Up on Lookout Mountain, the old wooden building that once housed Pahaska Tepee — a sort of companion gift shop and cafe next to the Buffalo Bill Museum — has stood empty since the beginning of the year.
Work to restore the historic gift shop and cafe, which first opened in the 1970s, is underway. Denver Parks and Recreation is gauging interest in potential concessionaires — specifically, someone who specializes in Indigenous food and drinks.
“This is an opportunity to bring more Indigenous perspective and voices to the site and the storytelling, and also to really have a modern interpretation of what Buffalo Bill was trying to achieve,” said Shannon Dennison, the director of Denver Mountain Parks. “And that is introducing culture and history through food.”
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West shows toured North America and Europe for decades in the late 1800s and early 1900s. They made celebrities out of performers and real-life historical figures, like sharpshooter Annie Oakley and Lakota leader Sitting Bull, but also spread stereotypes of Indigenous people that persist to this day.
Dennison hopes to contract with a vendor to occupy the Pahaska building by the end of the year.
The contractor will also be asked to run the gift shop and put on cultural programming.
The new contractor is the first stage of what is expected to be a renewed Pahaska building.
Denver Mountain Parks allowed the previous lease to expire so they could do a full review of the building and its mechanical systems. The Pashaska facility was built in 1921 and once housed living quarters for staff, which made for an interesting building layout.
Many parts of the building are outdated and will require a full architectural assessment, Dennison said.
“We'll bring in preservation architects and engineers to do a full architectural assessment of the building, figure out where we need to upgrade to meet code, what the long-term vision is going to be for that particular building, and where investment is needed to maintain the building,” Dennison said.
It’s unclear how much the full renovation will cost and when the city will have enough money to fund the project.
Until that happens, the future contractor will only occupy a small portion of the Pahaska building.
