Museums
SOUTH PARK CITY MUSEUM
Web Site
Just keep heading west on Front Street in Fairplay
and you'll walk straight into history. From the hustle and bustle of everyday Fairplay to a
glimpse of the past is just a step into South Park City Museum where you walk the
streets of a historic mining town.
The museum features thirty-four original turn-of-the-century buildings, complete with
thousands of authentic items from the town and area's past.
Here, you can see old-fashioned printing presses, mining equipment, blacksmith
bellows and other relics from the 1880's that prove life may have been simpler, but
certainly not easier a century ago.
In 1957, South Park City was the dream of Leon H. Snyder, who saw that old mining
towns and Colorado's history were slowly being destroyed. He purchased land on Front
Street, where Fairplay's business district had been located before a devastating fire, and
launched his dream to create an out-door museum. Some of the existing buildings were
preserved, but many others were moved into the city from surrounding areas.
Some buildings were moved into the site intact, while others had to be carefully
dismantled and reconstructed in Fairplay.
One of the things that makes the museum unique is that residents of Park County
donated much of the more than 60,000 irreplaceable artifacts that make the museum
come to life.
The museum is a registered historic site. The two sandstone buildings, one of which
originally housed a brewery, are on the National Register for Historic Places. Restoration
of the Summer Saloon, a registered historic building, is in the architectural phase. The
original Fairplay W.S. Forest Service office has also been moved on site.
The museum features homes of both the wealthy and the working-class people, a
bank, mining equipment and explanations on their use, a more traditional museum with a
slide show, a schoolhouse, barber shop, doctor's office, carpentry shop, blacksmith,
general store, saloon, a Masonic Temple and the J.A. Meriam Drug Store, which displays
an extensive line of 1880 drugs originally from the rug store in Westcliffe, CO. The drug
store also boasts an ornate soda fountain, patented in 1898 and was in operation in
Hartsel, just south of Fairplay until 1947. The museum also has a railroad station, and a
train with a bell the children can ring.
The museum is open from May15 through Oct. 15. Hours are 9a.m. to 7p.m.
Memorial Day through Labor Day and until 5p.m. before and after the summer season.
Admission is $5.00 for adults, $4.00 for seniors 62 and over, and $2.00 for children 6-12
years of age. Children under six are free. Donations are tax deductible and the museum
is a non-profit organization, the South Park Historical Foundation.
COMO MAMMOTH MUSEUM
Web Site
Jack Portice has dedicated this part of his life to
Como and the surrounding mountains, in his art work, his promotions of the town, and
now in his museum.
The Como Mammoth Museum opened five years ago, and features artifacts from
Como's historic past, including the touted mammoth ones found on a wind swept ridge
near Como. It is the highest elevation where mammoth bones have ever been found.
In addition to mammoths roaming South Park, the museum includes evidence that
prehistoric tribes also frequented the Park, long before modern native Americans.
The museum includes two paleo-hellgap points, one of which was found near the
mammoth site, although not at the same level as the mammoth bones. Portice said the
Museum of Natural History had dated the points as being 15,000 years old. He also has
many artifacts from the Como area's American Indian heritage.
In keeping with the theme, Portice sells his award-winning wood carvings and carries
other "primitive Indian art", including another locally popular artists, Jim Redhawk.
The museum is housed in a historic turn-of-the-century building, moved from Fairplay
to Como by Portice and his wife Vicki. The building was donated by Park County Re-2
School District and painstakingly dismantled and reconstructed by Portice and
community volunteers.
The building was reconstructed in its original form, except the interior walls were not
replaced. Portice used barn wood from the floor and roof as wall coverings.
The Portice's are also involved in the Como Wood Carving Experience, Como
Rendezvous, and Como Fourth of July Celebration. For more information, call Jack or
Vicki at (719)836-2403.