December 25, 1905. Christmas Dinner, 2 p.m. Montgomery-Shoshone Mine. [WITH:] Thanks Giving, November 20th, 1905. The Montgomery Cafe

[Bullfrog, Nye County, Nevada], 1905. Two broadsheet menus (26 x 13.5 cm.), [1] page, each. Illustrated. Two holiday menus, for Thanksgiving and Christmas of 1905, from the height of the Nevada Gold Rush. The Christmas menu, assembled by Robert Brogelman, Chef, included Blue Point Oysters, Mock Turtle Soup, Lobster Mayonaise, Oyster Fritters, English Plum Pudding, Malaga Grapes, Hennesy 3 Star Brandy, and Josyni Key West Cigars. The Thanksgiving menu included Roast Young Turkey a la Malcolm MacDonald, Pumpkin Pie, and a Manhattan Cocktail. The Montgomery-Shoshone Mine was a Death Valley gold and silver site discovered in 1904 and in operation by 1905, the year of these Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations. In April of the same year, the Salt Lake Mining Review declared "the story of ... the Mine's company's property at Bullfrog, Nevada is so incredible that the bare facts seem clear out of the range of possibilities" (page 8). In June of the same year, the LA Times reported there were 1300 head of horses and mules on the Bullfrog-Las Vegas hauling freight. These holiday dinners were offered by the founder of the mine, the already ridiculously wealthy Mr. E.A. Montgomery, and his major partner Malcolm L. MacDonald. A year later, the mine was sold to Charles Schwab (the steel magnate, not the financier), Bullfrog was the definition of a boom town. Within a year of the original discovery, 10,000 people sought gold and pleasure there. "The town citizens had an active social life including baseball games, dances, basket socials, whist parties, tennis, a symphony, Sunday school picnics, basketball games, Saturday night variety shows at the opera house, and pool tournaments. In 1906 Countess Morajeski opened the Alaska Glacier Ice Cream Parlor to the delight of the local citizenry. That same year an enterprising miner, Tom T. Kelly, built a Bottle House out of 50,000 beer and liquor bottles" (nps.gov "Rhyolite Ghost Town"). By 1908, mine productivity was dwindling, and by March, 1911, the mine was shut. The Thanksgiving menu has some small grease stains, and tape repairs to the verso at two folds. The Christmas menu has one short tape repair to the edge. Still, near very good, and a rare survival from the apex moment of a town that lasted little more than six years.