Imagining Three Tons of Fresh Salmon

My mouth started watering last night while I was working on Chapter 8 of my book. I was writing about a national Elks convention my great-grandfather attended in July 1912. G. Oliver Riggs was a cornet soloist with the Kalispell (Montana) Elks Club Band, and one of the events they attended (and performed at) during the six-day event in Portland, Oregon, was a memorable barbecue at the Oaks Amusement Park.

The local newspapers went into great detail about the food the Portland hosts had prepared for their guests, an estimated 20,000 people from across the country. What’s more, the meal was free, thanks to the generous donations by Portland businesses.

The Portland Oregonian offered statistics on what was consumed during the first 45 minutes of the three-hour barbecue: it included 3 tons of fresh Chinook salmon, 3,300 pounds of clams, 6,300 loaves of bread, 2 tons of potatoes, 500 bunches each of onions and radishes, 100 boxes of celery, 248 rolls of butter, 146 boxes of crackers, 100 pounds of coffee and 300 cases of soft drinks.  

The Kalispell Elks Club Band in front of the Portland, Oregon, armory. It’s difficult to pick out G. Oliver Riggs because of the quality of the photo; he might be one of the men on the far right, who appear to be holding cornets.

Another newspaper, the Oregon Daily Journal, explained that “just to give an idea of the number of persons that barbecue will be able to take care of, exactly one mile of high, narrow tables have been laid at the park at which the guests will be served standing.”

An article in the July 11, 1912 issue of the Oregon Daily Journal.

I also discovered last night, while fighting off hunger pains, that the Oregon Daily Journal ran two photos of the Kalispell band during its multi-day coverage of the convention.

The Kalispell band uniforms were white with purple trimmings (the Elk organization colors), which is difficult to convey with black ink on white newsprint. My great-grandfather is in there somewhere, one of the guys in white wearing a hat.

Inspired by the lengthy description of the Elks convention meal, I decided to make salmon for dinner tonight. Instead of steaming clams, I made broccoli and cheddar cheese risotto. We did not eat standing up.