Historical Moments
Four score and twenty years ago The Denver Tent and Awning Company was commissioned by the Frontier Days committee, to decorate the streets of Cheyenne, Wyoming for their annual Frontier Days celebration. The Union Pacific had laid tracks in Cheyenne, Wyoming, earning the city it’s nick-name “the magic city of the plains”, and the annual Frontier Day celebration quickly became the largest outdoor rodeo in the country. Such a celebration deserves the best, and that is where we come into the picture.
Uniformity in decoration
In 1914, we were still known as the Denver Tent and Awning Company as we had already been around for nearly 25 years, and had earned a reputation for making the highest quality tent, custom fabrics and outdoor products. It is not surprising that the Frontier Committee reached out to us to execute the task of decorating the streets for the biggest event of the year. The committee asked for two things, that the decorations be more elaborate than previous years, and that there would be uniformity in the decorations.
“Uniformity in decoration is to be observed in the district bounded by Fifteenth Street, pioneer Avenue and Eighteenth Street, at frequent and regular intervals the streets will be spanned by flag and bunting decorations and by curtains of colored electric lights.”
Frontier Days Celebration 1914
The Wild West
With the Pacific Railroad, people would travel from all across the American West to the biggest rodeo in the country, “the daddy of ‘em all”, the Frontier Day celebration . This has been a significant part of making Cheyenne, WY what it is today, and remains an historic celebration for America and our expansion to the great plains of the Wild West. Ox teams, cowboys and “vigilantes” would gallop down the decorated streets of Cheyenne– the streets Denver Tent and Awning decorated -, and re-enactments of stage holdups would be put on for the viewing public. It was wild and dangerous, just like we assume the Wild West to be. Hey, it didn’t get that name for nothing, and the parade depicts and celebrates that history to this day, for better or for worse.
”Whirling lariats! Raring, plunging broncs! Flying, stamping, prancing hoofs! Husky cowboys and vivacious cowgirls scoffling peril in their death-defying contests fo the range. That’s the Cheyenne Frontier Days” – Frontier Days Advertisement, Union Pacific Magazine, July 1929
Annual Frontier Days Celebration
The Denver Tent Company
