
This museum takes its name from the Overland stage route of the Oregon Trail, which was the most traveled road of its time. Designed to look like a trading fort, it contains exhibits and artifacts that include the sunbonnets and wedding dresses be- longing to 19th-century pioneers. The five- acre grounds feature a schoolhouse, blacksmith shop, church, and granary with branding irons and saddles.
(970) 522-3895 www.sterlingcolo.com/pages/dept/plr/museum.php
This 13,500-square-foot museum presents local Wray area history from a life-size model of a bison to a 1960s Red Cross “Gray Ladies” uniform. Exhibits also in- clude an 1863 Mountain Howitzer cannon used against several plains tribes during the 1868 Battle of Beecher Island, an 1861 Steinway Square baby grand piano, and Korean-War-era uniforms.
(970) 332-5063 www.wrayco.net/museum.html
Black American West Museum
This museum documents the history of black western pioneers with memorabilia, letters, photographs, and oral histories. The homestead exhibit displays educa- tional panels and artifacts from Dearfield, a black pioneer town founded in 1910. The military exhibit offers artifacts of Buffalo Soldiers, a black Civil War U.S. army regiment.
(303) 482-2242 www.blackamericanwestmuseum.com
Colorado History Museum
Commissioned by the Works Project Ad- ministration in the 1930s and completed by Colorado artists in 1977, this 200,000- square-foot museum contains a theater and dioramas illustrating 10,000 years of Col- orado’s history. A combination ticket ad- mits visitors to the Byers-Evans House Museum, located two blocks northwest. The Evans family lived in the 1889 Victo- rian house for 80 years. The two-story mu- seum features 19th-century furnishings, wallpaper, and artwork.
(303) 866-3682 www.coloradohistory.org
Forney Transportation Museum
This extensive 70,000-square-foot museum of antique cars began as the personal col- lection of industrialist J. D. Forney and has grown to showcase more than 500 trans- portation exhibits, including a Big Boy Union Pacific #4005 steam locomotive and Amelia Earhart’s Gold Bug Kissel auto. Self-guided tours lead through the “Any- thing with Wheels” exhibit, which contains steam tractors and carriage wagons. Chil- dren can ride on an operational full-scale 20th-century Cagney steam engine train.
(303) 297-1113 www.forneymuseum.org
Four Mile Historic Park
Situated along the banks of Cherry Creek, the Four Mile House was once the Denver stop on the Cherokee Trail, which ran from Tahlequah, Oklahoma to Fort Bridger, Wyoming. Today costumed inter- preters offer 45-minute guided tours through the 1859 home; visitors can take a self-guided tour of the 12-acre park, which contains a recreated former tavern and inn, bee house, three barns, as well as 19th-century demonstrations of quilting and blacksmithing.
(720) 865-0800 www.fourmilepark.org
Hiwan Homestead Museum
This 17-room rustic lodge features a collection of artifacts, including Navajo blankets and Pueblo pottery, that illustrate how settlers lived in the mountains during the summer between 1890 and 1930. Self-guided tours of the recreated rooms include a Gothic-inspired chapel and a carpentry and printing workshop.
(720) 497-7650 www.co.jefferson.co.us/ openspace/openspace_T56_R10.htm
Denver’s first post office, theatre, and meeting hall, built on Larimer Street in the 1870s, still stand as part of the city’s 16-building historic district. The Larimer Square historic walking tour begins in the lobby of the Granite building, and travels through the Kettle Arcade and Lincoln Hall, which were once used for parties and dancing.
(303) 534-2367 www.larimersquare.com
Molly Brown House Museum
Located in Denver’s Capitol Hill district, this 1889 Victorian mansion once be- longed to “unsinkable” Titanic survivor Molly Brown who famously seized control of a lifeboat and searched successfully for survivors. The three-story museum offers 45-minute guided tours through the kitchen, bedrooms, and living room con- taining original artifacts, such as Brown’s books, cooking utensils, and polar bear