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“Fine Museum in Lyons”

By Monique Sawyer-Lang Redstone Review

LYONS – Did you know that the Lyons Redstone Museum, which opened to the public in 1979, was not the first museum in Lyons? The August 1, 1941 edition of The Lyons Recorder heralded the opening of a museum in Lyons with the banner headline: “Fine Museum Started in Lyons, Historic Relics of American History Are Put On Display Today.” The following excerpt describes what treasures awaited visitors to the museum.

“This week in Lyons is an important one to everyone in Lyons and the state of Colorado for through the efforts of Bill Hervey, John Smith and donations by George Van Dewarker, John Bartells, M.J. Hutchinson and many Lyons people one of the most interesting Museums in the world has been established. The Museum is located at the Lyons Theatre, the use of the building donated by Chet Brodie. The words of a famous archaeologist seeing the display ‘the finest collection of North American Indian arrowheads in the world’. Over 1800 arrowheads on display, gathered from Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico fields.”

The Lyons Recorder article lists additional Native American items that were on view to the public including: grinding stones, stone knives and scrapers, Hudson trading beads, bracelets and tomahawks. Also on display were historic guns used before and during the Civil War, flintlocks and first rim fire shells. Additionally, there were wood carvings by M.J. Hutchinson, a 1,359-piece mosaic card table, an 1820 Bavarian embroidered cloth sampler, and historic newspapers.

Admission to the museum was free which no doubt contributed to the August 15 Lyons Recorder headline and narrative: “Large Crowds Enthusiastic Over Exhibition Of Historic Displays At The Lyons Museum. The Lyons Museum has attracted large crowds to witness the grand array of historic articles. Over 5,000 people have visited the Museum since the doors opened last Friday. Everybody visiting the exhibition has expressed satisfaction and enthusiasm over the spectacle they had seen.”

The newspaper also noted that more items were added to the original displays including: “...an old-coin collection,…more arrowheads (bringing the total on display to about 3,000) and…original issues of the various papers in Lyons: The Lyons News, Longs Peak Rustler and The Lyons Recorder.” The current Lyons Redstone Museum is fortunate to have an extensive collection of issues of both the Longs Peak Rustler and The Lyons Recorder and is always on the lookout for issues of The Lyons News, a short-lived paper published by Carrie Byrd in 1890.

An August 29, 1941 newspaper article titled “Plan Suggested To Give Lyons Permanent Museum” put forth the benefits of making the museum a permanent addition to the town. “This display is a collection from hundreds of homes that have entrusted their valuable keepsakes for the purpose of building a museum for Lyons. This manifestation of goodwill was done in anticipation of a permanent display to attract the many visitors that otherwise would not stop here in Lyons, but drive straight through

to the National Park. With the proper advertising that need not be expensive, the museum would prove of great value to the community…The price required to ‘put-over’ such a worthwhile enterprise seems to be very small, especially when the merchants will derive great benefit from the visitors who stop to witness the display.” Unfortunately it appears that the museum was shortlived. A search of editions of The Lyons Recorder newspaper after the August 29 edition failed to turn up any additional articles about the museum, its operations, or even its closing. Sawyer-Lang It was only a little over three months later that the U. S. entered into World War II with the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. It can be assumed that the priorities of the Lyons community changed at that time. The building where the original 1941 museum was located is believed to be one of the three stone buildings destroyed by fire in 1967 on the northwest corner of Fourth Avenue and Main Street. As true today as it was written in 1941 is the statement “This museum is the result of fine cooperation of a community pulling together, by donating labor, articles, the building and goodwill, that have made possible the fine display now on exhibition.” Now, as it was then, admission is free, residents entrust their keepsakes to the museum, the school building from the St. Vrain School District is essentially free (it costs us $1 a year), and we have an extensive display, created in 2017, on the history of the newspapers in Lyons including the Longs Peak Rustler and The Lyons Recorder. The Lyons Redstone Museum is funded solely through donations and grants. As you plan your end of the year charitable giving please consider donating to the Lyons Historical Society. Donations may be mailed to Lyons Historical Society, PO Box 9, Lyons, CO. 80540.

This display at the Lyons Redstone Museum shows the history of the newspapers in Lyons. Monique Sawyer Lang is the Collections Manager of the Lyons Redstone Museum. She is also a volunteer with the Lyons Food Pantry and a former member/chair of the Lyons Community Foundation Board. She lives in Spring Gulch.

How did A Christmas Carol come to be the classic we know and love?

By Oliver Ward Redstone Review

Many people have not actually read A Christmas Carol, yet they know it so well because it completely permeates our concept of the Christmas holiday, which is heavily influenced by the Victorians, and Dickens’ novel was a big part of establishing that history.

When Dickens was writing A Christmas Carol, English society was rapidly changing in response to the Industrial Revolution. England was changing from an agricultural society to one where many people were moving to the cities and working in factories. The earlier tradition among the Georgians was for nobility to host feasts in their manors, some lasting up to 12 days, for their tenant farmers, but that practice had begun to fall out of favor during the Victorian era as a result of industrialization and urbanization. And there was an uncertainty about how to celebrate Christmas in the cities.

A Christmas Carol was very influential in demonstrating to the Victorians that they could uphold the generosity of the Georgians’ way of celebrating Christmas, the idea that the wealthy needed to provide for the poor, and move it into the city and into the private home. Instead of a being a communal feast or party, the celebrations became smaller, more intimate, and focused on families and children. Amid their changing world, A Christmas Carol showed the Victorians wonderful images of warm family celebrations and of people sharing their good fortune.

Oliver Ward, is in the University Communications Department at CU Denver.

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