Creator
Windsor Hotel
Title
Society of Colorado Pioneers
Coverage
Denver, Colorado
Date
January 25, 1881
Description
The Society of Colorado Pioneers held its first reunion at the Windsor, the largest and finest hotel between the Palmer House in Chicago and the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. Although the frontier was not completely tamed—the gunfight at the OK Corral took place in Tombstone in the Arizona Territory in October of that year—these early settlers were already expressing nostalgia for their great westward journey. The grand banquet is shown below under the heading “1881 Menu.” Shown above is a section labeled “1859 Grub,” representing the symbolic pioneer foods—beans, bacon, dried apples, hardtack, and a whiskey called “Taos lightning.”