Travel Thumbnail #2: Frisco Historic Park & Museum

This is the second of a series of periodic reports on specific places I've visited -- and which you might want see to as well. Post a comment or let me know directly what you think of this new Travel Babel feature.

The Place: Frisco Historic Park & Museum, CO

The Story: This museum and local park containing a complex of historic structures from Frisco's mining heyday is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year -- and next year, the town of Frisco itself turns 130. I've passed the old schoolhouse with the "Museum" sign many, many times, but it was usually before or after skiing, which meant the museum wasn't open, or when I didn't have time to stop and look around. A visit last week was enough to convince me that I had missed a genuine Colordo high-country treasure.

Many local small-town museums are a jumbled hodegpodge of anything anyone chose to donate, from genuine historic treasures to old trash. Unlike such museums, which do have their own funky charm, Frisco's is sensibly laid-out, well lit, clearly labeled and truly informative -- in short, it was curated, not thrown together.

The museum (built in 1899 as a saloon, later the town's schoolhouse, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places) features a working railroad layout (put a quarter in the slot and watch the train go around), old school desks that children love to sit in and a variety of such displays as glass-cased objects from the Swan River Valley's past. Recent civil engineering history spotlights the construction of the nearby Dillon Dam and Eisenhower Tunnel. In the natural history realm, there several taxidermed specimens of local fauna.

Beside and behind the museum are nine relocated buildings. The oldest is an 1860 cabin, before there really was a Frisco. Others range both chronologically and functionally from the 1881 jail to the 1943 Log Chapel. Most date from the 1890s, and all contain additional historic displays from mining, ranching and trapping in the valley. Household goods, furnishings, clothing, the role of women in the valley, ski history and more are documented. Some structures also include recorded, push-botton audio narrations in voices from the past. In all, it is extraordinarily well done.

Tips for visiting: If you are interested in American history, Western history, Colorado history or mining history, be sure to allot a couple of hours for your visit.

Cost: Free

Coming Event: The museum's official silver anniversary celebration of the park and museum takes place August 15-17, 2008, featuring an art and antique show, an old-fashioned ice cream social and live music.

More Information: The Frisco Historic Park & Museum is located at 120 Main Street; 970-668-3428. Click here for the museum's own audio-video preview, or see my almost-silent movie by clicking on the image below. It is my first effort at including a video segment, so please excuse an amateur's technical inadequacies.



Summer hours (May-September), 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.; Sunday, 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. Winter hours (October - April), Tuesday-Saturday, 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m., Sunday, 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Closed Monday. The park tself is open, even when the buildings are closed.

Frisco's Main Street is roughly parallel to Interstate 70. Take exits 201 or 203, and follow the signs.