Press :: Telluride Historical Museum - Museum in Telluride Colorado

Telluride, Colorado (Jan. 10, 2013) — Join longtime local George Greenbank for an in-depth look at the historic Sheridan Opera House on your choice of either Wednesday, Jan. 16 or Jan. 30. This popular tour, sponsored by the Telluride Historical Museum and the Sheridan Arts Foundation, gathers at the Opera House at 11 a.m. on each day. Learn the full backstory of Telluride’s Crown Jewel, which originally opened as the Segerberg Opera House. Once a premiere film theater and socialite darling, the building now shares its name with an early mining claim, and its rough footprint with the early lodging provided by the Sheridan Hotel, which burned in a fire in 1906.

The Sheridan has supported children’s theater and fundraising events for local non-profit causes. It can convert to a dance hall, host all sorts of orchestral performances and even the occasional boxing match. The intimacy of the place has made it a magical stage for performing stars as different as Jackie Greene or Sissy Spacek to Los Lobos or Mumford and Sons. A fixture on the Telluride Film Festival’s annual Labor Day circuit, the place hosts business entrepreneurs as well as Zumba enthusiasts, but see for yourself the secret uses of this public treasure. With George’s architectural prowess, one can even appreciate “butter” brick joints!

Listed on the U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Register of Historic Places, seating only 235, (265 if standing), your tour of this Telluride institution can only enrich your appreciation for its storied past and its steadfast commitment to the arts. The tour costs $15 for museum members and $20 for non-members. More information and dates for Wednesday tours in February can be found at www.telluridemuseum.org or by calling 970 728-3344, extension 2.

MUSEUM EVENT CELEBRATES TRUE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS
Telluride Historical Museum celebrates the season with Old Fashioned Christmas Celebration at Schmid Ranch

Telluride, Colorado (November 15, 2012) – On Christmas Day, 1908, Harriet Fish Backus, the “Tomboy Bride,” awoke to a gift that would certainly turn the most modern San Juan citizen Christmas-colored with envy: “sparkling diamonds,” from the surface of ten-foot deep snow.

Meanwhile, outside her cabin at Tomboy, equipped with snow shoes, a fleece-lined jacket, fur hat, and, of best of all, a sack of toys slung over her back, “The Spirit of Christmas,” labored from shack to shack without discrimination; the annual ritual of Beth Batchellor, Harriet’s best friend.

On December 8, the Telluride Historical Museum will honor the Spirit of Christmas at the annual celebration at Schmid Ranch from 12-4p.m.

There, at the ranch—a centennial farm that has remained in the Schmid family since the 1880’s—the celebration will include horse-drawn carriage rides, a bonfire, hot chocolate, cowboy coffee, wreath making, Santa Claus and gifts for children. Guests can even cut down their own Blue Spruce tree.

The fourth annual Old Fashioned Christmas Celebration at Schmid Ranch feels like a Norman Rockwell painting. “It’s truly a sincere celebration of the holiday spirit,” said Erica Kinias, executive director of the museum.
The event is free, thanks to donations at the event and sponsors like Hotel Telluride, New Sheridan Chop House and Hotel, Peaks Resort and Spa, the Schmid family and Wilkinson Public Library.

Kinias encourages warm clothes, rope to get your tree home and your own mug for the hot beverages.

The museum isn’t completely ignoring the commercial side of the season. During the entire month of December the museum store will host Noel Month, where shoppers can play old fashioned games to win 10 – 50% discounts.

Gifts exchanged amongst the first Telluriders were likely “gloves, warms stockings hats; home baked breads and treats; paper dolls; balls; and simple games like jacks and marbles,” said Kinias.

Today, the museum offers shoppers contemporary items—like beer steins, belt buckles, travel mugs, ceramic tiles and Lisa Issenberg pendants and knobs—that display images from the past, in addition to matted and framed images from museum archives.

The museum also carries great books including local titles: Tomboy Bride, One Man’s West and Rudy’s View, and DVDs documenting Telluride’s past: We Skied It! and YX Factor and fictional past: Scrapple.

For more information about the Old Fashioned Christmas event or about Noel Month, visit the museum online or at the top of Fir St.

As for “sparkling diamonds,” this Christmas, museum can’t make any promises, although historically speaking; at least we know chances are good.

LIZZY KNIGHT, NO STRANGER TO THE STRANGE
Fireside Chat illuminates pioneer rancher of Disappointment Valley

Telluride, Colorado (August 20, 2012) - It’s not often a woman ends up married to her son-in-law. But Lizzy Knight, the first pioneer woman of the Disappointment Valley, was no stranger to the strange.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the Telluride Historical Museum will offer a first-person characterization of Lizzy Knight, performed by Marsha Bankston, a sixth generation descendant of pioneer cattle ranchers Lizzy and Henry Knight.

Bankston, a great, great, great, great granddaughter
of the infamous pioneering couple, occupies the original Knight homestead—just southwest of Telluride on the west side of Lone Cone Peak—which has been designated a Centennial Farm by the State of Colorado.

