Colorado History Museum: a young state's rich past brought to light
Published: Apr 21, 2009
If you've never been to the Colorado History Museum, you might think a state as young as Colorado wouldn't have much of a past. Well, think again.
Better yet, pay a visit to this museum in the heart of Denver and find out more about the pioneers who journeyed here in covered wagons — and learn about the Paleo-Indians who hunted buffalo on foot across the prairies 8,000 years before that.
See how Denver began as a campsite at the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte River, where prospectors hoped to find a bonanza panning for gold.
The exhibit Imagine A Great City depicts Denver's 150 years of growth and development into the metropolis they call the Mile-High City. Tribal Paths tells the story of Colorado's American Indians from A.D. 1500 until today.
In Ancient Voices, you'll journey into the distant past where a multi-sensory evocation, including artifacts, images, voices and music, will portray the day-to-day lives of the Apishapa in southeastern Colorado and the Puebloans. You'll visit a bison kill site on the Plains and see what it was like to dwell in a home carved out of a cliff.
There will probably be some surprises. How many know that Colorado holds the world's record for snowfall in one day, on April 14, 1921, when 75.8 inches (more than six feet) fell on Silver Lake? Or that the world's largest silver nugget — 1,840 pounds! — was taken out of the Molly Gibson mine near Aspen?
Great photos more than 125 years old might help you understand why A Woman's Place Is On The Range: Your jaw might drop at the sight of women branding cattle or taking part in a roundup — while sitting side-saddle on their horses and wearing long Victorian dresses!
From the mountain men to mining, from ancient buckskins to John Elway's famous No. 7 jersey on display, there's actually a lot to see and make you think at this modest-sized museum.
You'll come away appreciating, for instance, that 45 tribes of Native Americans are "Still Here" — and still making history, along with everyone else in Colorado.
- by David Zindell, Denver Reporter for HelloMetro
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