150 Years of Wonder: Edwin Carter Museum’s Anniversary Summer

While Breckenridge is in the midst of its annual spring cycle, deciding if it’s summer, winter, or something in between, Breckenridge History has our gaze firmly focused on the summer ahead! We have exciting new programs and offerings coming up this summer, and we’re celebrating a very special milestone: the Edwin Carter Museum’s 150th anniversary. To make all our grand plans for the summer come to life, we’ll be closing our sites and sprucing things up during the month of May. Don’t worry, though, there’s plenty of ways you can still connect with our history and plenty of things to look forward to.

May musings

Many of our museums and all guided tours will be on pause during May, but we are lucky that history is all around us in Breckenridge. If you’re looking to connect with the past, try visiting one of our self-guided outdoor sites. You can mull things over by visiting the Sawmill Exhibit or Washington Mine and Milling Exhibit (or both). These exhibits highlight how Breckenridge grew through the town’s mining history and inventions in technology that helped propel that growth.

If parks are more your scene, High Line Railroad Park has a variety of train cars, an engine, and rotary snowplow you can check out while enjoying a railroad-themed playground, a picnic, or even a stroll to our resident troll, Isak Heartstone. In Alice G. Milne Memorial Park, you can view three historical homes. At the intersection of Harris Street and Lincoln Avenue, this peaceful park is the perfect place to enjoy a little relaxation and think about what life must have been like for the former inhabitants of the Eberlein, Milne, and Briggle houses.

The Breckenridge Welcome Center Museum will also be open in May! Stop by to learn all about our ski history, view videos or our past from mining through snowboarding, or have some fun with our interactive timeline, “Time is a River.” Our staff will be on hand all month to answer any history-related questions you might have and hand out recommendations for ways you can engage with our past in the present.

If you prefer to blend the technology of today with views of the past, check out our augmented reality app, “1888 Breckenridge.” As you stroll through town, you can view a 360-degree re-creation of what our downtown streets looked like in the 1800s. Just search for “1888 Breckenridge” in your app store to get loaded up and set off on your own adventure!

You can even check out the history of Breckenridge without ever leaving the comfort of your own home with the Breckenridge History Digital Archives. Here, history comes to life with photographs, oral history interviews, and other primary documents that help tell the story of our town. Thousands of digital objects fill our archives, and many are available for free download and viewing on our site. Finally, our blog is a great way to see stories of past residents, our efforts to keep history alive, and our motivation to do so!

Summer specials

On June 1, our summer operations will kick off in full force! This year is a very special year, as the Edwin Carter Museum will be celebrating its 150th anniversary! We’ll be celebrating all summer, and this will include a few special events! Join us, the National Repertory Orchestra, Breck Create, and Friends of the Dillon Ranger District (FDRD) for a free concert in Prospector Park and interactive fun on July 17. Later in the summer, we’ll be co-hosting the Aspen Historical Society with FDRD for a very special Ute history talk, Aug. 22. The talk will be led by Ute tribal member Skyler Lomahaftewa and Aspen Historical Society VP of Education and Programs Amy Honey. That same weekend, join us for the official birthday party, Aug. 24, 1-3 pm. We’ll have cupcakes and activities on the lawn, and the museum will be open for all to come and see – once you’ve finished your cupcakes, of course!

If you can’t make the July 17 concert, there will be a few more opportunities to enjoy NRO music, history, and Breck Create’s artistry. June 26 will be the first collaborative concert, which will be held at the Barney Ford Museum and focus on growth and change in music, surrounding sculptures, and of course, the story of Barney Ford. On July 24, we’ll be focused on the future with a concert in the Blue River Plaza. Finally, on July 31, we’ll be looking at Breckenridge Then and Now with a concert on the Arts District campus.

We are also excited to kick off a new series this summer: The Eves of History. Explore our museums in the twilight hours and learn all about our history in a new way. This series will kick off on July 3, from 6-8 pm, at the Barney Ford Museum. As the nation prepares to celebrate freedom on the Fourth of July, we’ll look at how Ford gained his own freedom and journeyed from enslavement to entrepreneur. We’ll have one-night-only displays in the museum and activities outside for the whole family. This series will continue Aug. 15, from 6-8 pm, at the Breckenridge Welcome Center Museum. As the Breckenridge International Festival of Arts kicks off with SPARK and a celebration of our dark skies initiative, you can learn all about Ute Knowledge and their use of science, technology, engineering, and math, with a special exhibit created by History Colorado. Finally, the evening before Halloween, we’ll be hosting our Eves of History event at Valley Brook Cemetery, 4-5:30 pm. Hear tales of the past residents and the cemetery as we walk among the headstones.

Last, but not least, we bring you Breckenridge Rewind! In partnership with Breck Create and Breck Film, we’re taking a special deep dive into the Breckenridge History Archives, where we house the Lee Lucas Collection. These videos, created by Lucas Film Productions between 1972 and 1992, give a glimpse into what life used to be like in Breckenridge. These films will be carefully viewed, and a new 1-hour highlight film will be created for the public to enjoy for free (reservations required), Aug. 16, 7:30 pm, at the Riverwalk Center. After the film plays, a panel of longtime locals will talk about the clips, what life was like here during the time, and their feelings on seeing those moments again.

Back to our regularly scheduled programs

The Barney Ford and Edwin Carter Museums will resume normal hours on June 1, Tuesdays to Sundays, 11 am to 4 pm – free guided tours will take place at the Ford Museum at 11 am, 12 pm, 1 pm, 2 pm, and 3 pm.

For those looking to connect with nature and history, every Wednesday, you can Hike the Golden Horseshoe from 10 am to 12 pm to learn all about our mining history while viewing artifacts along the trail. If you want to try your own luck, we offer gold panning in Lomax Gulch, Tuesdays to Saturdays. Since this is such a hot ticket, we do require reservations for the 90-minute guided tour and gold panning experience, which can be made online. This summer, we’ll also be offering a few special programs on Iowa Hill, which will include a guided hike, lunch, and stop into the boarding house!

We will also offer our Walk Through History Tour, Saloon Tour, and Tombstone Tales Tours every week!