If you have a little time before the next tour starts at the Barney Ford Museum, there are plenty of historical adventures just around the corner!

15 minutes: Take a stroll up to the Breckenridge Grand Vacations Community Center. A short three-minute walk east on Washington Avenue from the Barney Ford Museum, the large brick building was the 1909 Breckenridge Schoolhouse. It was updated in 2014-15 to house the South Branch Library, Breckenridge History Archives, Eclipse Theater, and a number of other offices and meeting rooms. While the archives are only open by appointment, the building itself is well worth the walk to check it out. You can find a large mineral display on the second floor just down the hall from a mural telling all about the building’s history. Be sure to check out the view from the second-floor of the library, which was once the school’s gymnasium!

30 minutes: Head west down Washington Avenue toward Main Street to find the Breckenridge Welcome Center just across Main. The front of the Welcome Center is staffed by Breckenridge Tourism Office and is a great place to pick up any information you might need about town. Just past the Welcome Center desk, you will find yourself immersed in Breckenridge History’s free museum! Currently we have the Seasons of the Nuche traveling exhibit on display. The exhibit tells the history of the Ute people who once ventured through this area. It was designed by Ute elders in partnership with Aspen Historical Society. Further along on the first floor, you will find the Time is a River touchscreen exhibit, a movie theater featuring short films on Breckenridge’s history, and a virtual reality experience. In our VR experience, you travel back in time to Main Street Breckenridge in 1888 led by your guide, Edwin Carter. If you want to try navigating the town for yourself, we also have an app you can download to experience history on the go. Be sure to check out the second floor of the Welcome Center as well, where we have the Sharing Stories Through Objects exhibit, which tells the history of Breckenridge Ski Resort through key artifacts and memorabilia.

45 minutes: Walk east on Washington Avenue to Ridge Street then take a left and continue on Ridge until you reach the Edwin Carter Museum across the street from the Summit County Courthouse – a five-minute walk in total. Carter was a miner turned naturalist who did his best to preserve the natural history of Breckenridge. In fact, Carter’s collection of animals was the foundational collection for the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Examples of Carter’s taxidermied animals are on display, and there is also an interactive children’s exhibit where you can learn more about all the animals that call this area home. Be sure to check out the short film (22 minutes) about Carter’s life while you are in the museum to get a full picture of one of the area’s first naturalists.