The Estes Park Museum

Rocky Mountain National Park Historic Lodges & Homesteads Tour with Ken Jessen. Board our 14-passenger van and tour the sites of lodges and homesteads from the past in Rocky Mountain National Park. We will begin at the Fall River Inn Site and travel to numerous historic sites including those of the Horseshoe Inn, the Hupp graves and homestead and Sprague’s resort in Moraine Park. The tour begins at 9:00 a.m. and lasts until approximately 1:00 p.m. Cost is $8 for members of the Estes Park Museum Friends & Foundation, Inc. and $10 for non-members. Fees support Museum programs. Call 970-586-6256. Sponsored by the Estes Park Museum Friends & Foundation. This tour is currently filled.  Please call 970-586-6256 to join the waiting list. 

The Playground Trail: To and Through the National Parks of the West.  In 1920, after World War I, Americans set out to explore the country by automobile. The National Park Service, established in 1916, opened several national parks. Stephen Mather, the first director of the National Park Service, envisioned a continuous paved highway connecting National Parks and opening the West to automobiles. A slogan of the National Park-to-Park Highway Association raised the question “You sing ‘America,’ why not see it?” On Friday, October 3, the Estes Park Museum will welcome authors Lee and Jane Whiteley to bring life to the history of the highway with a slide-illustrated program based on their book The Playground Trail.  Emphasis will be given to the first leg of the 1920 Park-to-Park Dedication Tour which began in Denver and passed through Lyons en route to Estes Park, the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park.  The Whiteleys also authored The Yellowstone Trail and an upcoming book on early US Highway 40 from Kansas City to Denver. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for the 7:00 p.m. program. Free to the public and sponsored by the Estes Park Museum Friends & Foundation, Inc.

Larimer County's Reborn Landmarks.  Tom "Dr. Colorado" Noel and the Estes Park Museum invite you to a magic lantern show at 2:00 pm at the Museum. Dr. Noel is a professor of history  and director of public history, preservation and Colorado studies at CU-Denver. He is the author of 37 books including Fort Collins and Larimer County: An Illustrated History  and Colorado: A Liquid History & Tavern Guide. Tom appears now and then as Dr. Colorado in the Sunday Denver Post and on Channel 9's Colorado & Company. Doors open at 1:30.  Free to the public and sponsored by the Estes Park Museum Friends & Foundation, Inc.

Collection and Care of Old Coins with Bob Fixter will include samples of coins and other currency that tell stories of our history.  Fixter and his wife Carole are owners of Fall River Antiques, Jewelry and Coins in Estes Park.  Doors open at 1:30 p.m. for the 2:00 p.m. program.  Free to the public and sponsored by the Estes Park Museum Friends & Foundation, Inc.

Traditional Narratives of the Arapaho Indians: Culture and Landscape in Colorado with Dr. Andrew Cowell.  Dr. Cowell is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Colorado, where he directs the Center for the Study of Indigenous Languages. His work focuses specifically on the languages and cultures of the Great Plains Algonquian tribes - Arapaho, Gros Ventre, Cheyenne and Blackfoot. He has a special interest in the structures and meanings of traditional oral narratives. He has published a grammar of the Arapaho language, as well as two anthologies of traditional Arapaho stories. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for the 7:00 p.m. program.  Free to the public and sponsored by the Estes Park Museum Friends & Foundation, Inc.

Hand-Coloring Holiday Greeting Cards for kids and their families.  Join artist Cheryl Pennington at the Museum from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. for a hands-on workshop coloring old-fashioned holiday greeting cards.  Space is limited; register beginning October 13 by calling 970-577-3762. Materials will be provided. This workshop is free and sponsored by the Estes Park Museum Friends & Foundation, Inc. 

A Christmas Tea with Charles Dickens at the Museum.  Join Charles Dickens at 2:00 p.m. for tea in the year 1844, the year after the successful publication of his Christmas Carol in Prose.  Discover how literature’s most beloved Christmas story came to be written, and don’t forget to bring your Christmas spirit and imagination as Dickens enjoys engaging his guests in Victorian holiday games and songs.  Presented by Chautauquan David Skipper.  This program is sponsored by the Estes Park Museum Friends & Foundation, Inc. and is free to the public.  Doors open at 1:00 p.m. and space is limited.