Want to see Colorado as you never have? The new History of Colorado Center is set to debut in Denver this Saturday, April 28. If you revel in the roots of a region – what shaped the land and the people who live there – this place will knock your snowshoes off.
Among the family-friendly exhibits: a map of Colorado that lets you indulge in a bit of time travel, the better to put the present-day state of affairs into perspective.
Opening day (doors open to the public at 10:30 a.m.) brings astronauts and tightrope walkers to the museum, as well as cowboys and Colorado music.
Stay awhile, linger in the lee of the Rockies and strike out on some side trips:
- Travel back in time to Georgetown, a trapped-in-amber Victorian village set like a diamond in a dazzling mountain valley. The main street is bedecked with shops and trendy restaurants. Lots of the town’s homes have been transformed into antique store. Georgetown is 42 miles west of Denver.
- Try your luck at the slots or gaming tables of a pair of historic mining towns: Central City and Black Hawk. Victorian architecture abounds here too. It’s just that buzzes, blips, and blinks emanating from some 30 casinos animate it all. The gaming enclaves are sited 34 miles west of Denver.
- Get away from the buzz, and don’t blink. You’ll miss some of majesty of Rocky Mountain National Park. The 400-square-mile patch of vertical paradise is 71 miles northwest of Denver. Lakes, waterfalls, wildlife and hiking trails – they’re all here, part of a naturally-induced Rocky Mountain high.
Story by Jerry Chandler
(Image: Omer Wazir)
