Hello Everyone,
Sometimes you find attractions that are gems in small towns. Montrose, Colorado has one of those at the Museum of the Mountain West. Ranked runner up in the top ten western museums in the United State, it deserves the honor for two reasons: its authenticity and making sure everyone receives a guided tour. Plan on spending a full day here as we quickly discovered the three hours we spent were not enough.
The museum collection of 500,000 artifacts was started by its owner Richard Fike. Raised in Nebraska, he spent time as a youth in Alaska since his father worked on the Alcan Highway. When he was four, in 1944, he found his first item, a rusted, ten inch tall, mother of pearl inlaid clock dated August 1898. It had been cleaned during the Klondike Gold Rush. He threw a small tantrum and refused to get back on the boat without it. It can still be found in his home’s china cabinet.
Richard had his first museum in Valparaiso, Nebraska when he was eight years old. By age ten, he had read all of his father’s paleontology books. At the age of 12, he visited Mesa Verde and decided to become an archaeologist. He had a career for 30 years working for the Bureau of Land Management in that profession. He worked with the National Park Service in at such places as Sand Creek, Little Bighorn Battlefield (Custer’s Last Stand), and the Smithsonian. He helped create Phoenix, Arizona’s Pioneer Village.
In 1979, he purchased many buildings in Ridgeway, Colorado in the hopes of establishing a museum. That is the town where the film “True Grit” with John Wayne was filmed in 1968. Not being successful, he purchased property near Montrose, Colorado where he established a non-profit museum in 2005.
Presently there are about 28 buildings, mostly original stores and homes.
The main building consists of ten stores and two storefronts. These include two dental offices and two doctors' offices representing different time periods. After touring this building, spend time at the many exterior structures. These include a 1913 German Lutheran Church and a 1889 schoolhouse.
His wife, Carol Harris-Fike, is a life coach. She is the educational director for the museum.
THE MAIN BUILDING
FURMAN’S PHARMACY
The pharmacy was named after Dick Furman who volunteered at the museum for nine to ten years almost daily. Its 1908 counters came from a drugstore in Sheboygan, Wisconsin and graced a drugstore in Olathe, Kansas. The ceiling is almost identical to that pharmacy’s, but came from a House of Ill Repute - Ma Zaller’s in Cumberland, Wyoming outside of Evanston, Wyoming.
At this store, Richard showed us what he touts as the largest collection of patent medicines on display in this country. In 1751, John Day of Philadelphia was the first company to market medicines wholesale. Between 1850 and 1860, the United States government issued 55,000 to 60,000 patents for medicines. Almost all were false cures since anything could be bottled. Before 1906, if you purchased sugar water, it had opiates. You could even buy cocaine over the counter. In 1909, the Food and Drug Administration passed a law where medications had to state what they could cure on the label.
Richard pointed out several products including Kickapoo Indian Sagwa, a cure all, whose company was one of the sponsors of Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show. Granny White’s Remedy was a douche made of ground up cow ovaries. Cooper’s New Discovery was a medicine developed to pass tapeworms. Tapeworms were great for losing weight.
Larger pharmacies usually had soda fountains. Fresh tobacco overwhelmed the smell of medicine.
MINER’S DELIGHT SALOON
Next he took us to the 1890's saloon. He pointed out the bison head, circa 1888/89 on the wall. In 1850/1860 there were 50 to 60 million of this animal. By 1890, they were down to a few hundred. The bison were an American Indian staple that we destroyed. There are now less than 400,000 with only 15,000 in the wild today.
It has an 1858 rebuilt bar from a stop at the Nevada/Utah border that was associated with the Pony Express and stage coach run between Salt Lake City and Ely, Nevada.
The highlights, however, are the unique musical instruments housed in this room. He has one of 200 to 400 surviving Mills Violano Virtuosos which he demonstrated. It has an electric violin and plays a piano mechanism with paper rolls. It was by Mills Slot Machine Company in Chicago. Richard demonstrated this for us.
He also played for us an 1889 Calliope music box. Other instruments housed here are a 1855 Martin guitar, a 1890 banjo that was his grandfather’s, and his father’s 1920's saxophone.
He pointed out the 1908 pool table that had been in his grandfather’s home in 1924. It had originally been a snooker table and was converted to a regulation pool table. The saloon also had a couple of games of chance. Its 1870's water cooler had a doughnut looking tray full of gravel. The gravel acted as a filter when you poured water into it.
In a back room, he pointed out that his father, Ronnie Fike, had his own orchestra prior to World War II. Large posters of big band performers such as his father, Cab Calloway, and Earl Gardner line a wall.
1885 DENTAL OFFICE
The museum has three dental offices, two of which are on display. Our next stop was the 1885 Anthony Hoag dental office. If you wanted the ethyl chloride which would deaden the area for a short time, it cost $.50 to work on your teeth. Without that drug, it was $.25.
