As a journalist who has covered Telluride's cultural economy for nearly 20 years, I have intimate knowledge of the inner workings of all of the region's key nonprofits, including institutions like the Telluride Historical Museum. The Museum is a microcosm of the town, a special place staffed by special people, who deftly juggle traditional roles with thinking out of the box. Yes, the traditional stuff of museums is there: room after room housing the history of the region are meticulously preserved. But the place also acts as a community center, where people come together to celebrate learning, and many activities orchestrated by the Museum happen off campus: historic bar crawls to Christmas at a traditional ranch where generations of Schmids have worked and played. The Telluride Historical Museum is a place that makes my brain smile.

The Telluride Historical Museum has done a wonderful job with which they have to work. The staff is very dedicated to the museum and give 110%. Be sure to stop by and see their exhibit "History of Law Enforcement in San Miguel County", very interesting!!

Whenever one of my friends or family come to visit me in
Telluride I always take them to the museum. It tells so many stories in such interesting ways and the programs I've attended have always been informative. The staff have helped me in my own historic research on several occasions helping me get in contact with local historians, and sharing their knowledge

I really love the staff, the building, thier displays, and all the great events the museum puts on. The very fact that the building has been moved and is a historical building ads a lot of awe to the whole experince. The museum is second to none in my experince of small town museums.

Keep up the great work!

I had the genuine pleasure of visiting this museum this past weekend while my husband enjoyed the fresh powder on the mountain. I absolutely adored my experience. The history and knowledge given by Barbara as I walked in, as well as the displays around the museum, were all top notch. I especially loved the Telluride Blanket and the Tellurider exhibits, but my favorite part was the small reconstructed cabin of Harriet Fish Backus. I had read Tomboy Bride several years ago and loved the story of Backus' many adventures. But to see a small portion of her life in the museum made my reading that much more tangible. I highly recommend a visit to this museum for anyone who is in town. You won't regret it!

Its a well all around view of the times and its people.
Found particular interesting the indian period and a few more stories would be super. Any connecting points.
This is my second time here and i came back as i found it so informative and wanteds to be reminded again. Also the story telling of peoples staing why they stayed is great....
next time, i already know what i want to visit next..like mining tours, horse adventure etc,
GREAT

The museum provides a fascinating history of the area around Telluride. I particularly enjoyed the displays of old household products and things that the miners used. There were some really interesting displays about the transport to the mines. A well done history. There were some great "fun facts".

Great and professional exhibit !!!! this is very well done. I would highly recommend

we returned to telluride after 30 years. my husband and i celebrated our honeymoon here in feb. 1981. we went upstairs and were pleased to see the display from the iron ladel. during our week stay we ate there many times. at times we would see our waitress sometimes working at the lift, sometimes at the ladel and also at the bakery. enjoyed seeing the photos and it brought back memories not only of that week but the styles and trends that i had forgotton. enjoyed it a lot

A wonderful local museum full of interesting information about the topography, history and characters that make Telluride what it is today. I had no idea there had been so many mines operating in the area. The transition to a resort community is fully documented here.

Really enjoyed the museum...found the Indian history very interesting. Enjoyed learning about Butch Cassidy and his first robbery in Telluride. I loved looking at the old log cabin that was a replica of the real one, complete with stove, dining room table and chairs, utensils, etc. Also enjoyed the transition to the ore mining industry and then to the skiing frenzy. I liked how you could get close to all the exhibits as well.

This is our first visit to Telluride and we strongly advise any visitor to take the short stroll up the hill to experience The Telluride Museum. The beautiful historic stone building houses comprehensive and fascinating exhibits that give you an understanding of this unique town.
Give yourself a couple of hours to soak up the rich history of Telluride.

