Fairs gave states and counties the opportunity to show off their best. At both local and international fairs, food helped attendees learn other...
The Fair’s Frontier Fare
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Sherry Monahan
Cheering Our Culinary Journey
I reflect on my years writing Frontier Fare, I’m reminded of the wonderful historical and literary food journeys I’ve taken. This column has...
Surviving a Meal in Dodge City
Once the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway reached the cowtown of Dodge City, Kansas, in 1872, restaurants and hotels sprang up, between 1872...
Black Bart’s Epicurean Escapades
Notorious for his 1880s stage-coach robberies, what did gentleman bandit and poet Black Bart eat and where? Everyone thought San Francisco resident...
Restaurateur Ike Clanton
Some people may be shocked to learn that Joseph Isaac “Ike” Clanton, who earned notoriety as an anti-Earp man in the 1881 O.K. Corral gunfight,...
Suds for Crab Cowboys
Texas's oldest continuously operating tavern can be found in Austin. August Scholz opened his establishment after the Civil War, in 1866, and it...
Red Hot for the Crowd
In 1879, when the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe chugged into Las Vegas, New Mexico Territory, the railroad brought in a wide variety of food that...
Dinner in Deadwood with Calamity Jane
In the fall of 1875, a makeshift tent town popped up, beginning a stampede to Deadwood Gulch. By the winter of 1876, the population of this Dakota...
Eat, Drink & Be Merry
Enter a 14-foot double glass Victorian door, turn a brass knob to enter a hotel room, or have a cocktail at a behemoth back-bar and you’ll...
Gourmet Glitz at Gateway to the West
When high society ladies threw a party in the West, they spared no expense. Women living in rural areas had their challenges, but the wealthy ladies...
The Picnic Disease
As towns across the frontier West heated up during the spring and summer months, sweltering pioneers found ways to beat the heat at picnics. They...
Lend Me Your Wife!
Cheyenne, Wyoming’s residents enjoyed a fine social life, and ladies hosted and attended a variety of social events and parties with varied themes....