Category Archives: Museums of Western Colorado

Hidden Photographic Treasures From our Past: Museum to Host Historic Photo Contest

April 27, 2018

To coincide with National Historic Preservation Month, the Museum of the West and the Loyd Files Research Library are asking the community to dust off your scrapbooks and show us your best local photographs from the past for our historic photo contest, May 4 through August 3. Participants’ photos will be used as part of an exhibit at the Museum of the West between October – December, and winners will be chosen in August with … Read More

Cross Orchards Summer Concert Series

April 24, 2018

After much anticipation, the Museums of Western Colorado and Home Loan would like to announce the upcoming Cross Orchards Summer Concert Series. The concert venue, the historic barn at Cross Orchards Historic Site, will feature a wide variety of performers and provide the perfect ambience for a midsummer night’s concert. Doors will open at 6:00 pm and performances will begin at 7:00 pm. Performances will include the following:     June 14 Thomasina Russell  has … Read More

Dinosaur Day at Dinosaur Journey

April 22, 2018

June 9 • 9 am-4 pm Are you ready for some Prehistoric Fun? Dinosaur Day is back at Dinosaur Journey in Fruita, presented by Alpine Bank. Come out to Dinosaur Journey for all things dinosaur! We’ll have fun, kid-friendly educational activities, face painting, bump & jumps, and more. We are excited to welcome back so many of our wonderful community partners and we also want to announce some new partners that will be at Dinosaur … Read More

New Spring Exhibits and Free Day for National Museum Month

April 20, 2018

On May 12, we will officially open the historic Placerville Post Office. The post office 1930s façade has been carefully restored and has a special viewing window where you can peer into the past and see the postmistress hard at work in the 1930s period postal room. The new Western Investigations Team exhibit, Western Colorado Mysteries: Case Files from the Western Investigations Team (WIT), will include how the WIT team found Grand Junction town founder … Read More

Cross Orchards Historic Site to Host Antique Truck Show

April 18, 2018

May 26 • 9 am-4 pm Cross Orchards Historic Site welcomes trucking enthusiasts as well as anyone interested in the history of trucks to attend an Antique Truck Show, co-hosted by the regional chapter of the American Truck Historical Society. Trucks on display will range from Cross Orchard’s very own 1917 Model T and span the automotive evolution to modern day semi-trucks still in service. “The Model T was built by the Ford Motor Company … Read More

Planned Giving

April 2, 2018

Gift to the Museum from Bonnie and Leland Cofer The Museums of Western Colorado recently received a nice donation from Bonnie J. and Leland E. Cofer’s Trust. This is a nice gift and we very much wanted to share the news of the donation with the MWC members. Leland moved to Grand Junction in 1923 with his family when he was two-years old. He grew up on an Orchard Mesa farm, went to Lincoln Elementary … Read More

2018 Heritage Awards

March 7, 2018

It is with great pleasure that the Museums of Western Colorado recognizes outstanding individuals and groups for their contributions toward preserving our community’s heritage at the Sixth Annual Heritage Awards, hosted at the Museum of the West. We are pleased to announce winners in the following categories: Archeological Award Glade V. Hadden George Callison Paleontological Award Dr. Rodney Scheetz Historian Award Dr. Steve Schulte Steve and Denise Hight Preservation Award Leslie “Bill” Ellicott Heritage Enterprise … Read More

Original Placerville Post Office Exhibition

February 28, 2018

Museums of Western Colorado employees are in the process of installing the original Placerville, Colorado Post Office, used in San Miguel County from 1934 to 1986. The museum acquired the post office in 1986, and the installation will complete the early town exhibition in the Museum of the West which includes the Park Opera house, a rural one-room school house, and the Pastime saloon from the same era. Visitors can enjoy the newly installed façade … Read More

Museum and BLM Partnership

February 27, 2018

Since 2014, the Museums of Western Colorado and the Bureau of Land Management have been working on developing a joint website to showcase digital exhibitions and to share information about collections with the public. The BLM grant funding the project provided resources to build a professional website and a children’s website, offer a series of educational camps for children, and design an educational kit to be used by the Grand Mesa Youth Services Center. The … Read More