he human drama of history in the San Juan Mountains is as rich and colorful as it gets. Cowboys and Indians, silver kings and railroad giants, shady ladies and mountain men have all tromped through this rugged landscape and woven their story lines into our cultural fabric.

Here are five fun ways for kids (and grownups) to catch ahold of these story lines and experience the living, breathing history and heritage of the San Juans.

Explore the Cliff DwellingsOf the Ancestral Puebloans A millennia ago, the Anasazi, or Ancestral Puebloans, inhabited a great

swath of land across the Four Corners region. Mesa Verde National Park is one of the best places to discover the astonishing cliff dwellings these ancient people left behind.

The world-renowned park between Cortez and Durango contains nearly 5,000 known archeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings, several of which can be explored on foot – either on your own or by joining a guided park ranger tour.

The dwellings, ranging in size from one-room storage units to villages of more than 150 rooms, fit organically into their surroundings, tucked into recesses at the base of billowing sandstone cliffs stained with desert varnish. It is possible here to sense the life that once filled

these spaces – grandfathers telling stories by firelight, the earthy drumbeat of the manos on the metate as the women ground corn for the evening meal, the fragrance of burning piñon and juniper in the air.

At the expansive Cliff Palace ruins near park headquarters, children love clambering down the ladder into a sacred underground ceremonial structure called a kiva. Once inside, look for a small hole or indentation in the floor called a sipapu – a sort of symbolic belly-button or time travel portal through which it was believed that the ancestors first emerged into the present world.

Special events at Mesa Verde this summer include traditional Hopi dancing June 29-30 and Santa Clara Pueblo pottery demonstrations on Sept. 21. A museum, guided tours, campgrounds and lodging are available.

Nearby related attractions for your young Indiana Jones include Ute Mountain Tribal Park, near Cortez, offering unique opportunities to explore remote Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings with a Ute guide; Hovenweep National Monument’s mysterious towers; the well-preserved multi-tiered Puebloan village of Aztec ruins near Farmington, N.M.; the Anasazi Heritage Center on Highway 145 near

Dolores with its extensive collection of Anasazi relics plucked from an area now inundated by a reservoir; and Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, where kids and families can participate in week-long excavation programs. (800/253-1616; mesaverdecountry.com)

“The past is never dead. It’s not

even past.” – William Faulkner, ‘Requiem for a Nun’

TIME WARPMusEuM Of thE MOuntAin WEst68169 Miami Road, Montrose

“Museum” is not quite the right word to describe this attraction, which in 2011 received honorable mention as one of True West Magazine’s Museums of the Year. Inside the 10,000 square-foot main build-ing is an entire meticulously recreated historic town, consisting of a post office, doctor and dentist offices, drugstore, saloon, dry goods store and many more fascinating, historically accurate displays from the real Wild West.

But that’s not all. The grounds are also home to 25 authentic historic buildings including a 1913 German Lutheran church, an 1890 schoolhouse with a bell that still rings, an 1882 Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Section House, and a carriage house and blacksmith shop that once doubled as Jack Dempsey’s fighting hall, all of which have been rescued from other com-munities across the Western Slope and brought here to be restored and brought back to life.

Altogether, the Museum of the Mountain West contains over 500,000 original relics, artifacts, and items of historical significance – including Butch Cas-sidy’s riding chaps and saddle – all displayed in their natural environment instead of being tucked away in a display case. Museum founder and director Richard Fyke is a retired historical archeologist with a distin-guished career, and is an expert in historical restora-tion. He began collecting western memorabilia when he was just 4 years old!

Because of its scale, the museum he has created must be toured with a trained docent who can explain and interpret what you are seeing, and help flesh out the picture of what life was like for the people who lived in these times.

“Forget about what you think you know,” said museum curator Robert DeQuinze, who scoffs at Hollywood’s version of the Wild West. “This was their world.”

