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The article's infobox gives the exact day, 17 November 1893.[1]- Start
- Nov 17, 189390% CONFIDENCEsource
The Buckhorn Exchange Opens in Denver
Henry Zietz opened the Buckhorn Exchange on 17 November 1893 across from the rail yards, and it holds Colorado liquor licence number one. The walls carry several hundred mounted animals and the menu still runs to elk, buffalo and rattlesnake.
- Henry H. Zietz opened the Buckhorn Exchange on 17 November 1893 as a saloon called the Rio Grande Exchange, in a building put up around 1886 by the Neef Brothers Brewing Company, at 1000 Osage Street in Denver's Lincoln Park.[1][5]
- Zietz met Buffalo Bill Cody at age 10 in 1875 and was a scout by 12; Sitting Bull gave him the nickname Shorty Scout for his small frame, and the friendship lasted until Zietz died in July 1949.[5]
- The saloon served railroaders, cattlemen, miners, gamblers and businessmen, and Theodore Roosevelt dined there in 1905 after his train reached the Rio Grande rail yards, then went big-game hunting with Zietz on Colorado's western slope.[1][5]
- When Colorado went dry in 1916, three years before national Prohibition, Zietz turned the front of the saloon into a grocery to stay open; after repeal the business received Colorado Liquor License #1, which is still on display.[5]
- The walls carry about 500 mounted animals and trophy heads, including a Cape buffalo said to have been shot by Roosevelt, plus a 125-gun collection of Colts and Winchesters from the 1880s and 1890s.[1][5]
- Zietz's son Henry Jr. inherited the restaurant; the family sold it in 1978 to Buckhorn Associates, led by Roi Davis and Steve Knowlton, and Bill Dutton is listed as the current owner.[1][5]
- The building went on the National Register of Historic Places on 21 April 1983 as the Zeitz Buckhorn Exchange; it bills itself as Denver's oldest continuously operating restaurant, and its best-known dish is Rocky Mountain oysters.[1]
Food photographs are from the restaurant’s official website and show seasonal or representative dishes; they may differ from the current menu and do not document the historical opening date.