gerry and Marie Lincoln moved a modest wooden bar onto Highway 10 in Haugan and decided to nail two uncirculated silver dollars into the countertop to lure in passing truckers. The gimmick got out of hand fast. Drivers started handing over their own silver dollars to be carved, inscribed, or affixed to the walls, and by 1956, the tally hit 2,500. When Interstate 90 bypassed the original two-lane highway, the Lincolns simply relocated the entire complex to Exit 16, expanded the counter space, and kept mounting coins.
Today, the count has eclipsed 80,000 coins valued at well over $2.5 million, though you won't find them sitting loose. Every single coin is countersunk, glued, or framed under thick layers of clear lacquer along the bar top, wall panels, and display cases stretching across the main hall. Over 12,000 of them are genuine antique silver pieces—mostly Morgan and Peace dollars, with the crown jewel being an 1876 Seated Liberty dollar—while the rest are cupronickel Eisenhowers added by tourists over seven decades.
What makes the place deeply strange isn't just the sheer weight of the metal embedded in the woodwork—it's the sheer density of roadside clutter packed around it. Beyond the glittering bar top, the surrounding hall metastasized into a full-scale tourist sprawl: mounted taxidermy heads staring down from cedar beams, endless racks of novelty Montana gear, a casino, and a single silver dollar intentionally set flush into the floorboards for hawk-eyed drinkers to discover.
What it's like
Pulling off Exit 16 puts you directly into a massive paved travel plaza that looks like a standard truck stop until you step inside. The air smells like coffee, pine gift shop trinkets, and fry oil. Head straight past the racks of pocket knives and huckleberry candy to the main barroom, where sunlight glints off thousands of shiny faces set into the woodwork. It gets busy with cross-country RVers during summer afternoons, but if you sit down at the counter on a quiet weeknight, you can take your time scanning the names and dates scratched into the brass tags alongside the coins.
The move: Make the westbound I-90 run to Haugan, order a drink at the coin-encrusted bar, and try to spot the lone silver dollar set into the floor.
📍 Before you go About 85 miles west of Missoula at I-90 Exit 16, near the Idaho border. Easy paved access; it's a full travel-stop complex, so hours are generous.
- 📍 Haugan, MT
- 💸 Free
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Outdoors
Where: I-90 Exit 16, Haugan, MT 59842
Hours: Added 2026-06-24 — confirm current hours before you go.
Pair it with
- Quinn's Hot Springs Resort — Soak off the interstate highway fatigue in mineral pools along the Clark Fork River on your drive back east toward Missoula.
- Symes Hot Springs Hotel & Mineral Baths — Pair one legendary mid-century Montana roadside complex with another by heading north to this 1930s flamingo-pink mineral bath hotel.
- The Jack Saloon — Trade an interstate travel plaza full of coins for a secluded logger's cedar-log saloon tucked deep in the Lolo National Forest woods.
Good to know
How far is Haugan from Missoula?
It sits about 85 miles west of Missoula along I-90 at Exit 16, roughly ten minutes before you hit the Idaho border.
Can you still add your own silver dollar to the bar?
Yes, visitors can still submit a coin to be mounted, though new additions are processed and added by staff rather than nailed in on the spot.
Is there an entry fee to see the silver dollars?
No entry fee required—it functions as an open travel center, bar, restaurant, and gift shop complex.
Where is the single silver dollar in the floor?
It's embedded flush into the flooring somewhere near the main bar area—keep your eyes on the ground while walking the floorboards to spot it.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: nbcmontana.com · Roadside America · Official site · Tripadvisor
last checked: 2026-06-24