He pointed out the dental lab with its false teeth. All false teeth until World War II were composed of rubber. Plastics came out in the 1930's and became popular during the war. The museum exhibits rubber and porcelain dentures as well as the colors that match the teeth. The drill came out of a Telluride dental office.
SCHMIDT’S CASH STORE
We then visited the 1880's Schmidt cash store. His grandfather and great-grandfather had bought a grocery store in Valparaiso, Nebraska in 1922 and turned it into a dry goods/general merchandise store. This town is where Richard had his first museum.
The cash register and pendulum clock were in their store. The clock was made between 1887 and 1896 when the company went out of business. These time pieces were offered free to merchants. Originally, people put kerosene in the clock to oil it. Today, they use cotton balls with rubbing alcohol.
Many of the bottles with condiments in the store are original. Several have reproduction labels from Leadville dating from 1878 to 1853. A man found them under a home and was able to put the pieces together and copy them. Richard obtained a set from him.
The original post office, now in this store, used to be across the street from Schmidt’s Store. On Christmas in 1965, Richard rescued the post office from a pond on the Martin Farm in Valpraiso by chipping it out of the ice. It had two windows - one for telegraph and packages and the other for stamps and mail.
In the back room, visitors find bulk storage supplies and an old safe. The safe was from Ridgeway Mercantile. The store sold feed, grain, and pottery - a little bit of everything.
At this point in our tour, Mike Ackerman, the museum’s assistant director, took over. He was delightful. It was easy to tell that his background was in theater due to the stories he told and the way he told them on the rest of our tour.
HOLLAND’S DRY GOODS STORE
We saw the Holland’s Dry Goods Store which was from Delta, Colorado. The counters were used in Delta but made in Montrose in 1902.
Mike mentioned that shirt collars were separate items from the shirts. Sleeves were big and full so all size men could wear them. They had garters to gather up the loose slack in these sleeves if men were smaller.
All kinds of hats made from straw, felt, and beaver are displayed. Silk and felt hats replaced beaver which slowed that animal’s trade. The collapsible opera hat could be taken off of one’s head, flattened, and put on the shelf under the seat at a theater. Then it was popped up again and taken home.
Mike spoke about women’s hair, grown to their waist and kept long to make extensions. When extensions weren’t needed, the women sold their hair to wigmakers. Two of the cutoff braids belonged to Richard’s grandmother. One of these was wrapped in a 1927 newspaper. She cut them off when bobbed hair became popular during the 1920's Flapper era.
The women cut worn clothing to make clothes for the children, quilts, and rugs. Earl remembered that being done since his grandmother made braided rugs.
1944 DENTAL OFFICE
The museum has tried to replicate this office as much as possible. It had running water and an electric drill that was driven by belts. Patients used to spit into a bowl. It houses a 1937 x-ray unit and a 1937 Zenith radio. In those days, dentists, like doctors, made house calls as they had portable drills.
TIME LINE OF CASES
Outside this office is a time line in various cases running from pre 1870 through the 1930's. The first case had conquistador stirrups from the 1570's and 1776 Continental money. It was money that was backed with a promised loan from Spain. Since it wasn’t backed with anything tangible, it was worthless.
The 1870 to 1900 case had photos of Buffalo Bill Cody and Sitting Bull. Sitting Bull would sign playing cards for $1 when people were making ten cents an hour. He then gave the money to a white man’s orphanage. They also have a book on Buffalo Bill.
The 1900 to 1930 case contains photos of Jack Dempsey (whose original name was Harry) and his gloves. He was a local boy from Montrose whose mother worked in a soup kitchen.
For the time period after 1930, a case holds a variety of radios that were pre 1940's. Another is full of early cameras. Mike told us about the one with the flask used during Prohibition Days. People would fill up the flask with alcohol, raise it to their face, and pretend they were shooting a photo.
CARRIAGE WORKS
This Montrose structure dates from 1895 when it was a blacksmith shop that sold Studebaker wagons. The ground floor contains all the equipment for a blacksmith. When a school group visits, they fire up the forge. It also contains wagon tire sizing equipment.
Its second floor is where Dempsey trained from 1912 through 1915. He had to use cleats to get up there as there were no outside stairs until later. The museum still has the remains of a ring.
One of his first fights was in downtown Montrose against the champion of the mining camps. Fighters went around the country and earned $100 if they won. Harry was just out of high school and challenged Andy Malloy, the champion. In the third round, Dempsey knocked Malloy out. The referee asked Dempsey his name and he said, “Jack” which is how he became Jack Dempsey. His mentor was another boxer named Jack Dempsey, no relation, and details about this Dempsey are lost to obscurity.
The building was located in downtown Montrose. They took the structure apart, moved it here, and then put it back together. “A lot of buildings that would have been burned were taken down and moved here,” said Mike. “Their original purpose was not always kept for the same building.”