It’s a world where whores wore brass knuckles and kept vials of laudanum around their necks in case their clients got out of hand. Where the town barber was more often than not the town dentist as well, and if you had a toothache, “would just get you drunk and pull it out.” It’s a world where there were no antiseptics, no antibiotics, no deodorant. And that’s what you get when you come here – an authentic, unsanitized whiff of what life was really like in the Wild West. You can see it, sense it, smell it. It alters how you feel inside.

The Museum of the Mountain West is open year-round, Mondays through Saturdays, from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. (970/240-3400, mountainwestmuseum.com)

museums that you and your kids will love

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Fort Uncompahgre205 gunnison river Drive, confluence park, Delta“Time is fluid in this place,” one visitor scrawled on a comment board inside la cocina, the kitchen, at Ft. Uncompahgre in the city of Delta’s Conflu-ence Park. The comment is perceptive. Although the low-slung cottonwood log and adobe struc-tures here were built in 1990, they have been so carefully and faithfully recreated that it is hard to believe they don’t date back to the 1830s and 1840s when the original Ft. Uncompahgre (lo-cated near here) was inhabited by a thriving com-munity of fur trappers and their families, led by Antoine Robidoux.

The term “Fort Uncompahgre” is not exactly accurate; it was never used for any military pur-poses, and its pointy stockade was meant to keep domestic animals in, not to keep invaders out. It was in reality a trading post, where fur trappers or mountain men brought in their pelts and skins and exchanged them for money and goods imported from the U.S. and Mexico.

To get the full impact of this magical place, a guided tour is highly recommended. Costumed interpreters have taken on the historical characters of folk who may have once lived here. Tours conclude with a chance to try your hand at ax-throwing (harder than it looks) and a trip to “Wal-mart” – Ft. Uncompahgre’s company store that is stocked with (not for sale) items like lice combs, seed beads and rancid beaver tails.

The days of fur trapping are an often-overlooked part of this region’s past, but thanks to Ft. Un-compahgre, thousands of school children and visitors from around the world have had a chance to taste what it was like to live and work here during those color-ful times. The attraction has been rated one of the top tours in “Best Places to Take Your Kids in Colorado.” Ft. Uncom-pahgre is open from mid-April through Sep-tember. Access may be limited during the late summer or early fall of 2013 due to scheduled road construction. Guided tours are best set up in advance through the City of Delta’s Cultural Department. (970/874-7566, delta-colorado.org)

oUray alchemist533 main street, ourayOn a shelf not far from an ornate leech urn and a porcelain model of the human head once used for the now-debunked study of phrenology, lies a large, shiny black bezoar – a stony concretion formed inside a goat’s stomach that was used in Victorian times as an antidote to poison. No, Harry Potter fans, it’s not the storeroom in Hogwarts Castle where Professor Severus Snape stashed his private supply of potions and potion ingredients. It’s the Ouray Alchemist, an intrigu-ing new museum that faithfully reproduces the feeling of a 19th century frontier pharmacy in western Colorado. At that time, every little town had a drugstore, and 90 percent of the popula-tion was addicted to opium and cocaine – both of which were common ingredients in many over-the-counter remedies. Much of the museum collection has been acquired from local sources,

including the historic mining towns of the San Juan Mountains, where

collectors often go “prospecting” for treasure in old outhouse pits in people’s back yards. The oldest artifact on display, however, is a Greek stone medicinal vessel dating back to 350 BC. Museum Director

Curtis Haggar, a retired phar-macist, has spent 40 years as-

sembling this astonishing collec-tion, which also includes the oldest

known prescription in Colorado, dating back to 1867, the mortar and pestle from Ouray pharmacist and be-loved town father Frank Massard, a

real cigar-store Indian and a marble soda fountain with silver plated

elephant trunks. “I may sound kind of crazy, but this is an art

form for me,” Haggar said. Guided tours are offered three times a day through-

out the summer season. (970/325-4003)

silverton mining heritage center1569 greene street, silvertonWhen the Caledonian Boarding House up Min-nie Gulch near Silverton started to collapse under the weight of a talus slope that was slowly sliding into it from behind, its owners gave the San Juan County Historical Society permission to disman-tle the 125-year-old structure and bring it down to town. The hand-axed timber boarding house, now carefully rebuilt, forms the core of the Silver-ton Mining Heritage Center – hands-down one of the best places to learn about hardrock mining outside of a real hardrock mine.

