[OUR EXHIBITS]

Our mission is to preserve
and promote the rich and colorful history of the region. We bring history to life through interactive exhibits, programming and outreach.

Study the geology of the region,
the area's Native American Ute, the
discovery of gold and silver, the
growth of the mining town, the
hardships of the miners and their
families, the arrival of the railroad
and the diversity that has kept
Telluride alive through thick and thin.

You'll have an opportunity to study early
technologies of precious metal extraction
and the dangers of hard rock mining.

Learn how miners organized in an effort
to share in mining profits and how management's harsh response led to
labor strikes, murder and intrigue.

Hear about how the arrival of the Rio
Grande Southern Railroad changed the
face of an otherwise rugged and
gritty western mining town.

Explore the innovations necessary for
the people of a remote town in the
San Juan Mountains to prosper.

Discover how creative minds managed
to find other ways to keep the region's economy going when mining profits
began to dry up and the town
began to fade away.

In short, the people, events and
history of Telluride reflect the innovations, tenacity and
enduring human spirit
in us all.

[THE TELLURIDE BLANKET]

A near-perfect cotton blanket from the Ancestral Pueblo (Anasazi) culture arrived in Telluride during the 19th century. But its origins and discovery lay shrouded in mystery until “reverse archeology” scholarship restored its story.

Ranchers Mel and Ed Turner discovered the blanket in a Utah cliff dwelling while chasing stray cattle about 1896. Mel Turner later gave it to Telluride banker W.E. Wheeler, perhaps as payment of a debt. From Wheeler’s death in 1935, until 1970 when it came to the Telluride Historical Society inside a leather trunk, the blanket’s age and importance went unrecognized.

An old photograph (also found in the trunk) showed the remains of an ancient village, while radiocarbon dated the blanket to between AD 1041 and 1272. The photograph was published and its location eventually identified. Subsequent exploration of the site revealed the inscriptions “E. Turner” and “Mel Turner,” suggesting that the Turners had found the blanket there.

[THE MUSEUM GARDENS]

Telluride loves a garden!

The gardens are now under construction as artifact are situated and a programming area to accommodate our classrooms is underway.