We’ve previously seen a menu in this series featuring the Utah state capitol, so it makes sense that the Rio Grande also issued one featuring the Colorado capitol. In 1908, the capitol dome was gilded with 200 ounces of gold leaf that came from the Cripple Creek mining district. At the time this 1947 menu was issued, no one knew that the dome would be regilded in 1949, 1980, 1991, and 2012. The most recent gilding used just 65 ounces of gold that came from the same mine as the original gold.
Click image to download a 0.9-MB PDF of this menu.
This particular menu was used for a special train of the National Association of Postmasters taking the Royal Gorge route to a convention in Los Angeles. The unpriced menu offered trout, duck, or prime rib. This menu is from the Texas Compound collection.