“The museum is a monument to the people who went before us. They worked really hard, and we wanted to get that story out – that com-bination of hope and despair,” said SJCHS board member Scott Fetchenheir, one of the team of fanatics who saw this incredible museum through from dream to reality.

Connected to the SJCHS’s equally excellent Jailhouse Museum via an underground tunnel, the three-story Mining Heritage Center contains mining artifacts and interpretive displays from throughout the legendary historic Silverton min-ing district, including an authentic wooden aerial tram tower, complete with cables and ore buckets, from the Iowa Tiger Mine and Mill in Arrastra Gulch; an omnibus, or bottom-dump wagon, thought to have been used by Otto Mears during construction of the Silverton Railroad; and an authentic “potty car” in which miners once re-lieved themselves while they were putting in their shift underground. The museum also contains an authentic assay lab, a fully equipped blacksmith shop, and most impressive of all, a brilliantly recreated three-story stope showing the secret in-ner workings of a hardrock mine. (970/387-5838, silvertonhistoricsociety.org)

Ute inDian mUseUm17253 chipeta roaD, montroseFlanked by a row of tipis on the southern outskirts of Montrose near the Uncompahgre River, this mu-seum is dedicated to preserving and honoring the culture of the three remaining tribes of Ute Indi-ans. It sits in the heart of traditional Ute territory on lands once homesteaded by Chief Ouray and his wife Chipeta. The spacious and serene grounds include the Chief Ouray Memorial Park, Chipeta’s crypt, a native plants garden and a monument to the Spanish explorers Dominguez and Escalante, priests who traveled through the area in 1776. The museum offers a variety of programs for families. Museum director C.J. Brafford, a Lakota Oglala Sioux, had a vision at age nine that she would be the “carekeeper of belongings of the past.” She has a knack for capturing the essence of traditional Ute culture in a way that emphasizes our common humanity. “You come here to get the experience of Indian people,” she said, “but I like people to remember that you too have your own stories that are just as important; you too come from some-where. It isn’t just about the Indians.” (970/249-3098; historycolorado.org/museums/)

A real cigar indian is one of the many wonders to be discovered at the Ouray Alchemist.

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ride the railroad from durango to silverton Continue your adventure aboard a real time machine: the Durango & Silverton

Narrow Gauge Railroad. This historic train has been in continuous operation for 130 years! It once carried $300 million in gold and silver ore from Silverton to Durango. Today, it hauls visitors on a journey through time, behind vintage coal-powered steam locomotives and tender cars indigenous to the line.

With a wistful wail of the whistle and a belch of coal smoke, the steam engine pulls out of the depot in picturesque downtown Durango and heads for the bucolic riverside pastures of the Animas River Valley. As the landscape gets steeper, rougher, narrower, riders find themselves chugging into the wilds of the Animas River Gorge. For train buffs, one of the most exciting parts of the ride is the highline, a stretch of track cut into the cliff face several hundred feet above the river.

The rhythm and rocking of the train is womblike, gently lulling you back in time as the engine strains up the steep grade of the canyon, crosses an old trestle bridge and finally emerges three or four hours later into Silverton – a rugged, scrappy little town perched in the caldera of an ancient extinct volcano and surrounded by stunning glacier-carved wilderness.

The train clickety-clacks its way past the old Silverton Depot, where the station-mistress (dressed in period costume) and a handful of local kids gleefully wave. It eases to a stop in the center of town for an immersion in an earlier era — a time of wide dusty streets and colorfully painted timber-frame

storefronts that still retain the aura of their days as saloons and bordellos (although they now house restaurants, galleries and souvenir shops).

Before venturing away from the train to explore the town, be sure to say “hi” to the engineer, who sometimes lets children peer inside the engine’s brightly burning fiery belly.

