From Fancy Dinners to Frontier Drama: The Baby Doe Story Denver Still Talks About
The name wasn’t random, either. Baby Doe’s Matchless Mine was inspired by one of the most famous boom-and-bust stories in Colorado history. The restaurant’s theme pulled from the legend of Baby Doe Tabor and the real Matchless Mine in Leadville, tying Denver dining to the state’s silver rush era. It worked because the story behind the name is pure Colorado: wealth, scandal, fame, collapse, and a final chapter that’s almost unbelievable. Even people who didn’t know all the details still recognized the name, and that name alone carried a “Colorado legend” feeling that made the restaurant stand out.
To understand why the restaurant’s name hit so hard, you have to know who Baby Doe was. Baby Doe Tabor was born Elizabeth “Lizzie” McCourt in 1854 and became one of the most talked-about women in the state after marrying Horace Tabor, a powerful businessman and politician who struck it rich during the Leadville silver boom. Their relationship became a public spectacle because Horace divorced his first wife, Augusta, before marrying Lizzie in 1883, creating one of the biggest social scandals in Colorado at the time. For a while, Baby Doe lived in luxury and high society, surrounded by the kind of wealth that made Colorado feel like the center of the world.
But Colorado fortunes could disappear as fast as they arrived. Horace Tabor’s empire was tied to silver, and when the silver market crashed in the 1890s, everything unraveled. Horace died in 1899, and Baby Doe’s life changed completely. She remained convinced the family’s fortune would return through the Matchless Mine, one of the most famous properties tied to the Tabor name. Eventually, she moved to a small cabin near the mine in Leadville, living through harsh winters and long periods of isolation while holding onto the belief that the mine would make her wealthy again.
In 1935, Baby Doe was found dead in her cabin, a tragic ending that turned her into a symbol of Colorado’s boomtown era and the cost of chasing the dream. That’s why her name still carries weight in Colorado history, and why it was such a powerful choice for a Denver restaurant. Baby Doe’s Matchless Mine wasn’t just a name, it was a whole legend, repackaged into a place where Denver could celebrate, eat, and feel connected to the larger-than-life stories that built this state.
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