Constantine Peter Arnold was a man with a sense of humor. He was a lawyer, Democratic politician, and Laramie businessman. But to some of his friends, he was notorious for throwing an annual winter picnic. He created elaborate, professionally printed invitations for the picnic, held to celebrate his February birthday.
The event occurred on Arnold’s ranch, twenty-two miles from Laramie, on the Little Laramie River. In his 1923 invitation Arnold wrote “It is something to strike terror in the stoutest heart and make the blood run cold – a winter picnic”. He promised guests “big campfires among the trees, where you can warm yourself – one side at a time”.
He offered up a menu of baked beans, brown bread, ham roasted in molasses and studded with cloves, an orange and plenty of good hot coffee, “strong enough to float an iron wedge”.
Learn more in the Constantine Peter Arnold papers at UW’s American Heritage Center