The original Knight cabin still stands and was recently added to the list of "Most Endangered” historical sites in Colorado. Bankston has been working towards restoring the building for public visitation. In May the museum led a field trip to the property.

Bankston is continuing her mother's work of writing and presenting the personal stories of pioneers, such as Lizzy Knight. Her mother, Wilma Crisp Bankston, authored “Where Eagles Winter: History and Legend of the Disappointment Country.”

The Fireside Chat, “Lizzy Knight, The First Pioneer Woman of the Disappointment Valley," begins at 5:30p.m. on Wednesday, at the Livery in Norwood and at 5:30p.m. at The Peaks Resort and Spa on Thursday. Both Chats are free to the public.

Both Fireside Chats, the last of the summer season, are sponsored by the Telluride Women’s Network, Shari Seay Mitchell, Norwood Chamber of Commerce and Peaks Resort and Spa.

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100 YEARS OF MOUNTAINS AND MOUNTAINEERING
Fireside Chat illuminates the brave but happy pioneers of mountaineering

Telluride, Colorado (August 14, 2012) – Inadequate maps, hobnail boots, long skirts for women, cotton clothing—just some of the challenges Colorado’s brave mountaineers faced 100 years ago. On Thursday, the Telluride Historical Museum will honor that history, and the smiling faces pictured in early mountaineering photos, with a special Fireside Chat.

In 1912, the Colorado Mountain Club was born. 100 years later, the organization remains devoted to connecting those who love the Colorado Rockies or who study or seek recreation in them. The 100th anniversary is commemorated with the book, “100 Years Up High: Colorado Mountains and Mountaineers,” which focuses on significant people, events, and developments that made climbing, hiking, and skiing the High Country a great outdoor adventure for hundreds of thousands of enthusiasts drawn from Colorado and beyond.

Co-Author of the book, James E. Fell Jr. is the featured guest speaker at the museum’s Thursday Fireside Chat. His presentation will highlight the book’s illustrations, photographs, significant people, events, and developments that made climbing, hiking, and skiing the High Country a great outdoor adventure for hundreds of thousands of enthusiasts drawn from Colorado and beyond.

You might say Fell is obsessed with history.

He’s worked in both historic preservation and exhibits at the Colorado Historical Society. He is a former Harvard-Newcomen Fellow in Business History at the Harvard Business School and former managing editor of the “Business History Review.”

Since 1990, he has taught at the University of Colorado Denver and is the author of “Ores to Metals: The Rocky Mountain Smelting Industry,” co-author with Stanley Dempsey of “Mining the Summit: Colorado’s Ten Mile District, 1860 – 1960,” and collaborator with Jay E. Niebur on “Arthur Redman Wilfley: Miner, Inventor, and Entrepreneur.”

He is also the author of various articles and many reviews in professional journals, as well as treasurer and former director of the Mining History Association, which awarded him its Rodman Wilson Paul Award for distinction in mining history.

His latest book and focus of Thursday’s Chat celebrates the 100 year history of the Colorado Mountain Club and deals largely with 20th century mountaineering. The book contains about 150 images, many of which, will be featured at the Fireside Chat.

Thursday’s Chat is sponsored by the Peaks Resort and Spa and Andie and Rudy Davison. The Chat begins at 5:30p.m. and is free.

For more information about Fireside Chats, visit the Museum at the top of Fir St. or online at telluridemuseum.org.

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FIRESIDE CHAT ILLUMINATES COLORADO RAILROADING
Fictional first person characterization at Chats in Norwood and Telluride

Telluride, Colorado (August 8, 2012) -- The Rio Grande Southern Railroad first debuted its Ridgway to Rico route in September of 1891. The event was recorded by a local newspaper and the account was later reprinted in the book, "Silver San Juan.” This week the Telluride Historical Museum will bring that story of early Colorado railroading to life with two Fireside Chats, in Norwood and in Telluride.

Steve Lee, an educator and performer from Denver, delivers Fireside Chats presentations via a first-person of characterization of Hiram Wheeler, a fictitious railroad conductor. Lee, dressed in a Denver & Rio Grande Western conductor's uniform, shares the story about the golden days of Colorado railroading.

This year marks Lee’s second foray as a Fireside Chat presenter. Last year he delivered, to packed audiences, a first person characterization of Otto Mears, famous in the region for pioneering toll roads and railways.

This summer—the seventh season of Fireside Chats—the museum aims to bring their vivid, educational and engaging history presenters to Telluride, Mountain Village and Norwood.

In lieu of special grants, the 2012 Fireside Chats are completely funded by community support, in-kind donations and sponsorships from individuals and organizations.

Wednesday and Thursday’s Chats are sponsored by the Norwood Chamber of Commerce, Peaks Resort and Spa and the Telluride Rotary Club.

