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| First cabin, Russell Gulch (1859-1860?). Fair use. Western History/Genealogy Department, Denver Public Library -- American Memory -- Library of Congress. |
| Fourth of July, 1859 Russell Gulch Vintage Colorado Poetry Poem (Menu) of the Week June 27 & July 4, 2005 |
| In her anecdotal history Tales of Colorado Pioneers (1884), Alice Polk Hill includes the 1859 Fourth of July menu at Russell Gulch, a mining camp. Mrs. Hill's source is the "Honorable A. E. Pierce" who had been "one of the participants" at the meal. The intent of Mrs. Hill's Tales of Colorado Pioneers was to write down Colorado's first twenty-five years of history taken "from the lips of those who had taken part." In 1919, a couple of years before her death, Alice Polk Hill was appointed Colorado's first poet laureate. |
| MENU. Soup, a la bean Fish. Brook Trout, a la catch them first. Meat. Antelope, larded, Pioneer style. Bread. Biscuit, Hand-made, full weight, a la yellow. Vegetables. Beans, Mountain style, warranted boiled forty-eight hours, a la soda. Dessert. Dried Apples, Russel (sic) Gulch style. Coffee, served in tin cups, to be washed clean for the occasion ; overland style, a la no cream. |