History Colorado Center

 Denver, CO

The entrance to the History Colorado Center

A Great Museum

On our last day in Denver we visited the History Colorado Center.  We had been riding by it on the bus all month and they had great banners that intrigued us so we went.  It wasn't a museum we could get in for free but it was totally worth the price.  We spent a good 4 hours there and saw all four floors.  The museum is all about Colorado and this area.

There were Legos on all of the floors worked into different displays

Gene and Donna posing with Emmet because.  Everything was awesome except Emmet was missing a hand and had the appropriate facial expression. 

The first floor had a giant topo map of Colorado on the floor

The iconic Welcome To Colorful Colorado sign

You can't even tell I am not by the side of the freeway taking this!

Most of the building had Colorado Stone on the walls.

Step 3 of tanning deer hides is rubbing their brains on the hide.  Glad my hides already come tanned these days.

They had a wing on the 4th floor dedicated to the indigenous people that were in the area and I liked this beadwork

Some more cool clothes and flags too

Put your hip into it!

The next area was all about city planning from the start to today as well as life living in a city.

Everyone just wants to be treated equally

More Lego worked into the displays

Many outdoorsmen became activists for the environment.  Here I am trying a belay ledge

Coors had some misguided ideas about the world early on

Beaker speaks the truth

Early urban planning had 3 different groups line up the streets in 3 different directions all using rivers to align with.  This is why the roads get wonky as you get downtown.

Elitch Gardens has been around a long time

Some people are opposed to the I-70 Project

A Lego version of "The Cash Register" building

Gene and Donna finding our Airbnb

We found a balcony to sneak out onto and get some fresh air and take photos

Another exhibit chose 100 objects to represent Colorado

We have seen the Golden Spike and now we have seen the silver spike

Soon it was time for a snack in the cafe.

A Lego Union Station

A great section on The Dust Bowl

You got to sit through a 9 minute Dust Bowl experience that was pretty cool

Next up was a section on the Eisenhower Tunnel and how it gives city access to the mountains

They also talked about how to improve access.  I swear I didn't alter this survey

There was a section on Skiing and the Ski Culture

Just us Ski Bums

There was a Denver A to Z exhibit which was cool

Fudge!  A Denver Boot!

The first museum I have seen with multiple references to South Park

They cheated a little

I got to dress up too!

They had a Ski Jumping Simulator.  I am not positive you can land a successful jump but it was fun.

Mining is a big part of Colorado's history

They had a blasting simulator.  I blew up the mine real good

Gene did it better and had a successful controlled blast by following directions 

I learned that the mines were all air conditioned by Honeywell

I took a photo of me in an old timey year book and the image was emailed to me

They even had a cow milking simulator

Donna guessing smells

Colorado had a troubled history with the LGBTQIA community but that is improving now

Amendment 2 was passed in 1992 making it illegal to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation.  This dubbed Colorado The Hate State and a huge travel boycott really hurt tourism.  Amendment 2 was fixed in 1996 and now Colorado is a progressive state. 

That's our time in Colorado.  We hit the road tomorrow (actually today, Tuesday morning) and camp in New Mexico tonight and then stay in a hotel in Amarillo tomorrow night and we get to visit Big Texan Steak Ranch.  I am looking forward to the cheese factor there.

If you didn't see my post yesterday about a pair of month old potatoes, check it out here.