With a new name and innovative displays, the Museum of the West’s reinvented displays dramatically evoke its featured collections.
Hacienda-like cases and adobe settings frame two Spanish history exhibits at the museum, which is part of the complex including Cross Orchards Historic Farm, Dinosaur Journey and local paleontology sites.
The new settings visually distinguish each display between the Spanish conquistadors’ search for the legendary Seven Cities from 1439 to 1811, and the prehistoric pottery and other indigenous artifacts in an American Indian collection valued at $500,000.
Saunter into the Pastime Saloon, summoning Grand Junction’s early days, with a richly engraved gold-hued cash register designed by Tiffany & Co. Don’t miss the costumes and the life-sized photo of the Floradora Girls in the eye-catching exhibit of Park Opera House artifacts.
Shining in their fresh settings are the museum’s stash of restored 19th-century saddles and its crown jewel, the Audrey Thrailkill firearms collection, an extraordinary assortment of pistols, rifles, carbines and swords once owned by Kit Carson, Buffalo Bill Cody and outlaw members of Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch.
Schoolchildren visit year round for classes and tours, and college students join the summer’s annual Western Investigations Team, whose research exonerated Alfred Packer’s reputation as a murderer. The team found that Packer acted in self-defense but concluded the cannibalism charges were dead on.
For $99 per person, you can join one of the museum’s one- day Dinosaur Expeditions. On certain dates, participants accompany paleontologists to sites in the arid Rabbit Valley, a prolific area that’s produced more than 3,000 dinosaur bones over the past 20 years.
The museum also offers some five-day expeditions ($999 per person) at sites in Wyoming’s Black Hills and in western Colorado. Museum of the West 462 Ute Ave., Grand Junction; 970-242-0971;
Bonnie McCune, Special to The Denver Post