Lee’s Fireside Chat, “Hiram Wheeler: Conductor of the Rio Grande Southern Railroad,” will be held on Wednesday in Norwood, at the Livery and again on Thursday, in Telluride, at The Peaks Resort and Spa. Lee’s Chat lasts about 30 minutes, leaving time to answer questions. Both Fireside Chats begin at 5:30p.m. and are free.

For more information about Fireside Chats, visit the Museum at the top of Fir St. or online at telluridemuseum.org.

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"ART WALK FEATURES FIRESIDE CHAT AND ROBERT WEATHERFORD "

Telluride, Colorado (August 1, 2012) – This Thursday, as part of the First Thursday Art Walk, the Telluride Historical Museum will offer its first Fireside Chat of the season and celebrate local artist, Robert Weatherford.

The Fireside Chat will begin at 5:30p.m. at the museum amphitheatre. Wine and cheese will be served while two authors – Charmaine Gets and Carol Turner – spin long tales highlighting Colorado’s colorful past.

Getz author of “Weird Colorado: Your Travel Guide to Colorado's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets,” will speak about the mystery airships of Colorado, quack medicine ads, and Alfred Packer.

Turner, who penned, “Notorious Telluride: Wicked Tales from San Miguel County,” will tell about the "Snowy Adventures of the Millionaire Kid" and "Death by Gold Fever," the story of the shooting in Ophir of her great Uncle Charlie Turner.

The museum joined the Art Walk route last summer as part of their effort to draw traffic to their temporary exhibits. Currently on display is “Sound and Vision: 125 years of art and music in Telluride.” To round out the body of antique and historical artifacts, each month throughout the exhibit’s run, the museum features a contemporary local artist. Thursday’s Art Walk serves as the premier of Robert Weatherford’s 48” x 60”oil painting, "Mining Tower.”

“This is such a unique piece, mixing mining heritage with the natural landscape,” said Erica Kinias, museum executive director. “It’s truly a great fit for our exhibit.”

Admission during the Art Walk is free and the museum will extend their hours until 8p.m. The museum is located at the top of Fir St.

Image Caption: Robert Weatherford's "Mining Tower," on display at the Museum throughout August.

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"MUSEUM SEEKS SPONSORS FOR HERITAGE FEST "
Museum seeks individuals and businesses to keep Heritage Fest rolling.

Telluride, Colorado (April 18, 2012) –Staff at the Telluride Historical Museum are busy planning for Heritage Fest, June 9-10, while also seeking community support.

Since inception, in 2009, Heritage Fest has been wildly successful, with thousands of families and children of all ages converging on Colorado Ave for free fun including live animals, gold panning and blacksmithing demonstrations, pie eating contests, carriage rides, Ute entertainment and historical reenactments.

According to museum Executive Director, Erica Kinias, there are new opportunities for businesses and individuals to get involved in this year's celebration.

Like previous years, the main attraction will be the Colorado Avenue and Elks Park activities, including Ute hoop dancing and drumming, mining interactives, old fashioned contests and performances by Telluride Theatre.

The second day of Heritage Fest is an opportunity to visit the Schmid Ranch, a Centennial Farm on Wilson Mesa, about ten miles West of Telluride. The ranch has been in operation since the family homestead in 1882. The Schmid family collaborates with Heritage Fest to share their unique property with the community while showcasing a way of life that honors the land.

In the past, Heritage Fest sponsors included the Sheridan Arts Foundation and the Telluride Visitor’s Bureau. This year the museum is hosting the event without substantial outside financial support. The museum seeks to compensate for the gap left in their wake through in-kind donations, by trimming costs and also offering nine sponsorship levels that vary from a $1500 Ute Chief sponsorship to a $25 Ski Bum sponsorship.

Sponsorships help cover marketing, Ute performances, theatrical reenactments and logistical support. The museum’s goal is $3000. To date sponsors include Telluride Alpine Lodging, The Sweet Life, New Sheridan Hotel and individual donations from Sue & Chuck Cobb and Claybrook Penn. Horror Festival Director, Ted Wilson, has also emerged as a volunteer consultant.

Businesses also have an opportunity to join the festival as vendors on Colorado Ave., June 9. Those interested in sponsorships, volunteering or participating as a vendor should contact Beth Roberts at 970-728-3344x2.

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"MUSEUM'S NEW JOURNAL ILLUMINATES THE 1970S"

Telluride, Colorado (April 2, 2012) – When Joe Zoline, a onetime corporate lawyer living in Los Angeles, ventured to Telluride in the late 1960s, he found a mining community, nearly three hours from an airport, with a sole gas station—which closed at 5p.m. and never even opened on Sundays. But what Zoline saw were the mountains and miraculously, for he wasn’t a skier, the potential for an unmatched ski resort.

Soon, the good people of Telluride found themselves in the grocery, pharmacy and hardware stores alongside strange, young, long-haired, ski enthusiasts. By 1973 the town was bustling with a ski resort, a bluegrass festival, a robust and zany softball league, a thriving bar scene and a very distraught, six-gun touting, hippie hating, marshal: Everett Morrow. The Telluride Historical Museum’s new publication, “Telluride Tales,” gives light to it all.

