- Families
- Adult Visitors
- Kids & Students
- Educators
- Archaeologists & Preservationists
- Archaeology & Historic Preservation Month
- Learn About Historic Preservation & Archaeology
- Useful Resources
- National and State Registers
- Program for Avocational Archaeological Certification (PAAC)
- City & County Government Preservation Programs (CLG)
- Cultural Resource Management
- Permits, Statutes & Regulations
- Office of Archaeology & Historic Preservation
- State Preservation Plan
- Grants & Financial Incentives
- Economic Benefits Report
- Grant Seekers & Recipients
- Researchers
Exhibits
Exhibits in the nearly 200,000 square foot museum are slated to open in phases, with inaugural exhibits celebrating the spirit of the people who have come to the state over the past 10,000 years and the enduring communities they built. First-phase exhibits include:
The Great Map of Colorado & Time Machine
This 40-foot by 60-foot terrazzo tile map of Colorado imbedded into the floor of the museum’s atrium comes to life with an H.G. Wells-inspired, steampunk-like “Time Machine" that visitors push over the map to hit hot spots that reveal video stories.
The People, the Place & the Promise
On the north wall of the History Colorado Center’s atrium are 132 interlocking LCD screens that create a dynamic media wall. A timeline scrolls across the screen, orienting visitors to Colorado history from 10,000 years ago to the present. “Colorado: The People, The Place & The Promise,” a beautiful collage of images that introduces visitors to the three overarching programmatic themes, will play every hour.
Destination Colorado
A 5,000-square-foot exhibit introduces visitors to the 1920s dryland farming town of Keota, a place residents called “the Arcadia of the West.” Designed especially for families, this exhibit invites visitors to enroll in the town high school, ride down a dusty road in a Model T, share town news in a homestead kitchen, climb into a hayloft and swap eggs at the general store.
Colorado Stories
This 9,500-square-foot exhibit examines eight distinct Colorado communities from the 1300s to the present. Here, visitors descend into an 1880s hard-rock mine shaft to learn about mucking, mules, blasting and the pluck that it took to do this important work. Or visit Steamboat Springs circa 1915 to take a virtual ski jump off the famed Howelsen Hill. Visitors can choose an avatar to venture into Bent’s Old Fort in the 1800s, where they can trade with Kit Carson, Captain John C. Frémont and Chief Yellow Wolf at this global trading post.