27. September 2013 · Comments Off on Colorado Discoveries 12: The Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,
The Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum is in the old city hall. This museum reminded me of the Old Florida State Capitol.

The Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum is in the old El Paso County Courthouse. This museum reminded me of the Old Florida State Capitol.

For a Cub Scout field trip, in mid-September our family visited the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum in the heart of downtown. The museum is free of charge (donations are always welcome), and has numerous artifacts from Colorado Springs’ past and current histories.

The interior of the museum is beautifully maintained, and most of the courthouse rooms have been repurposed into individual exhibit spaces. A couple of the rooms are still in tact as courtrooms and are used as multi-purpose auditoriums. During our visit we saw exhibits about the Waldo Canyon Fire of June 2012, the city’s Native American heritage, the history of the Colorado Springs area being used as a popular location for sanatoria, as well as a history of the city as told through photographs taken at the time.

The museum is located at 215 South Tejon St. in downtown Colorado Springs. Museum admission is free, but you have to pay to park either at the parking meters immediately surrounding the property, or else at the public parking garages nearby. Enjoy a few pictures from our visit.

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The statue behind Timmy is a memorial to Nick Venetucci, known as “The Pumpkin Man”. He gave away pumpkins to local children for over 50 years. I love how there were pumpkin vines — with PUMPKINS — surrounding the statue. Timmy found one sitting on the wall and wanted to look like he was one of the kids getting pumpkins.

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This was a relatively new exhibit with artifacts rescued from the June 2012 fire.

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This is bone-chilling…the heat caused the glass in the picture to melt into a cloth-like pattern.

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This was a dress-up area where you could photograph the kids “old style”. Jacob never cared for this kind of thing…while Timmy loves it.

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It’s a working Otis elevator that has been in the building since 1913 (but the original installation date is unknown). We rode in it up to the 2nd floor.

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The quality of this picture doesn’t do it justice. This dress is in the Ute Indians area of the museum…it’s completely made of glass beads! Gorgeous!

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Dave regarding a ski statue in front of the museum.

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We walked out of the museum just before the 4th Infantry Division band from Fort Carson started an outdoor concert. We stayed for the first few songs…it began raining on the concert, yet the band played on.