Prize Steers And High Tea In Brown Palace Hotel Friday

DENVER, CO – Steer yourself over to the Brown Palace Hotel Friday for an Instgram-ready selfie with the 74th Annual Grand Champion steer from the National Western Stock Show.

As a fundraiser for Colorado's There With Care charity, you can snap your photo with a rose-garlanded steer (a castrated bull, for city slickers) and some of the rodeo royalty as part of the annual Tea With a Steer event in the Brown Palace Atrium Lobby.

The 2019 Grand Champion Steer (and a spare) will make their regal entrances into nine-story atrium of the Brown Palace along a red carpet by 11 a.m., the hotel said in a press release. With a donation to Boulder-based charity for family members of critically ill children There With Care, you can get a souvenir photo with the Grand Champion steer between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Following the selfie session, the steers will head to the Auction of Junior Champions to be sold that evening. Past champions have sold for more than $100,000, the hotel said. After the auction Friday night, the cows will, sadly be slaughtered.

The tradition started in 1945, when Gunnison hereford rancher and soon-to-be Governor Daniel Thornton's two prize bulls went for $50,000 each at the stock show, according to Brown Palace historian Debra Faulkner. In an interview with CPR, Faulkner said the two bulls were invited by hotel owners the Boetcher family into the hotel lobby to be oohed and aaahed over by national media. It's been a tradition ever since, she said.

Hear the interview on CPR.

Images via the Brown Palace Hotel.

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