Silverton is a place that fully embraces its history. While in town, enjoy a stagecoach ride or catch a gunfight reenactment, courtesy of the Silverton Gunfighters Association. They open fire Thursdays through Saturdays, at 5:30 p.m., throughout the summer in downtown Silverton.

Daily tours on the D&SNGRR go from Durango to Silverton and back throughout the summer (there is also an overnight or one-way option). The railroad offers package deals with local tour operators, making it easy to take in such regional attractions as the Old Hundred mine tour during the Silverton stopover, even on a tight schedule. (888/TRAIN-07; durangotrain.com)

tour a real historic mine & mill (then Zip through time)Imagine being deep inside the innards of a real historic hard rock mine.

There’s the imponderable weight of the mountain pressing in all around; the musty mineral scent of the cold darkling breeze riding through miles of unseen tunnel; the sound of trickling water and the occasional glimpse of a glittering vein cutting through the native country rock.

And then too there is the knowledge that all of this was made by the hands of men, well over a century ago, chasing the elusive dream of gold, some striking it rich, others dying of silicosis and the unspeakable accidents known to happen in the mines.

The Old Hundred Mine, like most in the Silverton mining district, dates back to the last quarter of the 19th century. Although investors poured millions into the mine over the years, it ultimately never made a dime. Today, the Old Hundred is home to one of the best mine tours of the Rocky Mountains.

It’s easy to get to – just a few minutes’ drive north of Silverton on State Highway 110 (a well-maintained dirt road), then a short way up another dirt road toward Cunningham Gulch.

Upon arriving, visitors don hard hats and slickers, squeeze side-by-side into a real trammer to ride the rails 1,500 feet straight into the guts of Galena Mountain, as the light from the portal shrinks into a pinprick and finally disappears. At the end of the line, passengers disembark for a short walk around a portion of the mine’s interior, as a guide demonstrates various equipment and tells tales of hard rock mining in the San Juans.

Most of the guides are former miners, so when they operate the drill, skip or mucker, they know what they are doing.

Tours are offered several times daily, May through September. Pan for gold (the sand in the sluice box is “salted” with small gemstones, so you’re guaranteed to find something to take back home) while waiting for your tour to begin. Also, be sure to tilt your head back and look way up the mountain to catch a

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A costumed interpreter gives a group of school children a lesson in ax throwing at Ft. Uncompahgre near Delta.

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telluride historical museum201 W. gregory avenue, telluride

Far more than artifacts under glass, this excellent museum housed inside an old mining hospital at the bottom of Tomboy Road offers fireside chats, walking tours, field trips to regional areas of inter-est, and a Hike Into History program exploring the high country in celebration of the region’s rich history. Kids love the interactive outdoor mining exhibit that simulates setting off an explosive round inside a heading in a hardrock mine. This summer, don’t miss a special exhibit celebrating the fascinat-ing history of hydroelectricity in and around Tellu-ride. (970/728-3344, telluridemuseum.org)

ouray county historical museum 420 6th avenue, ouray

A charismatic, award-winning museum located in the historic St. Joseph’s Miners’ Hospital in downtown Ouray. Kids especially love the mineral room in the basement with fluorescent specimens that glow with spectacular colors under ultraviolet light. Adults and kids alike are fascinated by a hospital room display with equipment and procedures from the past. Put a nickel in the museum’s mutoscope to view an old-fashioned moving picture show of a boxing match between Gene Tunney and Jack Dempsey. The Ouray County Historical Society also offers a summer’s worth of intriguing historical programming, including the popular Evenings in History lecture series on Tuesday evenings in June and July at the Ouray Community Center, and guided walking tours of historic down-town Ouray and the Cedar Hill Cemetery. (970/325-4576, ouraycountyhistoricalsociety.org)

ouray county ranch history museum208 county road 1, colona

Located in the historic Colona School a quarter mile west of Highway 550 on Ouray County Road 1, the museum’s diverse exhibits offer an intimate glimpse into the lives of Ouray County’s pioneer ranching families, many of whose descendants still live and work on the family ranch today. Kid-friendly interactive exhibits include a sand box with old-fashioned miniature ranch-themed toys, and a “Guess What This Was Used For?” display table covered with interesting ranch tools and gadgets. Open Sunday afternoons, May through September, and also by ap-pointment. (970/626-5726, ocrhm.org)

