Chuckwagon Dinner & Show

Unsaddle your horse, take off your spurs, pull up a chair, eat some authentic grub, and settle in for an evening of history and music at the Poudre Learning Center! From the 19th Century to the present, cattle have had a “mooooving impact” on the history, culture and economy of Greeley, Weld County, and northern Colorado. Esteemed historian and valued community treasure, Peggy Ford Waldo of the City of Greeley Museum, in this four-part series, will provide lively stories and anecdotes about the colorful characters and times associated with the cattle industry from 1859 – 1919. 

The Civil War (1861 – 1865) impacted the course of the Texas cattle industry. A few lucky entrepreneurs saw huge profits in driving surplus cattle to new markets where miners and immigrants had an appetite for beef. Learn about the partnership of Oliver Loving and Charles Goodnight, the Goodnight-Loving Trail and the invention of the chuckwagon. Learn about Colorado’s “Cattle King”, John Wesley Ilif and how the open range in northern Colorado contributed significantly to his fortune.

On his only visit to his namesake town on Oct. 12, 1870, Horace Greeley explained his vision that the town would have no fences and no rum. Unfortunately, longhorns were ravaging the colonists’ yards, gardens, and farms, so $20,000 was spent on 50 miles of fence that surrounded the town and adjacent Union Colony lands. Barbed wire was the nemesis to the open range, as homesteaders staked claims, and new towns were platted along railroads. Learn about native peoples who hunted bison, and how Greeley became the “Buffalo Robe Capital of Colorado” in the 1870s. Hear stories about early pioneers who settled along the Cache la Poudre--Robert Boyd, Benjamin H. Eaton, and Peter Winne.  

The Cattle Industry in the 1880s: Foreign investors saw great potential in establishing business ventures in the American West, including raising cattle and improving herds through selective breeding. In Weld County, the four Painter brothers and Lyulph “Lord” Ogilvy established important livestock ranches. Learn about the “remittance men”, round-up districts, branding, the proposed national cattle trail, and changes in cattle raising after the disastrous blizzards of the 1880s.  

By the 1890s, railroads, homesteaders, and new communities would bring result in the end of the open range. Learn about communities that became important cattle shipping centers (Carr, Hardin, Cheyenne), and the adventures of some notable cowboys and cattlemen, including Frank Benton, who predicted in his book, Cowboy Life on the Sidetrack, that in the future water might become more valuable than cattle.