As a journalist who covers Telluride's cultural economy, the Telluride Historical Museum is part of my beat. Like the town, the institution is unique. Rather than fill days dusting off shelves filled with collectibles from the past, our Museum's imaginative staff works hard to keep history alive with an interesting, often surprising mix of in-house and off-site programs from on-mountain ski tours to pub crawls. None of this may be surprising for museums in large cities with lots of worker bees earning their pay. But in a town the size of Telluride? Impressive, no?

Museum is great. We come every year with friends. The history and pictures are wonderful.

Starting out as a hospital and ending up as a very fine small museum, THM,inc. is now a wonderful part of Telluride. Wherever one looks you'll see evidence of its vitality, the newspapers, the store fronts, scheduled events, something for everyone, young and old.

Its programs, in house, cover the everything from a pre historic indian blanket, one of a kind, to present day events. Newly assembled movies and videos of recent events as well as hikes to still existing, but not working mines and 4X4 drives over old mining trails to present day events at other old mining Towns.

The museum is alive and well offering events and special tours for all ages while attempting to educate in the process. Two wonderful young ladies come up with something new pretty near every week and include historic ski tours, heath care on the 70's, history and hamburgers, Bust to Boom lectures; Historic Pub Crawls and Old Fashioned Christmas tours complete with horse drawn sleigh rides and Santa Claus. Never a dull moment around this Telluride Historical Museum, Inc.

The Telluide Historical Museum not only has interesting historical displays about the history of this region, it also sponsors fascinating events that help people to interact with history. For instance, in the summer the museum sponsors jeep and hiking trips to old mining sites, accompanied by a historian and a geologist to explain why mining in this region was successful and to tell detailed stories about specific mines, labor strife, and other details. The museum also sponsors historic pub crawls where the guests learn about Telluride's boom town mining history and its renaissance as a ski town in the 70s. This year, the museum has begun offering historic skiing tours, where guests learn the history of the region while skiing to different sites where the historical events took place. All of these events are fun, educational, and innovative, and my husband and I have thoroughly enjoyed them.

I am a bit unusual in the fact that I have had a life-long association with the Museum having been born in the institution that is now a museum. I have been heavily involved with the identification and research of the Telluride Blanket, volunteered with the first caretaker Arlene Reid. I have watched the floundering of the museum and finally support by the town of Telluride. Nothing has made more of a difference than the vision and management presented by Lauren Bloemsma. Her ability to work with and within the community has created a gem in the rockies. I would also like to add that many of the "old timers" had a difficult time transitioning from a "ma and pa" Museum to a thematic approach. Lauren has healed many wounds and involved those families in planning while blending with the new. I fully support the direction the museum has now taken and feel privileged to remain a small part of it's direction. I would change only one thing and that is to hope that more of the Telluride Community understand the uniqueness of what they have and that a concentrated effort be made to curate, identify and care for the artifacts in storage.

I have seen the museum grow and improve over the past 10 years and they were kind enough to host a recent private tour with Telluride Cub Scout Pack 500. The exhibits are surprisingly educational, informative and professionally presented and range from videos of the history of trains in the area to interactive hands on models and videos of the workings of electricity, its origin in Telluride and Ames and its impact on the world. A must see for anyone interested in the history of Telluride.

As a new resident of Telluride, I have been extremely interested in our local history. I've been fortunate enough to visit the Telluride Historical Museum on two occasions and enjoyed them both thoroughly. The building itself has a fascinating history and the exhibits are obviously updated regularly. The staff was incredible and they even welcomed our local scout pack by opening exclusively for our visit. I intend on making it a habit to bring newcomers to the area through the museum to share Telluride's innovative history.

The Historical Museum is a must-see for any new visitor to Telluride AND any resident as well. It has been fun to see the museum evolve in the past 12 years. The volunteers are so proud of their museum and anxious to share the exciting history of Telluride with anyone who walks through the door. Their events and tours are a great way to experience Telluride too! I recommend the cemetary tour and Fourth of July festivities. We like to bring new Telluride visitors to the museum before thrilling them with a ride up to the old mining ruins of Tomboy!