ic #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 skin rug.
(303) 832-4092 www.mollybrown.org
Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum
This 150,000-square-foot museum, housed in a 1939 Hangar #1 on the former grounds of Lowry Air Force Base, has 36 unique aircraft on exhibit, including a 1938 B-18A Bolo and a World-War-I-era Eagle Fokker D.VII. Four exhibits examine the history of avionics. Visitors can view World-War-I fighter pilot uniforms and sit inside a F-4 Phantom II cockpit.
(303) 360-5360 www.wingsmuseum.org
Anasazi Heritage Center
The 10,000-square-foot museum features the Pueblo, Navajo, and Ute cultures with interpretive exhibits, such as a hands-on discovery area where visitors can weave cloth and grind corn on a mano and metate or explore the 12th-century Anasazi ruins 200 yards away.
(970) 882-5600 www.blm.gov/co/st/en/fo/ahc.html
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument
This 164,000-acre monument park boasts more than 6,000 recorded archeological sites, making it the richest outdoor mu- seum in North America. Visitors can park near and walk among the ruined sandstone walls, towers, and kivas, (ceremonial rooms), of the Ancestral Puebloan Sand Canyon, Painted Hand, and Lowry Pueblos.
(970) 882-5600 www.blm.gov/co/st/en/nm/canm.html
Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad and Museum
The Denver & Rio Grande Railway com- pleted the narrow, three-foot gauge rail line in 1882 to transport gold and silver ore from Durango, up 3,000 feet through the rugged San Juan Mountains to Silver- ton. Today visitors can enjoy a 45-minute ride in Victorian-era steam locomotives or open-aired contemporary cars.
(970) 247-2733 www.durangotrain.com
Gunnison Pioneer Museum
This five-acre site contains 62 antique cars and 11 buildings, including a dairy barn, schoolhouse, and post office. The museum’s narrow gauge train is a Denver & Rio Grande Engine #268, complete with flanger, gondola, boxcar, livestock car, and caboose. (970) 641-4530
(970) 925-3721 www.pioneertrainmuseum.org
Mesa Verde National Park
Ancestral Puebloans, who lived in Mesa Verde between 600 and