Mary Duffy, past editor and chief of “Telluride Magazine,” and “Telluride and Mountain Village Visitor Guide,” took on the project at the bequest of the museum’s former Executive Director, Lauren Bloemsma. “Lauren saw the project as an opportunity to explore Telluride’s history beyond the scope of what could be shared in exhibits, lectures and programs,” said Duffy. “I saw it as a chance to document Telluride’s colorful history and recount stories that are often lost to time.”

Although the 70s have been explored in the documentary film “The YX Factor” and Davine Pera’s oral history collection (housed at the Wilkinson Public Library), this first issue of “Telluride Tales” is presented in print as first person narratives exploring the social crossroads that colored the community during a sometimes painful transition. And yes, there were drugs, sex, rock and roll, and a healthy dose of politics. As Bloemsma said, “It was a time reminiscent of the wild and tumultuous decade a century earlier, when the discovery of gold and silver ushered in the mining era and brought about the end of the Uncompahgre Utes’ domination of the region.”

Contributors to the journal include Gary Bennett, Lucy Boody, Werner Catsman, Kooster McAllister, Billy “Senior” Mahoney, Roudy Roudebush, Jeff Campbell and others. “Telluride Tales,” also features a police report, filed by Everett Morrow the morning following the infamous wet t-shirt contest at the Roma Bar.

“Talking to people who lived it, getting their stories down and developing this project was a lot of fun,” said Duffy. “I only wish I could have printed them all, but that will have to come later.” The topic of the next issue hasn’t been set in stone, but there are hundreds of interesting eras, events and characters to explore. “This is only a kernel of the great tales that are out there,” said Duffy. “For such a little community, with a relatively short history, Telluride is rich in legend and drama.”

Copies of “Telluride Tales,” are available at the Telluride Historical Museum, or receive a free copy by joining the museum’s membership here.

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"CRAWL, DON'T WALK, BACK INTO TIME"
The Telluride Historical Museum presents a Historic Pub Crawl to close out the ski season.

Telluride, Colorado (March 27, 2012) – At the turn of the last century you couldn’t swing a saloon girl in Telluride without hitting a watering hole: there were at least thirty-seven. Money and opportunity hung like a carrot on a stick, out of reach for most. Lust was rampant.

The local booster club coined the slogan, “Telluride, the town without a bellyache,” boasting that one could not want for anything in this prosperous mining town.

The town may not have had a bellyache, but it probably had a throbbing head.

Throughout prohibition: you could get a drink just about anywhere, including the Courthouse. During the 1960s, when the hospital and banks closed and only 300 locals remained, the saloons carried on. A decade later, when the ski bums and hippies bellied up, they ushered in a new era of drinking history.

On Thursday, March 29, the Telluride Historical Museum will celebrate the town’s colorful vice with a Historic Pub Crawl, a four stop tour of Telluride’s most raucous haunts.

The Crawl starts with a beer at the Telluride Historical Museum. Next slosh back beers and pizza at The Last Dollar Saloon (historically, the National Club); tour the Sheridan Opera House and Vaudeville Bar; and finish at the Sacred and Holy New Sheridan Bar. All the while, special guests illuminate the long forgotten characters, stories and traditions of Telluride’s pioneer drinkers.

Tickets include a guided tour and beer stein with historic image. Drinks (accept for the first one, at the museum) are not included. Hangovers are on the house!

IF YOU GO:
RSVP in advance!
$35 tickets
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“MUSEUM ANNOUNCES NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ”

Telluride, Colorado (March 22, 2012) – The Telluride Historical Museum today announced the hire of Erica Kinias as Executive Director effective April 1, 2012. Kinias will be replacing Lauren Bloemsma who recently resigned after holding the top post at the museum since April of 2005.

Kinias most recently served as Programs and Grants Manager for the Arizona Humanities Council and has held positions with the Chiddingstone Castle in Kent, England and at the Museum of London. She served as Board Secretary for the Central Arizona Museum Association and as an oral history transcriber and archivist. She has Masters Degree in Museum Studies from the University College London, and an undergraduate degree in History from Arizona State University.

“Kinias is a museum professional with a passion for community outreach,” said museum Board President, Deborah Freedman. “Lauren has set the museum on a great path and laid the groundwork for a smooth transition. Erica is a leader with the strength and vision to steer the museum forward and to the next level.”

Kinias and her husband, Thanasis, will relocate from Arizona, where Mr. Kinias teaches World History at a community college in Phoenix.

When Kinias first visited the Telluride Historical Museum, she felt immediately at home. In fact, she may even have discovered a distant relative in one of Telluride’s most famous residents: L. L. Nunn, a mine owner instrumental in bringing AC current electricity to Telluride. “We’re looking through our family tree,” said Kinias, whose maiden name is Nunn.