ridgWay railroad museum150 racecourse road, ridgway

Ridgway is the birthplace of the Rio Grande South-ern Railroad, so it is only fitting that the town has a museum dedicated to the preservation of the history of railroading in Ouray County and surrounding areas. The museum is located at the junction of US Highway 550 and Colorado State Highway 62 in Ridgway. Its indoor display area includes artifacts, pictures, models, paper documents and tools. The museum also has an impressive collection of rolling stock native to the area, ranging from engines, cabooses and box cars to the famous Galloping Goose #4. Serious rail fans will also go gaga for the D&SNGRR Depot/Train Museum in Durango, and its counterpart at the railroad’s north-ern terminus in Silverton. (ridgwayrailroadmuseum.org, durangotrain.com)

montrose county historical museum21 north rio grande avenue, montrose

Located in the old Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Depot on the corner of Main Street and Rio Grande Avenue, the museum celebrates the many facets of the heritage of Montrose and its surrounding areas. Exhibits focus on early pioneer life, farming, ranching, mining, Native American artifacts, railroad Items and more. (970/249-2085, montrosehistory.org)

pioneer toWn museum338 south grand mesa drive, cedaredge

Outstanding museum near Cedaredge featuring 24 buildings with displays most of which are actual artifacts from the era, represented from the histori-cal period of the late 1800s and the early 1900s. All of the structures are either original restorations, or authentic replicas. A vivid reminder of how the early settlers to the Surface Creek Valley and Colorado lived. (970/856-4769, pioneertown.org)

tribute to Western movies dayJune 8

History comes alive at the Museum of the Mountain West’s Fourth Annual Tribute to West-ern Movies Day in Montrose. This year’s featured movie is the classic Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid with guest speaker/ author Bill Betenson, great grandson of Lula Parker Betenson, sister of Robert LeRoy Parker (Butch Cassidy).

This should be a fantastic day of gunfight re-enactments, a working blacksmith shop, candle-making, rug-making, spinning, barrel-making, horses, period cooking, numerous musical enter-tainers, and more. What an exciting way to step back into the real history of the West! (970/240-3400, mountainwestmuseum.com)

chipeta memorial WalkJune 8

Chipeta, the Kiowa Apache woman who be-came Chief Ouray’s wife, is honored, remembered and respected on this day. Activities center around the Ute Indian Museum, where Chipeta is buried. There will be a three-mile walk commemorat-ing Chipeta, traditional Ute singing and dancing and two documentary films about Ute women. (970/249-3098; historycolorado.org/museums/)

telluride heritage festivalJune 8-10

Ute dancing and drumming, sheep shearing, pie eating contests, gold panning, stagecoach rides, and much more. Enjoy dramatic reenactments on Telluride’s Historic Main Street as locals prom-enade in period costumes. This festival is great for the kids and is entirely free. (877/358-7122, www.telluride.com)

ridgWay heritage days & ranch rodeoJune 14-16

Ridgway celebrates its colorful history and heritage over Father’s Day weekend. On Saturday, local 4-H kids parade their livestock through town to the fairgrounds and compete in a Ranch Rodeo before everyone swings over to Hartwell Park for an old-fashioned barn dance complete with fid-dling and two-step lessons. Sunday, it’s a Day in the Park, featuring a farmer’s market, cowboy gather-ing, storytellers, live music, blacksmiths, children’s games, Ute Mountain hoop dancers and drummers, and historical lectures on topics of local interest. (800/220-4959; ridgwaycolorado.com)

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GREAT musEums TO VIsIT

MORE A Summer’SWorth of eventS

our hiStoryAnd heritAge

CELEBRATING

The “potty-car” is a favorite attraction at the Silverton Min-

ing Heritage Center.

