History Colorado Center

"The History Colorado Center, located in Denver's Golden Triangle, foregoes boring exhibits for hands-on, focused explorations of the culture and people that make colorful Colorado what it is. You can expect artifacts, ephemera, art, and dioramas from not only the city’s history, but also the Rocky Mountains and the American West. The family-friendly museum is full of out-of-towners and locals alike, but it still feels under-the-radar thanks to a lack of crowds. Some exhibits are geared more towards kids, like an interactive recreation of a plains town in 1918, complete with a general store and a barn. But adults will enjoy artwork from local artists, video installations, and multimedia exhibitions that explore the stories of the state’s diverse peoples. The museum strikes a good balance between breadth and focus, introducing the history of the American West to visitors in a well-paced manner that leaves you interested but not overwhelmed." - Megan Barber, Nicholas DeRenzo

"The History Colorado Center is exactly what it sounds like, but still full of surprises. This museum in Denver is dedicated to the history of the state, from its geologic development to the current day. The entire collection is presided over by a giant map tied to a time machine. The machine can be used to toggle through the map, which tells stories from different times and places in the Centennial State. As you move through the museum, there’s the Mesa Verde section, which presents the daily lives of the Ancestral Puebloans, who are known for their cliff-face homes and who once spanned Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. “Destination Colorado” is a replica of a small town in the early 1900s, complete with a one-room schoolhouse. A perennial favorite is the Denver Diorama, which portrays the city as it appeared in the 1800s. A walk-through of a Japanese internment camp, a silver mine shaft, and a ski jump simulation await in other corners. The center first opened in 2012 and, as a result, has been more liberal than your average history museum in applying the newest technology to its exhibits and programs. The exhibitions here trend towards the hands-on, with walk-through installations and computerized interactives." - ATLAS_OBSCURA

"The History Colorado Center, located in the Golden Triangle, foregoes boring exhibits for hands-on, focused explorations of the culture and people that make colorful Colorado what it is. You can expect artifacts, ephemera, art, and dioramas from not only the city’s history, but also the Rocky Mountains and the American West. The family-friendly museum is full of out-of-towners and locals alike." - Megan Barber