COLORADO’S HERITAGE CENTERS: HISTORY DISCOVERED
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The ghost town of Dearfield is preserved at the Black American West Museum - Photo courtesy of Denver Metro CVB
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Southeast Colorado Heritage Center: Pueblo
In Pueblo, a brick-and-mortar railroad depot from the 1920s has been reclaimed and retrofitted to become the Southeast Colorado Heritage Center. The building began as a connection point for the exchange of goods and cultures, and today it still brings culture to the forefront. Dedicated to the preservation and explanation of the region’s inhabitants, from pioneers to American Indians, the heritage center maintains a robust collection of artifacts displayed in exhibits including a reconstructed frontier general store and a fine collection of old-time phones.
Anasazi Heritage Center: Dolores
Filled with artifacts and exhibits of modern and ancient American Indian tribes, the Anasazi Heritage Center in Dolores is the region’s premier heritage museum. Pottery, tools, textiles and even an accurately reconstructed meeting room, or kiva, are displayed here. The museum itself is also a working research center, with thousands of cataloged artifacts referenced by today’s scientists. The Anasazi Heritage Center also serves as the official welcome center for the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, a landscape generally unchanged
since it was inhabited by Ancestral Puebloans generations ago.
Pikes Peak Heritage Center: Cripple Creek
Situated in the once gold-rich area near the town of Cripple Creek, the Pikes Peak Heritage Center pays homage to the culture of grit and determination that sustained the region’s fortune seekers. The entrance to the center has been whimsically constructed to look like the entrance of a mine. Inside, visitors find displays and artifacts relating to gold-rush mining. In addition, the museum showcases the gritty draws once associated with a rough and tumble mining town, including the bawdy lives of infamous madams.
University of Colorado Heritage Center: Boulder
The University of Colorado at Boulder’s Arts and Sciences building has been a university institution since 1876. When first constructed, it was heralded as “A monument of patience, looking down upon the frontier village.” Today, in addition to a place of higher education, Old Main — as the building has come to be known — is also home to the University of Colorado Heritage Center. Inside, visitors will find Victorian-era furniture, art and architecture. But the center is more than a museum — students, faculty and other groups still use some of these reconstructed rooms for meeting and socializing.
Black American West Museum & Heritage Center: Denver
The Black American West Museum & Heritage Center in Denver tells the little-known story of African American pioneers through its collection of more than 35,000 artifacts. Its holdings include everything from photographs and cowboy boots to old newspaper articles and recorded oral histories. Housed in the former home of Dr. Justina Ford — Colorado’s first black female doctor — this culturally rich museum resides in the heart of Five Points — a neighborhood once synonymous with jazz in Denver.
Updated: 03/26/2008
