Historical Tours and Museums
Guided Historic Walking Tour
Take a tour through Breckenridge’s Nationally Recognized Historic District. See the buildings that housed the hotels, dancehalls and saloons in early-day Breckenridge as well as the town’s earliest residences. Along the way, hear stories about the gold seekers, women, rough individuals and other hardy souls who lived in Breckenridge more than 100 years ago. Allow 90 minutes to complete the tour.
Reservations are not required. Tours begin at the Breckenridge Welcome Center at 203 S. Main St.
Tours: Tuesday – Sunday at 11:00 a.m.
$10 per person/$5 for children 12 and under. $25 family of four.
Breckenridge Welcome Center
Part information center, part historical museum, the 4,000 sq. ft. Breckendridge Welcome Center opened the summer of 2006. Built around a 19th Century log cabin, which was likely someone’s home, was fully exposed and renovated so the public can walk along the same floorboards and run their hands along the same hand-hewn beams that miners touched more than a century ago. The cabin has now become an interpretive museum featuring displays on life in Breckenridge in the 1880s. The Breckenridge Welcome Center also includes multimedia displays highlighting the town’s history from its days as an Indian settlement to a gold-mining mecca to Victorian ski village.
Barney Ford House Museum
The Barney Ford House Museum honors Barney L. Ford, an escaped slave who prospered and became a prominent entrepreneur and black civil rights leader in Colorado. In 1880, Ford became Breckenridge’s first black businessman when he opened Ford’s Restaurant & Chophouse.
The Barney Ford House Museum was built in 1882 for Ford, his wife Julia and their three children. Today, the museum has been restored to its original Victorian style and each room in the home is dedicated to a different part of Ford’s life.
Current Hours: Tuesday – Sunday 11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Located at 111 E. Washington Ave., ½ block off Main St.
Free admission; $5 suggested donation.
Edwin Carter Museum
Edwin Carter came to Breckenridge in 1868 seeking gold and fortune, but his goals changed when he saw the destruction mining inflicted upon the local wildlife and environment. Carter became a taxidermist and collected thousands of Rocky Mountain animal specimens in his museum. Carter’s collection eventually formed the foundation of today’s Denver Museum of Nature & Science. In May 2009, a fifteen-month-long rehabilitation was completed on Carter’s 1875 museum. You are now invited to take an interactive journey into the life of Breckenridge’s famous log cabin naturalist.
Current Hours: Tuesday – Sunday 11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Located at 111 N. Ridge St.
Free admission; $5 suggested donation
Mountain Top Children's Museum
This engaging children's museum offers exhibits, camps and workshops year-round for kids of all ages.
Valley Brook Cemetery
The first cemetery in Breckenridge was just southwest of the Broken Lance Road/State Highway 9 intersection at the south end of town. All but one of those early graves,that of Baby Eberlein, were moved to Valley Brook Cemetery in 1882. In 1997, the infant girl’s grave was moved next to the graves of her mother and brother in the Masonic section of the cemetery.
Washington Gold Mine
In the mid 1880s the Washington Mine was one of the area’s largest underground mines, with more than 10,000 feet of underground workings. Today, the Washington Mine interpretive site shows visitors first hand the methods, equipment, lifestyles and hardships of the hard rock mining era in Summit County. On your tour, you will walk underground for a first-hand mining experience. Learn to gold pan on site. Great for the kids! What you find is yours to keep!
Reservations are not required.
Located at 465 Illinois Gulch Rd.
Tours Tuesday - Sunday at 1:00 p.m.
$10 per person/$5 per children 12 and under/$25 family of four.
Tickets may be purchased on site or in advance at the Breckenridge Welcome Center gift shop.
Lomax Placer Mine
The Lomax Placer Mine, located near Breckenridge’s downtown, was an active surface mine in the 1860s. Let one of our guides take you back in time to Breckenridge’s early mining days. At the current interpretive site, visitors can peer inside a miner’s cabin, see and feel the original mining equipment and learn to pan for gold. Great for the kids! What you find is yours to keep! Reservations are not required. Closed for the season. Open mid-June to the end of September, weather dependent.
Located at 301 Ski Hill Rd.
Tours Tuesday – Sunday at 3:00 p.m.
$10 per person/$5 per children 12 and under/$25 family of four.
Tickets may be purchased on site or in advance at the Breckenridge Welcome Center gift shop.
Iowa Hill Tours
Enjoy a guided snowshoe that goes through a historic, hydraulic mining site and up to the restored miners’ boardinghouse. Along the way, mining relics and interpretive signs tell the story of Iowa Hill and how gold was extracted from the surrounding hills. The snowshoe is one mile in length on a well-maintained trail. Please allow 90 minutes to complete the tour.
Tours Saturday at 10:00 a.m.
$10 per person/$5 per children 12 and under/$25 family of four.
Trailhead located on Airport Rd. north of Public Works.
Tickets may be purchased on site or in advance at the Breckenridge Welcome Center gift shop.
Rotary Snowplow Park
In the years before there were snowplows as we know them, there were rotary snowplows. Using giant, snow-blowing blades, these huge machines cleared narrow gauge railroad tracks by throwing snow 30 feet to either side. Today, visitors at the Rotary Snowplow Park can see a rotary snowplow on display and learn about Breckenridge’s railroad history in the park museum.
Hours: Open mid-June to the end of September, weather dependent.
Located on Boreas Pass Rd. next to the Ice Rink.
Free; $5 suggested donation.
Red, White and Blue Fire House Museum
The threat of a major fire, accentuated by an occasional small blaze, was the reason for the formation of the all-volunteer Breckenridge Fire Department in 1880. The department soon boasted three companies and collectively they were called The Red White & Blue Volunteer Fire Department. The Fire Museum displays an original human-powered ladder cart, a restored hose cart as well as fire fighting equipment and uniforms from the first companies.
Hours: Saturday and Sunday 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Located at 308 N. Main St.
Free; $5 suggested donation.