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glimpse of the Old Hundred boarding house perched on the cliff 2,000 feet above, where miners once lived year-round. (800/872-3009; minetour.com)

The flip-side of mining is milling – the process by which large chunks of raw ore are broken down into smaller and smaller pieces by mechanical and chemical means to eventually extract the precious and base metals inside. Learn all about this process at the Mayflower Mill, a National Historic Landmark two miles north of Silverton, now owned by the San Juan County Historical Society and open to the public for tours. (970/387-5838; silvertonhistoricsociety.org)

Starting this summer, if permitting is complete in time, the mill will be the headquarters for a totally unique, two-mile-long zip-line course that blends history with high adventure. Durango-based zip line developer Cameron Winters of Full Blast Adventures has entered into a unique partnership with SJCHS to use the historic Mayflower Mill tramline and its easement for the project.

The Mayflower Mill tram is one of the most-intact historic tramlines still in existence in the American West, and the only all-metal tramline ever built in the San Juans. The tram delivered ore from the Mayflower Mine high in Arastra Gulch to the mill near the Animas River far below.

In the old days, people rode in ore buckets up to the mine. Now, instead of riding up, they’ll be zipping down, sometimes suspended up to 100 feet from the ground and going at speeds of up to 55 miles per hour, ending with a thrilling flight across the Animas River.

The adventure concludes with a guided tour of the Mayflower Mill. Children as young as 4 can ride ... if they have the guts for it. Ten dollars from every $99 ticket sale will go to SJCHS. Winters hopes to have the zip line operating by summer. Check with the Silverton Visitor Center for details. (800/752-4494; silvertoncolorado.com)

Get another perspective on mining in the San Juans by visiting the Bachelor-Syracuse Mine tour northeast of Ouray. “Not a sanitized amusement park ride, the Bachelor-Syracuse mine tour looks and feels like the real thing because it is the real thing,” writes Jane Bennett, author of Tales of the

Bachelor Mine.Above ground activities available at the Bachelor-

Syracuse Mine include gold-panning, horseback riding, and a turn-of-the-century blacksmith shop. An outdoor café serves up breakfast and lunch. (970/325-0220; bachelorsyracusemine.com)

Stay in a Haunted HotelOuray’s historic Beaumont Hotel (505 Main St.) has morphed many times over the years, from the

magnificent centerpiece of an aspiring mining town in the 1880s to a shabby “pink elephant” with boarded-up windows and moldering façade to an exquisitely renovated hotel and spa that last year won a coveted listing on Condé Nast Traveler’s annual Gold List of the best hotels and resorts in the world.

The Gothic, brick-clad behemoth with its tower gables and mansard roof is said to be haunted by the ghost of Eller Day, a maid who was murdered by a black pastry cook named Joe Dixon in the hotel’s kitchen not long after it opened. Dixon was subsequently jailed and killed by an outraged mob. Stories abound of ghostly sightings at the Beaumont. Many feature Day and Dixon, but some reflect happier times, such as one story told by a couple living adjacent to the hotel, who would often watch a ghostly couple dancing upon the rooftop at dusk. At Buckskin Books, a business located within the hotel, proprietors tell of books floating off the shelves of their own accord. (970/325-7000; beaumonthotel.com)

The Historic Western Hotel (210 7th Ave.), perhaps more than any other building in Ouray, brims over with the character of the Wild West. For more than a century, a colorful string of owners and guests have come and gone, yet the rambling, three-story structure remains largely unchanged, still standing proudly as one of Colorado’s few remaining examples of a historic, wood-frame hotel and saloon.

The hotel was built in 1891 at the height of Ouray’s mining boom as a “miner’s palace” with high tin ceilings, stained glass windows, an ornate

saloon and lobby, simple rooms for miners, and lavish suites for well-to-do travelers who would arrive by stagecoach at the grand entrance beneath the second-floor veranda.

