February 22
With a pair of little-to-no cost museums right across the street from each other, finding time between the end of my work day and the end of Brandy’s work day was a cinch!
Royal Gorge Regional Museum
As I finished my work day, I had some time to kill before Brandy was off work so I went to the nearby Royal Gorge Regional Museum. It’s a small museum offering free admission.
The building it’s in is a three level building. The street level seems to be administrative offices; I walked in and there were literal offices, with desks and people working at them. A woman came out of one of the offices and greeted me, asking me to sign the guest registry and giving me a brief rundown of the offerings at the museum.
On the main level, where I’d entered, there was a bunch of foamboard type signs talking about the history of hotels and motels in the area. Not just in Canon City, but in Fremont County as a whole. Many of the early hotels have long since been torn down, but some still persist to this day, even if they’ve changed hand numerous times since their initial opening. This exhibit flows through the main hall on this floor into a large office where a young man was studiously working behind a desk. I felt awkward milling around while he was working. Heading off of that room was what was described to me as a “reading room” which appeared to be a room filled with metal shelving filled with reference materials. Not something I wanted to peruse at the time.
I instead headed up the stairs where there were displays of mounted and stuffed trophies including elk, deer, various birds, cats and other animals. There was a large display of artifacts from the hunting days of Canon City pioneer Dall DeWeese. Much of the aforementioned taxidermy was included in this collection as well as a large cabinet with several hunting rifles and a huge fireplace containing bits and pieces of fossils, stones and gems farmed from around Canon City.
In this same room was a series of displays talking about the prehistoric finds that had been dug up around the Canon City area, including the Ankylosaurus that left the tracks at Skyline Drive.
They had a large skeleton as well as a matching skull on display with lots of information about the archeological efforts nearby.
Across the building on the upper level was a rather incongruous assortment of displays. To the left was a display of taxidermied bison, to the right was a display of 100 years of fashion. Not even necessarily fashion in Canon City, just fashion in general. There were several garments and accessories on display, sectioned off into menswear, womenswear and kidswear. It was kind of odd, but cool nonetheless.
There was a smattering of oddball displays in the hall connecting these two rooms on the upper level, including a time capsule that’s slated to be opened in the year 2077, and a section of cable from the nearby Royal Gorge Bridge.
There’s also a third room that was in the process of being renovated or curated while I was there so the doors were closed and I didn’t see what was going on in there.
On the bottom level, which really, I supposed, would have been the basement, were bathrooms and what appeared to be more offices. Nothing of note down there.
I was in the museum for maybe 45 minutes or so. I found it interesting, I’m glad I went, and, since it’s a free something to do, I’ll be happy to stop by again if I’m even in the area.
As I left, I walked around the backside of the building where I spied a couple of small cabins and a cool looking stone building. In front of the smallest cabin was a plaque.
Apparently this cabin belonged to Anson Rudd and had been there since 1860, the stone building serving as the family home beginning in 1861.
Museum of Colorado Prisons
I got back to the car and made the quick drive around the corner to the Museum of Colorado Prisons. This museum is set up in a former women’s prison building, which was built in 1935. This building is situated next to the Colorado State Prison, which opened in 1871. The building was converted to a museum in 1988 and it still sits directly adjacent to the still fully operational Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility.
I paid the $12 admission fee and began my self-guided tour down the cell block. The cells served as individual exhibits demonstrating certain aspects of the history of the prison. The first cell contained artifacts from the time the building was used as a women’s prison, one cell spoke about escapes from the prison, one had information about all of the wardens that held watch over the prison since it opened, and so on.
I was about a third of the way through my tour when Brandy messaged me saying she was done working and was ready to go to dinner. I cut the tour short, exited through the gift shop, picking up a magnet, a sticker and a tin coffee mug and headed back to the AirBnB.
Conclusion
I wish I’d had the time to finish the prison museum, but as I’ve mentioned in a couple of other posts, visits to Canon City will become a regular thing so I’m sure I will have an opportunity to visit again and actually have the time to finish it.
Pictures from both museums can be found on my Photo Diary page. Make sure you follow along the rest of the trip on the main hub for the winter 2024 edition of our visit to Colorado.
Until next time!
-Phil