Kinias has worked for small museums before. For two years she managed an impressive and diverse collection of Egyptian artifacts; Japanese art and armor; medieval and early modern Buddhist art; and early British paintings and manuscripts at a country house museum in a community with only 17 people.

When Kinias visited Telluride during the interview process, she took the opportunity to ask around about the museum. “Complete strangers opened up to me. They all had wonderful things to say,” she said.

“Museums are magical. They connect people’s everyday lives with the past. I am honored to work with the museum’s talented and dedicated staff and board to share Telluride’s colorful past,” said Kinias.

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“TELLURIDE UNEARTHED LECTURE FEATURES AUTHOR OF GROUND BREAKING BOOK”

The Telluride Historical Museum, Pinhead Institute and the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center collaborate to shed new light on Ancestral Pueblo Indians with author, Scott Ortman.

San Miguel County, Colorado (March 20, 2012,) – If you follow the Dolores River, not far from Telluride, you’ll eventually find yourself at the heart of one of the world’s greatest archaeological areas: The Mesa Verde region of southwestern Colorado. Inhabited by American Indians for centuries—indeed millennia—this region has the highest concentration of archaeological sites anywhere in United States. The true identity of the ancient people of Mesa Verde and where they went when they migrated from the region at the end of the 13th century remained one of the enduring mysteries of world archaeology. Until now.

“Winds From the North,” a new book—and subject of Thursday’s Telluride Unearthed lecture, by anthropologist Scott Ortman—uncovers that great mystery.

Ortman’s book—according to Dr. Mark Varien, Research and Education Chair at Crow Canyon Archaeological Center— “is the most talked about new research in Southwestern archaeology in a long time.”

Thursday’s lecture will center on Ortman’s research, specifically a problem that has been baffling archaeologist for almost 100 years: What is the relationship between ancient Pueblo Indians and the present day Pueblo Indians of New Mexico and Arizona?

For tens of thousand years, Pueblo people lived in the four corners area, just outside of Telluride, in the 13th century, within a generation, the entire society collapsed and all the villages were vacated. Ortman points out that while many areas around the Southwest had populations that appear to have grown at the same time the pueblos of the four corners were being abandoned, the buildings and artifacts in the growing communities don’t show strong connections to those of the Mesa Verde region.

“The mystery has been how to account for the patterns that don’t add up,” said Ortman, who delved into Pueblo languages, oral traditions, biological variation and a variety of archaeological data sets to bring some order to the confusing mass of evidence.

Ortman said the most satisfying aspect of his work was his time talking with contemporary Pueblo people.

“Pueblo people have very strong and consistent ideas on how they came to be, and they do seem to be reflecting on events that happened in the 13th century in the four corners, it’s just the archaeological evidence doesn’t map onto those stories directly. The key to the puzzle of my work was to reconcile what the Pueblo people have been saying all along and what archaeologists believe based on the archaeological record of these events,” said Ortman.

Varien said, “both archaeologists American Indians are really excited about the new findings in the book,” which will be available for sale at Thursday’s Lecture.

Ortman is the Lightfoot Fellow at Crow Canyon Archaeological Center and the Omidyar Fellow at the Santa Fe Institute. Ortman is the only scholar currently integrating historical linguistics, human biology, archaeology, and oral tradition to better-understand the histories of non-literate societies.

The Telluride Unearthed lecture will be held at 6p.m. at the Telluride Historical Museum. Admission is $5. For more information, telluridemuseum.org.

The Telluride Unearthed Lecture Series is a product of the Telluride Historical Museum’s partnership with the Pinhead Institute and the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center.

Caption: Scott Ortman, Lightfoot Fellow at Crow Canyon Archaeological Center and the Omidyar Fellow at the Santa Fe Institute, will host a Telluride Unearthed lecture at the Museum on Thursday. His new book has been described as “the most talked about new research in Southwestern archaeology in a long time.”

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SCRAPPLE IS ABOUT YOU
The Telluride Historical Museum hosts annual screening of a cult classic film set in Telluride

Telluride, Colorado (March 13, 2012)-- Life in Telluride is not completely unlike the movies. Consider the script in 1891, when the town (the first in the world) became illuminated by AC electricity. Or, a few years earlier, when a kid named Butch made off with $24,000 from a local bank. Imagine too the colorful cast at Popcorn Alley, town’s legendary Red-Light District.

On Thursday, March 15, the Telluride Historical Museum will host a special screening of “Scrapple,” a feature length film "New York Times Magazine" described as “Babe on Acid.”

Shot in under a month in 1996, “Scrapple” pokes at old-timers, realtors and drug selling ski bums in the 1970’s fictional town of Telluride, err, Ajax. The film includes familiar faces, including Ashley Boling, Bradley Blackwell, Ken “Striker” Grodberg and Christopher Hansen. Hansen, along with his brother, Geoffrey Hansen and George Plamondon wrote the film, which was inspired by a short story by another local, Sean McNamara.

