The free pancake feed that happens three times during Cheyenne Frontier Days has served over 1.4 million guests 4.5 million pancakes. It takes 5,000 pounds of batter to pull the event off each year, along with 425 gallons of syrup. About 30,000 people in all will be served.
It’s an incredible sight every time. Pancakes flying up into the air, a cement mixer turning in the background, and a hungry river of humanity, all converging on one single location.
The Cheyenne Depot, newly transformed into Pancake Central, is the scene of a long-standing tradition that’s about as Americana as it gets.
Before any given pancake feed morning is done, 10,000-some people will have been fed free pancakes with syrup and blueberries in just two hours.
Cheyenne Frontier Days provides the pancakes, butter and syrup, and coffee and milk, while Blue Credit Union provides the blueberries.
But it is Kiwanis members who provide the labor. And it is a labor of fun, Kiwanis member Justin Gorman told Cowboy State Daily.
“We started the pancake feed in 1966,” he said. “That was our first year serving pancakes, and so this marks our 58th year of serving pancakes.”
The event began as more than a fun gesture of true Western hospitality, though. It was actually designed as an emergency management practice run, and it still has a little of that component, Gorman said.
“If something were to happen in the city or the region, we know we could pull our volunteers and our equipment together to serve food for an emergency,” he said.
In all, 1.4 million people have been served pancakes through the event, meaning that more than 4.5 million pancakes have been made in the 57 years prior to this one.
200 Volunteers, 5,000 Pounds Of Batter, 4.5 million Pancakes Made
It takes an entire village to put on the free pancake feed, Gorman said.
“We’ve got 20 different committees,” he said. “We’ve got Batter Droppers, we’ve got Flippers, we’ve got our Big Red Committee. And every committee has a chairperson who knows exactly what they’re supposed to be doing, so it’s literally, and quite figuratively, a well-oiled machine.”
In fact, it takes 50 gallons of cooking oil to put on the event three times, Gorman said, along with 5,000 pounds of pancake mix, 425 gallons of syrup, 520 gallons of coffee, 8,000 pints of milk, and 650 pounds of butter.
The costs of the supplies are all reimbursed by Cheyenne Frontier Days, and probably, collectively, cost around $30,000 each year, Gorman said.
“It’s really fun,” Gorman added. “And there’s a wide variety of volunteers who help to put this on, and you get to know them throughout the year, and you have a level of trust. We’ve all been doing this for many years now, so it just kind of magically comes together.”
Among those volunteers are people like Dick Royce, all of whom show up in numbers just as the sun is rising over Cheyenne.
“I’ve been coming to this since I was about 8 years old,” Royce told Cowboy State Daily. “My dad would take us to this, back when it was at the Elks Club.”
Royce recalls taking the pancake feed routine on the road to places like Saratoga in 1979 after a tornado, though it’s been a while since they were called upon for an actual emergency.
As the event grew, Royce said the location changed several times, until finally it landed at the Depot, which is one of few open spaces central enough to Cheyenne Frontier Days for a Daddy of ‘Em All Pancake Feed.
A volunteer flips pancakes just after they have browned on the bottom, while another volunteer puts down more pancake batter. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Pitchers of batter await. It takes 5,000 pounds of batter to put on the Pancake feed. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Volunteers have to be nimble sometimes to catch the pancakes as they're flipped off the griddle. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
People with pancakes stream from the line, which moves rapidly. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Pam Marshall watches over Christian Nolan who seems to be enjoying the blueberries more than the pancakes. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
A river of hungry humanity streams into the Cheyenne Depot, which has been transformed into Pancake Central for the free pancake feed, which happens three times over Cheyenne Frontier Days. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Dick Royce is one of about 200 volunteers who helps put on the free pancake feed. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily)
Think Fast
In addition to the 200 volunteers involved with the event, the city of Cheyenne also helps with the event by providing security around the entire area, and blocking off streets for the safety of those walking into the pancake feed.
If you miss the Monday pancake feed, there are always two more to go, one on Wednesday and another on Friday.
The rules are simple. The line starts forming up at 7 a.m. and shuts down at 9 a.m. sharp. So be in line by then, and you’ll be fed, no matter how long the line is.
The line tends to move quickly, with the goal being that no one person waits in line for more than 20 minutes.
“But the line probably doesn’t take more than 10 minutes,” Gorman said.
Live music, provided by Cheyenne Frontier Days, serenades everyone at the pancake feed, which doesn’t hurt the sense that time is flying by, even while one is waiting. And it’s fun to watch the pancake flippers practicing their form — particularly the beginners.
Those sideways pancakes usually wind up on the ground, but occasionally, one lands in the crowd that’s waiting in line.
The celebrity pancake flippers, too, working from a side railroad car that’s right by the line where it turns, have been known to toss a pancake out to the hungry crowd now and then.
So, stay alert and think fast while waiting in line. You just might score an extra pancake or two while waiting.
