FIVE OF COLORADO'S LARGEST MUSEUM COLLECTIONS
Colorado’s history is ample and varied. With award-winning museums, discovering little-known facts about the state’s past is fun, easy and entertaining. We’ve compiled a few of Colorado’s most complete collections, covering everything from fine art to frontier history.
Anasazi Heritage Center
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 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 largely unchanged since it was inhabited by Ancestral Puebloans generations ago.
Contact Information
27501 Hwy. 184
Dolores, CO 81323
Phone: 970-882-5600
Co.blm.gov/ahc
Denver Museum of Nature & Science
One of the most expansive museums in Colorado, in terms of educational rewards and interactive experiences, is the impressive Denver Museum of Nature & Science. With its broad selection of IMAX® films, gallery presentations, traveling exhibits and permanent installations, it offers something for everyone. Permanent exhibits include Gems & Minerals, Space Odyssey and the award-winning Prehistoric Journey, where you can travel back through time to the age of dinosaurs.
Contact Information
2001 Colorado Boulevard
Denver, CO 80205
303-322-7009
Dmnh.org
Denver Art Museum
The Denver Art Museum is home to some of the most inspiring and evocative art in the Rocky Mountain region. Having completed a major expansion in 2006, the museum is a work of art in its own right. Heralded architect Daniel Libeskind designed the angular structure of the Frederic C. Hamilton expansion to reflect Colorado's coming together of people and elements. And while strolling through the museum, you'll have the opportunity to view a range of masterpieces by renowned artists, including Monet, Bouguereau and Warhol. Here, art by the masters of European and American styles share space with the intricate textiles and artifacts of American Indians.
Contact Information
100 West 14 Avenue Parkway
Denver, CO 80204
Phone: 720-865-5000
Denverartmuseum.org
Wings Over the Rockies
Wings Over the Rockies is Colorado’s official aerospace museum. With a space capsule, fighter jets and bombers (many with a connection to Colorado), Wings Over the Rockies delights families and aviation buffs alike. Housed in the second hangar built on the now historic Lowry Air Force Base, this museum lets your imagination soar with state-of-the-art aircraft and propeller-driven barnstormers. Many of the planes showcased were originally stationed at Lowry Air Force Base and used by Air National Guard members as training craft. Among them, a titanic B-1 bomber, one of only a few still remaining in the nation. The museum also displays a comprehensive exhibit on the history of the Colorado Air National Guard. There’s even a space capsule used by NASA during the Apollo project. Informational placards detail the museum’s collections. Every second Saturday of the month, the museum opens some of the hatches and lets kids feel like a real pilot in the cockpit.
Contact Information:
7711 East Academy Boulevard
Denver, CO 80230-6929
Phone: 303-360-5360
Fax: 303-360-5328
Museum Store: 303-360-8535
Wingsmuseum.org
Colorado Railroad Museum
The history behind trains is just as invigorating as riding the rails at the Colorado Railroad Museum. Established in 1959, this museum treats patrons to the long and often flamboyant history of Colorado's railroads. The grounds of the museum, at the base of North Table Mountain in Golden, are laden with well-maintained behemoths of steel and engineering. Included in the collection is one of the whimsical sounding Galloping Goose cars, built between 1931 and 1935. This train-truck hybrid is a rare oddity, representing one of only a handful ever constructed. In addition to the goose, the painstakingly rebuilt Denver and Rio Grande Western (D&RGW) engine number 683 is one of the museum's crowning pieces, as is the more modern-looking D&RGW number 5771.
If you don't have the time to travel the state riding each of our nine historic and scenic trains, you can make a stop at this informative railroad museum where expert staff is readily available to answer questions.
Contact Information
17155 W. 44th Avenue
Golden, CO 80403
Phone: 303-279-4591
Toll Free: 800-365-6263
Fax: 303-279-4229
Coloradorailroadmuseum.org
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