For a dose of the stranger-than-fiction history of the 1970’s, pick up a copy of the museum’s new journal, “Telluride Tales,” an exploration of the decade that saw the birth of a ski resort and the death of mining.

The journal, just like the film, features a hodgepodge of young people trying to make their own way; trust funders burning money and time; real-estate entrepreneurs; old-timers; outlaws; drunks; pretty girls; and of course, a hippie hating Town Marshall.

Thursday's screening of “Scrapple” is a fundraiser for the museum. Tickets are $10 and the show starts at 9p.m.

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HISTORIC SKI TOURS OFFER UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE
More than a host, Johnnie Stevens is the attraction

Telluride, Colorado (January 11, 2012) – “Who here has ever had trouble getting to Telluride?” Johnnie Stevens asked a captive audience at a recent Historic Ski Tour.

Stevens was on his way to make one his favorite points: the more things change, the more they stay the same.

He executed the parody flawlessly—with an anecdote about a woman, 100 years ago, who finally arrives in Telluride, by train, in a condition she didn’t start off in: on the verge of childbirth.

Stevens is well-suited to share Telluride’s story. A life-time local, Stevens grew up skiing town's only rope tow, powered a car engine. With time, Billy “Senior” Mahoney, 20 years his elder, would call Stevens’ parents to ask if their son could ski the back country with him.

“Johnnie Stevens is more than the host of the tours,” said Lauren Bloemsma, executive director of the Telluride Historical Museum, “he is the attraction.”

When the resort opened in 1972, Stevens was called on, along with Mahoney, to take on lead roles. Eventually Stevens would serve as Chief Operation Officer and in 2004 he was inducted into the Colorado Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame.

Historic Ski Tours are sponsored by the museum and The Peaks Resort and Spa. They’re free to the public, with a lift ticket, and leave The Peaks ski in/out location at 10 a.m. Tours are offered nearly every Monday. Tours last two hours and cover intermediate terrain.

IF YOU GO:
Most Mondays
10a.m.
Meet at The Peaks
RSVP 970-728-3344x 2

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MUSEUM HOSTS TRAVELING EXHIBIT
The Telluride Historical Museum celebrates agricultural life, art and regional traditional artists.

Telluride, Colorado (February 07, 2012) – Harvest of Heritage, Colorado Masterpieces: Celebrating Agricultural Life and Art, an exhibit honoring over two dozen of Colorado’s master traditional artists, will open at the Telluride Historical Museum on February 16 with a special reception for museum members.

The exhibit has traveled across the state and was even displayed at the Colorado State Fair.

Harvest of Heritage includes wheat art, leather and rawhide braiding, Mexican fabric art, woodcarving, Japanese paper art and ornamental iron work. An interpretive display features photographs and information about those and many other art forms including stained glass work, quilt making, painting and weaving. All of the featured artists have links to Colorado’s rich agricultural heritage and their stories bring our state’s history to life.

Having met the highest standards of the Colorado Creative Industries’ Cultural Heritage Program, many of the featured artists have been awarded state grants and fellowships to help them preserve, present, and celebrate their traditional art forms. Two have received the National Endowment for the Arts’ highest honor for our nation’s tradition bearers, and many serve as master artists passing on skills and knowledge to the next generation of apprentices.

The exhibit also includes photos and information about projects—supported through Colorado Creative Industries’ various grant programs—which contribute to the preservation and promotion of Colorado’s cultural heritage.

In attendance for the Exhibit Opening will be Ronna Lee Sharp, the exhibit’s curator and one of Colorado’s three regional folklorists.

Harvest of Heritage is presented by Colorado Creative Industries, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts American Masterpieces Program and created and toured by the Museum of Western Colorado.

Harvest of Heritage will be on display until the museum closes at the end of the ski season.

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39 YEARS OF THE SKI RESORT CELEBRATED
Greg Stump’s long-awaited final cut of “Legend of Aahhh’s,” to premiere.

Telluride, Colorado (January 31, 2012) - The Sheridan Arts Foundation, Telluride Historical Museum, Bootdoctors and Travis Julia Presents will celebrate the Telluride Ski Resort’s 39th anniversary, at the Sheridan Opera House, on February 9 and 10 with two nights of special guests and world premieres, including a highly anticipated debut of a Greg Stump original ski film.

The first of the two premieres will debut “Super Cut: 39 Years of Telluride in Ski Movies,” an epic montage of ski footage shot in and around Telluride, vintage commercials and movie scenes featuring locals. Dean Rolley, Telluride’s resident Audio Visual guru, has spent months splicing together footage along with local ski film icon Scott Kennett and Travis Julia.

“We’re going to unveil some really good stuff, including the Winter Olympic Visa commercials; three different beer commercials and an MTV video featuring Roudy Roudebush as a pilot and a cameo from Ruby the mountain lion,” said Rolley.

Films featured in “Super Cut,” include a spattering of Warren Miller classics; “Scrapple,” a fictional story set in Telluride; and Greg Stump’s “The Good, The Rad, and The Gnarly,” “Maltese Flamingo,” and “Blizzard of Aahhh’s.”

