Though it wouldn’t be formally established as a federal holiday until 1879, Washington’s Birthday — later Presidents’ Day — was celebrated with special enthusiasm across the country in the centennial year, and Colorado was no exception.
All around the territory, businesses were closed, with residents turning out for parades, military salutes and a variety of “out-door games and literary exercises,” reported the Denver Tribune. In the evening, grand balls were held in Golden at Standly’s Hall, in Boulder at Union Hall and in Georgetown at Cushman’s Opera House.
In Las Animas, a newly organized Masonic lodge hosted guests from nearby Fort Lyon and towns as far away as Granada and Kit Carson, who took to the freshly waxed and polished dance floor as an orchestra played waltzes and quadrilles until 3:30 a.m.
The Las Animas Leader could hardly have been more effusive about the event’s success. Not only was it “doubtless the most brilliant gathering of all which have so far taken place in this part of the territory,” the Leader wrote, the holiday ball had demonstrated that “this community possesses and presents in its social circle a standard of refinement and intelligence which would be creditable anywhere in the country.”…