Hotel guest-books retain amazing accounts of paranormal encounters guests have had while staying here. Ghosts seem to prefer Room 1, also known as the “Blue Room” because of its ornate blue velvet wallpaper dating back to 1891, and the tiny “Room 18” at the end of a long, narrow hallway at the back of the hotel. (970/325-4645, historicwesternhotel.com)

The St. Elmo Hotel (426 Main St.) was built in 1898 by Catherine “Kittie” Heit, and is another of Ouray’s “top haunts.” The historic inn is like a time capsule; its guest rooms and Victorian lobby have been restored back to their original wallpapers and fixtures and contain many early furnishings, making you feel like you’re standing in the middle of a history book.

A well-known psychic from Tuscon, Ariz., who visited Ouray in the 1990s, described in a newspaper interview how she encountered a virtual parade of ghosts through her room at the St. Elmo, due in part, she said, to the fact that the town’s old morgue was located adjacent to the hotel.

The hotel also comes with its own resident ghost, Freddie (Heit’s son who hung himself in what is now room #5). From time to time, folks who work and stay there have described weird little things that happen to them that are attributed to Freddie.

Heit owned and operated the Queen Anne-style hotel well into the 20th century. Her ghost is also sometimes seen on the second floor of the hotel, sitting by the window, knitting.

(970/325-4951; stelmobonton.com)Families with aspiring ghost busters should

definitely take the Ouray’s Haunted History walking tour while they are in town. During the tour, you will visit Ouray’s most haunted locations and learn of the ghosts who continue to reside in them. Stories are based on historical facts, research on the paranormal and people’s experiences. (866/583-7775; or visit on Facebook

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A photograph of an old-time miner at the Silverton Mining Heritage Center evokes the combination of hope and despair that drove the exploration and development of hardrock mining in the area, well over a century ago.

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children’s programat ute indian museumJuly 2Kids will love this day of interactive hands-on activities with Ute Indian Museum director CJ Brafford. They will make their own miniature tipi and participate in a beading project, learn about Indian sign language and play a traditional Ute children’s game. Reservations required. (970/249-3098; historycolorado.org/museums/)

montrose county fair & rodeoJuly 19-28A ten day celebration of Montrose County’s ag-ricultural and western heritage featuring a CPRA rodeo, junior livestock and horse shows along with a ranch rodeo and tractor pull. (montrosecoun-tyfairandrodeo.com)

san miguel Basin fair & rodeoJuly 20-27The week kicks off with a Motocross Exhibition and Barn Dance Saturday night and wraps up with two nights of CPRA Rodeo excitement. In between are the pie and cake contest, livestock shows and auctions, carnival rides, food, and drink. (970/327-4321, sanmiguelcounty.org/fair/)

ute heritage daysaturday, aug. 3A day of activities at the Ute Indian Museum hon-oring the three remaining Ute tribes. There will be a bear dance, buffalo feast, and other activities bridging the gap of cultural awareness between Natives and non-Natives. Entrance to the museum is free on this day. (970/249-3098; historycolorado.org/museums/)

durango true West railfestaug. 15-18Rare and unique railroad equipment and cars makes special excursions on the Durango & Silver-ton Narrow Gauge Railroad, including the Denver and Rio Grande’s Galloping Goose and an 1875 wood fired locomotive. (888/TRAIN-07; durango-railfest.com)

ouray county heritage Weekendaug. 23-25County-wide events celebrate Ouray’s rich mining, ranching and cultural heritage. (800/228-1876, ouraycolorado.com)

hardrockers holiday& highgraders holidayaug. 9-11 & 24-25Miners and former miners from throughout the West gather to compete at these sister events in Silverton and Ouray each summer to celebrate the mining heritage of the San Juans. Contests show-case skills still used by professional miners today – like drilling, hand-steeling and machine mucking – as competitors vie for major cash prizes, special plaques, and the coveted title of All Around Miner. (800/752-4494, silvertoncolorado.com; 800/228-1876, ouraycolorado.com)

ouray county 4-h fair & rodeoaug. 29-sept. 1Ouray County’s ranching heritage comes to life each year over Labor Day Weekend at the pictur-esque fairgrounds in Ridgway. Enjoy all of the tra-ditional fun and excitement of a small town coun-ty fair as local 4-H kids show off their hand-raised rabbits, chickens, pigs and steers, followed by the brouhaha of the CPRA-sanctioned Ouray County Rodeo. (800/220-4959; ouraycountyrodeo.com)