Rolley, who boasts an impressive library of his own, received additional gems from the archives of Scott Ransom and Tim Territo.

Kennett, famous for skiing in films alongside his dog Zudnick, and Stump, who helped put the ski resort on the map, will be in attendance to introduce segments.

The following night, February 10, Stump will unveil his long-awaited, semi-autobiographical “Legend of Aahhh’s.”

Stump is best known for his 1988 flick, “Blizzard of Aahhh’s,” which prominently featured Telluride and was voted “Number One Ski Film of All Time,” by the Ski Channel and Skiing Magazine.

Stump’s films are widely credited for moving ski films from the documentary genre and into the action film genre.

“Blizzard of Aahhh’s” started it all!” said Travis Julia. “It was not only the first glimpse of extreme skiing, but a window into the future of skiing movies.”

Twenty five years after his breakthrough film, Stump returns to his stomping grounds to explore the history of ski film—from Leni Riefenstahl’s first ski movie in the 1930's through today’s sponsor-drenched, high-definition thrillers—and document the influence the genre has had on big-mountain skiing, pop culture, and the birth of the extreme sports movement.

With interviews from Warren Miller, Dick Barrymore, Otto Lang, John Jay and Klaus Obermeyer, paired with ski turns from Scot Schmidt, Glen Plake, Mike Hattrup, Lynne Wieland, and others; Stump’s latest film promises to shed new light on the evolution of skiing and ski film production.

And with a soundtrack from Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real—that’s Willie Nelson's 22 year-old prodigal son and his ripping band—Fort Knox Five, and Bran Van 3000, "Legend" is in a genre of its own.

Tickets are $15 a piece per night and benefit the Sheridan Arts Foundation and Telluride Historical Museum. Shows are general admission, and all ages are welcome. Tickets can be purchased online at sheridanoperahouse.com or by calling the Sheridan Opera House box office at 970.728.6363 x5.

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THE ROOTS OF MODERN CIVILIZATION, IN OUR BACKYARD

Telluride Historical Museum and Pinhead Institute offer lecture on Mesa Verde’s Neolithic Revolution

Telluride, Colorado (January 16, 2012) – Perhaps the world’s best documented case of the Neolithic Revolution, which marked the shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture—possibly the most important transformation in human history—can be found in our own backyard: southwestern Colorado’s Mesa Verde region.

On Thursday, the Telluride Historical Museum and Pinhead Institute will host a Telluride Unearthed lecture exploring the roots of modern civilization in the Mesa Verde Region.

During the vast majority of our time on earth, humans subsisted by hunting wild animals and collecting wild plants. About 10,000 years ago, people created the first domesticated foods. Agriculture developed independently in places like Papua New Guinea, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas, and specifically at Mesa Verde, where maize farming was introduced.

Dr. Mark Varien, Chair of Research and Education at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center in Cortez, Colorado, will host the lecture. His work in the Mesa Verde region dates back to 1979.

“The Pueblo Indians are some of the world’s most innovative and resilient societies,” said Varien.

The Crow Canyon Archaeological Center has conducted research into the deep history of Pueblo peoples since its founding in 1983. The origins of Pueblo society in the Mesa Verde region is the focus of the Center’s newest research initiative: The Basketmaker Communities Project, a multi-year excavation project focused on a dense concentration of sites dating to the Basketmaker III period (A.D. 600 – 725).

“We’ll be discussing the era when the first public architecture—great kivas—were invented. These buildings were used for community activities rather than domestic activities,” said Varien.

The Center’s plans include excavations at the Dillard Site, the location of the only known great kiva in the Mesa Verde region.

Varien will speak about the project, share what deep Pueblo Indian history is being uncovered and discuss what the new research tells us about the Neolithic Revolution.

Telluride Unearthed is a collaborative lecture series intended to illuminate history through the lens of science. 2012 marks the seven years of collaboration between the museum and the Pinhead Institute.

The lecture begins at 6p.m., at the museum. Admission is $5. For more information visit telluridemuseum.org.

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CRAWL BACK IN TIME
The Telluride Historical Museum presents a Historic Pub Crawl.

Telluride, Colorado (January 9, 2012)– During Telluride’s most raucous era—around the turn of the last century—there was an unwritten rule that required a woman to enter through the side service door at the New Sheridan where she would then be held, in a waiting parlour, until her date was ready to dine.

Other Sheridan rules—Don’t shoot the Pianist!—were posted in plain site.

Throughout prohibition, it wasn’t uncommon for as much as nine tons of sugar to come through town without any of it making it to a grocery store. Telluride Whiskey, after all, was in high demand, even as far away as New York, or so claimed some proud Moonshiners.

During another infamous chapter in Telluride’s liquid history—the1970’s—the Gypsy Moon Saloon (today’s Fly Me to the Moon) boasted a full bar with a laundry-mat to boot.

