The Museum is open to the public on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 10am until 4pm and on Wednesdays and Fridays from 1pm until 4pm.

Visit our YouTube channel and enjoy many of our past webinars. Like and subscribe to our channel here.

New exhibit, now open in the Ballantine Gallery.

Saturday, August 22, 9:30-3:30pm. Trace Your Hispanic Family History sponsored by the Southwest Colorado Genealogical Society. Southern Ute Cultural Center & Museum. Learn more at swcogen.org.

Save the Dates!

September is History Live! month in Durango, presented by the Southwest Colorado Humanities Roundtable.

Here are the events sponsored by the Animas Museum. For a complete list of events, visit their website at swcohumanities.org.

Saturday, September 12, 1pm. Meet Caroline Romney, Durango’s First Newspaper Editor, live at the Museum, recording to follow, featuring Gay Kiene and Carolyn Bowra.

Wednesday, September 16, 6-7:30pm. The Falls Creek Rock Shelters, Reanalysis, Repatriation, and Reconciliation with Mona Charles and Dawn Mulhearn at the Durango Public Library.

Saturday, September 19, 6-7:30pm. The Early History of Electric Power in Southwest Colorado with Charles DiFerdinando at The Powerhouse.

Tuesday, September 22, 6-7:30pm. Hornos, Chuckwagons, and Hardtack: The 1876 Table with Dr. Rachael Storm at the Durango Public Library. Limited copies of Dr. Storm's book will be available for purchase at $49.95. Image courtesy Colorado Department of Agriculture.

Wednesday, September 30, 6-7pm. Tools for Exploring the Past, by the Durango Public Library and the Center of Southwest Studies, at the Durango Public Library.

Saturday, October 10, 10:30am. Southwest Colorado Genealogical Society meeting. Program to be announced. At the Animas Museum.

Saturday, October 10, 1pm. Come celebrate 100 years of the US Highway System by listening to a talk from Mick Souder, a “roadgeek” who has been studying the development of the national highway system since he was 7 years old. Mick will review how the US highway system developed in the 1920s, focusing on US 550 and its evolution from Otto Mears’ scary toll road to the scenic (and a little scary) wonder it is today. There is no charge for this event which will be recorded, join us at the Museum or on Zoom. To register for a Zoom link, click here.

Videos

Maybe you are old enough to remember the "Bicentennial Minutes" broadcast by CBS from 1974 to 1976? These were a popular series of short videos that highlighted moments in the American Revolution. At the Animas Museum, we were inspired to do something similar based on the "Moments That Made US" theme, one of the initiatives of History Colorado for 2026.

This is the first of our series, each video will tie together an artifact and photos with a story from an oral history, all from our collection. Mary Hansen's story was told to us by her grandsons. Watch the video on our YouTube channel @animasmuseum or here.

We are proud to be part of the Portrait of Colorado at 150 Storytelling project. Learn more about it and find an inventory of existing oral histories in Southwest Colorado here.

It's live, Buffalo Soldiers: Return to Animas City The Video! If you missed the event or want to hear the story of the Buffalo Soldiers again, you can watch it now on our Youtube channel here.

We are absolutely thrilled to release this oral history "I Lived in the Rico Depot" presented by life-long Colorado resident, Joanne Branson Smith. Joanne's earliest memories of childhood are of her adventures in and around the Denver Rio Grande Southern (RGS) railroad depot in Rico, CO. Joanne gave this talk at the Museum in November, 2022 and volunteer Larry Bollinger has done an amazing job to preserve her memories. You can watch it on our Youtube channel here.

Learn about the Great Fire of 1889

Download a device friendly copy of the walking tour here or a printable version of the pdf here.