How to Eat Like a 19th Century Colorado Gold-Miner

The New York Herald reported on the quantity of gold, silver, and precious stones found in the Rockies in the 19th century. There was gold and silver to be won and prospects with dreams of hitting it rich headed west. The Gold Rush of 1858 and the Silver Boom of 1879 necessitated the creation of dozens of boom towns. Many of the state's historic architecture is still visible due to the distinct culture of these mining towns.

Between Western movies and regional iconography, the Old West looms large in U.S. culture, but between all the hammer-swinging, gun-toting, and hooch-swilling, one has to wonder what the miners ate. The confluence of indigenous and immigrant food cultures that coalesced on these mining towns not only sustained the burgeoning industry but went on to transform the region's food culture in ways that are still evident today.

Dr. Michael Welsh is a professor of history at the University of Northern Colorado. It was necessary for you to have a high scuplture, high scuplture diet. The calories burned were fast because of the demanding nature of the work and the unwelcoming mountain temperatures. It was a tall order that didn't happen quickly.

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The early years of Colorado miner dining were pretty boring. Foraging and hunting were not an option for a while. The people didn't know how to convert the landscape to a diet. Most men didn't know how to cook because of gender roles of the day. One 1859 guidebook recommended that the miners leave with 100 pounds of flour, a few pounds of sugar, a half pound of beans, and 80 to 100 pounds of bacon. The early miners ate a diet of camping food until they were hunted down.

The sharp-shooters would sell the local game to the miners for a fee. Dr. Welsh said that professional hunters cost money but could deliver. In time, the hunters' fees increased. According to Dr. Welsh, gold wasn't the only way to make money in the mountains.

The miners wanted to flavorize and add flair to this new meat. A range of much-needed ingredients and techniques would soon be introduced by immigrant communities. Previously unseasoned cuts of meat met Mexican salsas, rich with spicy green chilies, and some Chinese people found work as mining camp cooks.

Welsh said that miners became more reliant on what the land could provide. chokecherry, pemmican, and ground plum were included in their diet. Dr. Welsh said they learned to fish for the mountain trout. He says it was a sweeter fish because of the cold waters of Colorado.

Pulling from a multicultural bench of dishes and ingredients, Colorado miners were eventually eating a lot of good food and drink. Beer and Whiskey were a key part of the diet of the miners. Beer was safer to drink than water according to Dr. Welsh. German brewers came to Colorado because they could make beer that wasn't cold. There wasn't a single dedicated brewery in the Denver area in 1858 and by 1892 there were 23.

The miners drank cheap whiskey at the end of the day. Even if they were, saloons were one of the first businesses established in early mining camps.

They began to spend their money downtown as they found their footing. In boarding houses and restaurants, you could get a well-prepared meal. The Hotel de Paris is a French inn located in Georgetown with an English style interior and is open to the public. Barney L. Ford, a formerly enslaved man, opened The People's restaurant in Denver in 1863. The oldest restaurant in Denver, Buckhorn Exchange, opened in 1893 and is still open today.

Some modern restaurants reach into the past to evoke the region's unique food history. The Fort is a frontier themed restaurant with a replica of an 1830s-era adobe fort in the background. She writes that the cuisine they serve celebrates the fusion of cuisines in Colorado. The menu includes roasted bison bones, Gonzalez Steak, and an Idaho Red Ruby Trout, all of which were created by her and her father. Cuisines shared between the Mexican, American Indian, European and Black peoples were included in the journals.

A diet for miners evolved into a diet for everyone due to the influences of many cultures. The history of the American West is fraught, to say the least, but within those rough edges, there were also people that learned from each other. If you order an omelette in Denver or a cold beer in Colorado, you will be living the legacy of an unlikely partnership forged in the gold-rich mountains of Colorado.