Today's entry is the Buckhorn Exchange restaurant. It's Denver's oldest restaurant, dating back to 1893 when "Shorty Scout" Zietz opened it as a trading post. Short, who was given his nickname by Chief Sitting Bull, rode with Buffalo Bill. It's so old ----how old is it? --- it holds the state's very first liquor license: number 1. ;>
All of the early cattlemen, settlers, miners, railroad builders, silver barons, Indian Chiefs, gamblers, businessmen, and roustabouts made it a point to drop in at the Buckhorn Exchange. It was one of the most well known and loved stops. President Teddy Roosevelt ate dinner there in 1905 and then went hunting with Shorty as his guide.
In 1938 Chief Red Cloud (Sitting Bull's nephew) and a delegation of 30 Sioux & Blackfoot rode down Osage Street (where the Buckhorn is located) in full battle regalia and ceremoniously turned over to Shorty Custer's sword taken at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. The sword is still in Shorty's family today.
Besides Teddy Roosevelt, other presidents have visited there as well: FDR, Dwight Eisenhower, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan. And of course a slew of Hollywood legends.
Today, besides carrying exotic food that out-of-town-ers must try (rattlesnake, ostrich, buffalo, elk, alligator, rocky mountain oysters [yea, you've heard about those!], quail, etc.) it is also a destination for many "ghost hunters." Reports of voices, footsteps, and tables moving by themselves abound. It's believed that the ghosts of many of the colorful characters from the past who died nearby have made it their ghostly home.
I've been in there for dinner (the food is excellent, but they were out of rattlesnake) and at that time it was so busy and packed that hearing footsteps and voices was expected. It still carries inside it and around it the energy of the true wild west and that fierce nature of independence and rugged individualism.
Some pics of Buckhorn are below.
