Explore Our Rich Frontier Past
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eathered by snowy winters and sunny summers, but preserved by local storytellers and curators, our collection of frontier artifacts and historic homesteads awaits your discovery. Historical points of interest and museums can be accessed by strolls around our business districts and scenic drives around the area.
Ouray County Ranch History Museum
Artifacts – Kane Scheidegger
A project that began in 2002, with recording interviews of local ranch family histories, evolved into the Ouray County Ranch History Museum in 2006. Spending its first 10 years in the Colona schoolhouse, the museum moved Other Historic Activities artifacts, both large and small, into the n Take a self-guided Ridgway Depot building, historic walking tour where an expansive of downtown Ridgway collection has grown n Investigate the historical with regularly donated grave markers of Ouray artifacts. A sampling of County’s most famous the museum’s exhibits residents at Cedar Hill, Dallas include: family history Park and Colona Cemeteries exhibits, a schoolroom, a n Arrange for a tour of the Victorian-era bedroom, Historic Beaumont and the land & water room, a Western Hotels in Ouray kitchen, a pantry, a tool n Search out haunted history and tack room, and a n Visit the realistic old west section highlighting the town buildings in the Western movies created Museum of the Mountain in our area. The museum West in Montrose has future plans to build a new museum complex, which is set to occupy 9.5 acres of long-term leased land north of the Depot building, between the Ridgway Library and the Uncompahgre River. When the new ranch museum building is complete, the Railroad Museum will have the opportunity to move fully into the Depot, creating a large campus of Ridgway’s ranching and railroad heritage.
Ouray County Ranch History Museum 321 Sherman St., Ridgway, CO 81432 970.316.1085 www.ocrhm.org
San Juan Skijoring
Ouray County Fairgrounds
These fair and rodeo grounds are more than 125 years old, but have been renovated to provide a comfortable community gathering place for a variety of events. Just south of the intersection of highways 550 and 62, the outdoor facilities and indoor event center host barbecues, classic car shows, holiday bazaars, conferences, and workshops. The two most popular events, attracting competitors and spectators from far and wide, are the Ouray County Fair & Rodeo with its horse and bull-riding competitions and livestock shows and San Juan Skijoring with its horse-pulled skier and snowboarder races on a snow track.
Ouray County Ranch History Museum
Native American Culture
Many geographic features in the Uncompahgre Valley, where Ridgway is located, are named in the language of the Utes, the area’s early inhabitants. The valley and the river that runs through it are named Uncompahgre, which has sometimes been translated to hot water spring and red TRAVEL TIPS: Visiting water. While few artifacts historic sites and our of their culture remain in family-friendly museums is the Ridgway area, the Ute a wonderful way to inspire Indian Museum is at the your kids’ imaginations. southern edge of Montrose, a Give each child a camera short drive from Ridgway on and let them be your family Highway 550. Visit this cultural photojournalist during your center to see artifacts and trip; you may be surprised learn about the Ute people and what their eyes pick up. nearby archaeological sites.
RidgwayColorado.com 800.220.4959
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