On Thursday, the Telluride Historical Museum, with help from Telluride Theatre, will illuminate the town’s liquid history with a four-stop tour of Telluride’s most infamous haunts.

The Crawl kicks off with a free beer at the Telluride Historical Museum. Afterward, revisit the decade that gave birth to the ski bum at the Fly Me to the Moon Saloon; tour the Sheridan Opera House, from the basement bath-house to the top level Vaudeville Bar; and finish at the New Sheridan Bar to discover the sacred and holy battleground of the Western Federation of Miners. All the while, special guests bring to life the long forgotten characters, stories and traditions of Telluride’s pioneer drinkers.

Tickets include a guided tour and beer stein with historic image. Drinks (accept the first one, at the museum) are not included. Hangovers are on the house!

RSVP: 728-3344x2 or email beth@telluridemuseum.org.

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MUSEUM DIRECTOR RESIGNS
Lauren Bloemsma to Move On after Putting the Museum on the Map

Telluride, Colorado (December 26, 2011) – When Lauren Bloemsma came to interview for the Executive Director position at the Telluride Historical Museum, she brought with her a Power Point presentation titled: Putting the Museum on the Map.

That was seven years ago.

This week the museum announced Bloemsma’s resignation, which she tendered earlier this month, and the search for the next director.

In the years since Bloemsma was hired, the museum has seen a 60% growth in admissions; 67% increase in membership; a 200% boost in education outreach; and over 250% more attendees at museum programs.

Bloemsma is quick to demur, pointing to staff, a committed membership, a hard working Board of Directors, even national trends as reasons for the success. It’s easy to see, Bloemsma is modest.

Bloemsma’s hard-working, nose-to-the-grindstone principals—her staff knows her to work both late nights and weekends from home—are very likely the source of the museum’s success, but it may also be the driving force behind her resignation.

Being the face of a beloved institution could be an exhausting task even for the most extroverted leader. Walk with Bloemsma down Colorado Ave. and you might note: she knows most everyone by name. She’s often wont to stop and ask a few questions. “Good deal,” she’ll say before turning on her heel toward, more often than not, the museum. It would seem the whole town is her office.

When the ski resort opened in the 1970’s, it brought new blood to town, “Long Hairs,” as they were sometimes called. Tensions from the transitional decade still lingered into 2005 when Bloemsma took on the role of protecting, preserving and sharing the town’s history. Bloemsma is credited with restoring relationships with long-time locals—whose ties to the region go back to the mining era, sometimes four or five generations—and bringing subsequent waves of residents into the fold.

“She’s given so much. It’s such a vital place now,” said Vicki Eidsmo, secretary of the museum Board of Directors and third generation Tellurider. “She’s worked tirelessly to make this organization accessible and open to everyone in the community.

For Bloemsma, What’s Next? could have been the final slide of her PowerPoint presentation. “The museum is today exactly where I envisioned it seven years ago. I’m very proud of our museum, and I’m looking forward to continuing my support as a member. I’m also looking forward to new challenges and more time to explore hobbies and other interests,” she said.

Assistant Director, Beth Roberts has worked with Lauren for nearly three years, “She’s leaving on top. You have to admire that,” she said.

“Whoever we select will have the incredible opportunity of building on the foundation of the many accomplishments of Lauren’s tenure as Director,” said Jim Tharp, head of the museum’s Search Committee for Bloemsma’s replacement.

Those accomplishments include the digitization of the museum’s vast photo collection; the publication of Images of America, Telluride; the research and display of the Telluride Blanket, the museum’s most prized artifact; a documentary movie on skiing; the introduction of seasonal exhibits; Current History projects; exhibits at remote locations; accelerated collection of oral histories; broadened programming; staff growth to include collections, marketing and exhibit specialists; Heritage Fest; and this summer, the unveiling of a new outdoor mining exhibit, Hard Rocks, Rough Lives, and the Amphitheatre education area.

On the desktop of every museum computer is a digital folder, home to a network of files, called “New Regime,” a hangover name from Bloemsma’s very first days at the museum when she was instituting protocol for all procedures and processes. New Regime contains everything from forms, photos, and event planning tools to the attendance database—all organized for optimum efficiency. To museum staff, New Regime seems less a file name than way of life.

“The structure she’s provided the staff has allowed us the autonomy to accomplish so much. Her infrastructure will live on. It’s her leadership we will really miss,” said Roberts.

As for the new, New Regime? Bloemsma will retain her position through March and will aid in the transition. The Search Committee is looking for an energetic, community-focused and creative individual for the position. Preference will be given to applicants holding a degree in museum studies, arts administration or related fields. A minimum five years work experience in museums and or non-profit management is required. The committee is accepting qualified applications through January 23.

More information about the position. The Committee asks for no calls, please.

No matter who the new director is, thanks to Bloemsma, they won’t need a map to find the museum.

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Cameo Hoyle
Director of Programs and Interpretation
970-728-3344x4
cameo@telluridemuseum.org