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More than 500 pieces of taxidermied pieces adorn walls of historic Denver steakhouse

By Piper Russell July 25, 2025 | updated 4 days ago

The Gazette's holiday gift guide: 20 Colorado-made ideas

Les Hobgood, left, and Mike Jary eat dinner at the Buckhorn Exchange this month while working in town with the Pearl Jam concert at Ball Arena.

Christian Murdock, The Gazette

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Diners visiting Denver’s historic Buckhorn Exchange can enjoy meals among an impressive display of antique weapons, hundreds of mounted animal heads, and other taxidermy on the restaurant’s bright red walls.

Over 500 taxidermied pieces adorn the walls of the Buckhorn Exchange, as well as hundreds of pieces of “museum quality memorabilia on display in the Buckhorn Exchange which today is as much as museum as a restaurant and bar.”

Founded in 1893, the Buckhorn Exchange is one of Denver’s most historic eating and drinking establishments. In addition to delicious steaks, the restaurant serves up a look into the Wild West. Cattlemen miners, silver barons, railroadmen, Native American chiefs, gamblers, and businessmen used to stop by the Buckhorn Exchange to enjoy the “west’s finest offerings.”

The restaurant also offers more adventurous meats including rattlesnake, alligator tail, buffalo sausage, elk, quail, game hen, pheasant, venison, and Rocky Mountain Oysters.

Buffalo Bill even visited the restaurant himself, as he was supposedly friends with founder Henry H. “Shorty Scout” Zietz. The restaurant also claims that four presidents – Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan – died at the restaurant. A Cape buffalo head Roosevelt shot even hangs in the restaurant.

According to Atlas Obscura, the Buckhorn has an annual “Buffalo Bill Look-alike” contest. And on Friday and weekend nights you might even find two old cowboys in authentic western wear performing traditional prairie songs near the upstairs bar.

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