He came to Central Otago, but did not strike gold.
However, he noted miners had a mean thirst, so he threw together a rough timber shack and started pouring bootleg whisky and rough rum while humming old country tunes from Texas.
That story has inspired a new Queenstown bar, Lucky Luke’s Saloon, tucked down Searle Lane, which was most recently occupied by Retro’s lounge bar.
"There’s definitely a need for a dedicated country bar in Queenstown, it seems to be a growing genre and a lot of people are into it from all age groups," says Ed Stott, who along with partners Blair McNaughton and Hayden Dillon also owns Searle Lane’s Bardeaux and Barmuda.
Like ‘Lucky Luke’s’ shack, there is a rustic wooden interior, with exposed beams, and at least three nights a week there is live country music while there is also some line dancing.
"She’s a bit of a tardis, she looks small from outside and then you go inside and it’s cathedral-like," Stott says.
McNaughton adds: "Everybody seems to like something country, right?
"You can have rocking songs, you can have just a single guy on his guitar, there’s so many genres within country."
However, he adds, "if you listen closely late at night, you might still hear Luke humming a tune from home".