ouray county railroad dayssept. 19-22 At one time, there were three railroads in the county that are now world-famous. Without these railroads, the mines and ranches of Ouray County could not have existed. This weekend event in-cludes a Ridgway Railroad Museum open house, a model railroad open house, rides on Motor #1, a Narrow Gauge Railroad Symposium, hikes from Red Mountain Pass to Guston and from Guston to the Albany Smelter on the Silverton Railroad Grade, and guided tours tracing the routes of the D&RGW from Ridgway to Ouray and the RGS from Ridgway to Lizard Head Pass. (800/220-4959 ridgwayrailroadmuseum.org)

durango coWBoy poetry gatheringoct. 3-6Nationally renowned cowboy poets entertain the town with song and yarn, and an authentic, “mo-torless” Cowboy Parade graces the downtown streets of Durango. (970/749-2995, durangocowboy-gathering.org)

durango heritage celeBrationoct. 10-13The theme for 2013 is “Buffalo Bill Meets Queen Victoria.” This event commemorates Durango’s colorful and diverse history, focusing on the pe-riod from the town’s incorporation in 1881 until 1912. A large number of event goers dress in au-thentic period attire throughout the celebration. (970/382-9298, durangoheritagecelebration.org

attend a pow Wow A pow wow is just like it sounds – a swirl of colorful regalia, jingle dresses, fancy shawls and thumping drums – as

people come together in an intertribal celebration of music, dance, feasting and friendship.

Interestingly, the tradition of pow wows only dates back to the mid-19th century or so. “One of the things the federal government did in the dog days of adverse Indian policy was to separate us Indian communities from one another,” said Richard West, Director of the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). “Pow wows are a powerful contemporary device for getting together as Indians; and, in that respect, they are a potent cultural and social connector among contemporary Indian communities.”

For non-Natives, said Ute elder Roland McCook, who traces his roots to Chipeta and Chief Ouray, the pow wow serves to help banish stereotypes while giving the larger community the chance to experience an American Indian gathering firsthand.

The need for dispelling stereotypes goes both ways.

McCook recalls of his childhood in a place called Desolation Canyon on the Northern Ute Reservation in Utah: “When my mother wanted to get me to come inside, she would say, ‘Come in, or the white man’s gonna getcha!’” He laughed. “I got curious what a white man would be – a person with white skin and a hairy face? I thought to myself, ‘My horse and dog have a hairy face....’ It preyed upon my mind somewhat.”

There came a day when the white man did come, and took McCook away from his family, pet prairie dogs, and the canyon he knew so well, to the White Rocks boarding school, 130 miles away. Here he successfully resisted a systematic attempted to snuff the Ute culture out of his being.

Yet he went on to have a distinguished career in the white man’s world, first with the Bureau of Land Management, which frequently used him as a go-between when its projects encroached upon tribal lands and later as Vice-Chairman of the Smithsonian Institution’s Native American Repatriation Review Committee, returning Indian artifacts and human remains to native peoples of the Americas.

McCook, who now lives in Montrose, has devoted himself in recent years to being an ambassador of Native American cultures, and as such is eager to extend an open invitation to the greater community for the upcoming fourth annual Montrose Indian Nations Pow Wow on Sept. 20-22, taking place at Friendship Hall at the Montrose County Fairgrounds.

Natives and non-Natives alike are invited to join in the celebration, see old friends and teach the traditional ways to a younger generation. (westernslopepowwows.com)

McCook is also bringing the Ute Mountain hoop dancers and drummers to perform in Ridgway on Sunday, June 16 (Father’s Day) as part of the inaugural Ridgway Heritage Days & Ranch Rodeo. “We will have a tipi there, and educational activities, and I will be speaking about Ute history and answering questions,” McCook said.

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30 adventureGUIDE | sUmmEr2013

A tipi on the grounds of the Ute Indian Mu-seum near Montrose.