What It Was REALLY Like to Sleep in a Frontier Hotel

Sam paid for a bed in a frontier hotel — and found a stranger already sleeping in it. The innkeeper never apologized. He never had to. On the frontier, a bed wasn't private property. It was real estate, rented by the body — a custom older than the country itself. From John Adams sharing a mattress with Benjamin Franklin, to Mark Twain climbing into bed with two strangers in Nevada, to the Leadville boarding houses that rented beds in eight-hour shifts: this is one night inside the strangest house rule the Old West ever had. Last time: a dollar a dance — A Dollar a Dance: Inside a Frontier Dance-Hall Girl's Night Shift:    • A Dollar a Dance: Inside a Frontier Dance-...   CHAPTERS: 0:00 The stranger in Sam's bed 0:25 Hollywood's private room 0:45 Older than the country 1:20 Tuesday, not a scam 1:35 Twain's night in Nevada 2:05 How far could it go 2:15 Leadville's eight-hour beds 2:55 The Comstock shift 3:15 Who got rich 3:35 The worst part: the bed 4:05 The Dodge House sign 4:30 Could money buy out? 5:00 The eighteen-bed bridal suite 5:15 A better building 5:40 Next: the sheriff's wife Music: "Drankin Song" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) — Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...) New videos every day. Saddle up — the truth rides here. #WildWest #Cowboys #OldWestHistory #FrontierLife