The Festival of Mountain and Plain was an annual celebration of pioneer days in the Old West held in early October in Denver from 1895 to 1899, and in 1901 with a final attempt at revival in 1912.[1] Organized by The Mountain and Plain Festival Association, the event featured a parade and rodeo. It continued until at least 1902. It was a regional celebration and drew pioneers from throughout the West, many of whom had participated in the events celebrated.[2][3]
Denver, officially the City and County of Denver, is the capital and most populous municipality of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The Denver downtown district is immediately east of the confluence of Cherry Creek with the South Platte River, approximately 12 mi (19 km) east of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Denver is named after James W. Denver, a governor of the Kansas Territory, and it is nicknamed the Mile High City because its official elevation is exactly one mile above sea level. The 105th meridian west of Greenwich, the longitudinal reference for the Mountain Time Zone, passes directly through Denver Union Station.
A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually celebrations of some kind. In Britain, the term parade is usually reserved for either military parades or other occasions where participants march in formation; for celebratory occasions, the word procession is more usual. In the Canadian Forces, the term also has several less formal connotations.
Rodeo is a competitive sport that arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain, Mexico, and later Central America, South America, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It was based on the skills required of the working vaqueros and later, cowboys, in what today is the western United States, western Canada, and northern Mexico. Today, it is a sporting event that involves horses and other livestock, designed to test the skill and speed of the cowboys and cowgirls. American style professional rodeos generally comprise the following events: tie-down roping, team roping, steer wrestling, saddle bronc riding, bareback bronc riding, bull riding and barrel racing. The events are divided into two basic categories: the rough stock events and the timed events. Depending on sanctioning organization and region, other events such as breakaway roping, goat tying, and pole bending may also be a part of some rodeos.
William Byers, founder of the Rocky Mountain News, Colorado's first newspaper, was one of its promoters and directors. He originated many of its features: the bal champedre (outdoor ball), a great public masquerade ball held on Broadway; and the four great parades: first, a pageant of western history; second, a masked parade; and, on the third day "a military and social parade, ending with a sham battle at City Park, and in the evening the parade of the slaves of the silver serpent."[4]
William Newton Byers was a founding figure of Omaha, Nebraska, serving as the first deputy surveyor of the Nebraska Territory, on the first Omaha City Council, and as a member of the first Nebraska Territorial Legislature.
The Rocky Mountain News was a daily newspaper published in Denver, Colorado, United States, from April 23, 1859, until February 27, 2009. It was owned by the E. W. Scripps Company from 1926 until its closing. As of March 2006, the Monday–Friday circulation was 255,427. From the 1940s until 2009, the newspaper was printed in a tabloid format.
A masquerade ball is an event in which the participants attend in costume wearing a mask. Less formal "costume parties" may be a descendant of this tradition. A masquerade ball usually encompasses music and dancing. These nighttime events are used for entertainment and celebrations.
↑ Rattenbury, Richard C. (2010). Arena Legacy: The Heritage of American Rodeo. University of Oklahoma Press. p.358. ISBN0-8061-4084-4.
↑ Reynolds, Minnie J. (September 22, 1901). "AMONG The PIONEERS"(Magazine supplement). The New York Times. p.SM17. Retrieved March 30, 2011.
↑ Portrait and Biographical Record of Denver and Vicinity, Colorado. Chicago: Chapman Publishing Company. 1898. p.145. Retrieved March 30, 2011. The organization with which the name of Mr. Byers is now most intimately associated is the famous festival of mountain and plain, which has been held annually since 1895. He was a member of the first board of directors, and since the second year has been the president. Much of his time is given to preparation for this great celebration, which attracts thousands to Denver. Many of the most striking features of the festival are original with him, among them the bal champedre (outdoor ball), when five thousand or more persons, in masquerade attire, dance under a covered canvas on Broadway. There are four grand parades, the one on the first day representing a pageant of progress in the history of the state and five miles in length. On the second day occurs the great masked parade, while on the third day is the military and social parade, ending with a sham battle at City Park, and in the evening the parade of the slaves of the silver serpent.
"The Festival of Mountain and Plain" Pages 383-390 Proceedings of the Second Annual Convention of the Denver National Live Stock Association...with an Appendix on the City of Denver and Its Resources, (1899) compiled by John McNamara, Secretary, Association Festival of Mountain and Plain
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