One of my favorite things about living in Grant County is the ’62 Days Celebration, Canyon City’s annual commemoration of its founding during the gold rush of 1862, and one of my favorite things about ’62 Days is the chance to hang out at Sels’ Brewery.

Built in 1870 after the town’s original brewery burned down, the sturdy stone structure stands on Washington Street in the small community’s downtown district. It’s constructed like a fortress, with a walled-in courtyard off to one side.

The brewery ceased production at some time in the distant past, and ownership eventually passed to the Whiskey Gulch Gang, the local nonprofit that puts on ’62 Days. I eagerly look forward to the two-day celebration each June, in part because that’s one of the very few times every year when Sels’ opens its doors to the public.

For me, entering the old brewery feels like walking into a scene from a classic Western. You push through the swinging double doors and step into a saloon straight out of “Rio Bravo,” with sawdust on the floor and a blazing wood fire on the hearth.

Wagon wheel chandeliers hang from the ceiling, and the walls are adorned with horseshoes and mining paraphernalia, mounted deer heads and elk antlers. Thirsty patrons belly up to the long wooden bar, prop a boot on the rail and order cold beers from women in frilly dancehall dresses while scooping up handfuls of peanuts from an old gold-miner’s pan.

A sign that warns “No dogs, cats, mean drunks or ill-tempered women” hangs next to a portrait of the brewery’s former proprietor, pioneer German immigrant F.C. Sels, and above the bar is a large oil painting of a reclining nude that would have made Judge Roy Bean bust the buttons on his suspenders with pride.

Sels’ front porch is the place to be during ’62 Days if you want to watch the Whiskey Gulch Gang reenact a shoot-out like the ones in “El Dorado” or “High Noon,” and the courtyard plays host to a cornhole tournament and live music during the annual celebration.

Maybe I’m just nostalgic for a mythical Wild West that never really existed outside of the movies, but if you ask me, those old-timers really knew how to live.