GENERAL STORE
This was originally a horse barn. It was finished off inside and made into a store. The bean counter was a counter of beans, etc. where customers could ask for a pound or more. Women’s clothing is also exhibited.
It also served as the barber shop. Mugs on which are written names are displayed. Every person who used the barber had his own mug,
The barber used a straight razor. If an alleged criminal was getting a shave, under the cloth he might cock the hammer on his gun. Since the barber had a razor, they quickly came to an understanding.
They have a mourning cape from the Civil War from an Arkansas family. Mike said the family usually got a letter expressing regrets as the remains weren’t sent home.
STOTT HOTEL AND CLIPPER SALOON
The saloon was built to house the large 1890's bar made by J. T. Paulsen in Denver for the Clipper Saloon in Telluride. It was sold in 1986 to Tex’s, a bar, in Delta, Colorado. In 1990, the building housing the bar burned down, and the bar was all but destroyed. It sat for 20 years in an open shed. It took over a year for 20 volunteers to sand the badly scorched cherrywood bar and bring it back to life again.
The wallpaper is 1800's style. The museum had a visitor from York, Pennsylvania who had the oldest wallpaper supply company in the country. He sent the museum samples of the era and donated the paper.
Mike pointed out the bell that the hotel guests would ring for service. The device downstairs indicated which room was ringing.
They have many original liquor bottles with contents. On the wall is a Budweiser advertisement done in 1890 by Otto Becker, a painter of the Little Bighorn battle. Those prints ended up in saloons all over the west.
Poker, until the 1890's, was not as popular as the card games of farrow and monte. Cards did not originally have numbers on them. You could still recognize what had six or eight spades. The numbers came when card players held them in their hand. They have an original poker table on loan from the Telluride Historical Society. The museum's complete farrow layout, made in San Francisco, is very rare.
Miners had gold in a pouch instead of money. The bartender would ask how much credit they wanted. He would have a scale, rub his mustache to get the wax off of it, grab a pinch of gold and put it in the tray to weigh it. Over the day, he gathered quite a bit of gold in his mustache. He would comb his mustache to get the gold dust. A lot of gold would also sift down from the floor boards.
In the hotel office, they have a desk that survived the San Francisco earthquake in 1906. They also have United States government land deeds. One was signed by President Franklin Pierce and the other by President John Tyler. The papers have been laid out on a counter and covered with glass to protect them.
On the Land Office wall, visitors find a huge map displaying the United States territories before they became states. It reveals the original boundaries of Texas and shows that Florida once contained Mississippi and Louisiana.
LEE WONGS LAUNDRY
This structure was originally a local cabin. Mike informed us that the Chinese originally came over to work on the railroads. After the rail lines were completed, they worked in laundries, became cooks, or did other kitchen work.
Montrose once housed a laundry owned by a Mr. Wong. He was short and didn’t speak English very well. A prostitute came in to retrieve her laundry and passed out. Wong ran to the nearest business. When the businessman checked on her, he said, “Well you killed her.” He was kidding. Lee Wong left his business and belongings and was never heard from again. The businessman was fined $20 equivalent to $200 today.
1909 MONTGOMERY WARD BLUE PRINT WILLIAMS/DE JULIO HOME
Constructed from a 1909 Montgomery Ward blueprint kit, it was moved from the east end of Montrose, the Italian section of town. The back was added in 1928. The home has been restored as a 1929 exhibit.
Entering the home of plaster and lathe construction, you see a parlor, dining room, and bedroom. The dining room is beautifully decorated. Mike pointed out that ladies tea cups had a guard on top to keep the leaves out. The men’s mustache cups had mustache guards. The parlor has a piano. If you were a bachelor, having a piano attracted women. Picking out a wife who played well improved your social life because it drew parties to your house.
JUTTEN SCHOOL/TEACHERAGE
In 1883, the Fairview School was a half mile from the museum. It had a teacherage that was built in 1913 and closed in 1934. The teacher normally lived with a farmer's family. However, if they lived at least six miles from the school, the school board often provided them with a house called a teacherage. They were extremely rare.
The Jutten School, from eight or nine miles south of Montrose, was built in 1889. It opened in 1890 with 23 students and conducted classes from the first through the eighth grades. It closed in 1895 or 96 when they built another schoolhouse. It was painted red for two reasons: red paint was the cheapest and the easiest to see in a blizzard.
Inside, visitors spot a huge dictionary, an old typewriter, and a piano which the teacher knew how to play. They’ll also see old student desks with slates and books on them. In the earliest schools, they didn’t have blackboards. They used sand boxes and slate boards to write on.
There were no lady teachers until the Civil War. They signed a contract that if they married, they were fired. They couldn’t wear colorful clothes, had to wear two or three petticoats with dresses no higher than two inches above their ankles. They had to be at their quarters by 7:00 or 8:00 p.m. Going to ice cream parlors was prohibited since they might meet men there. This lasted until the 1930's.
DETAILS
My only regret is that three hours wasn’t enough time to explore all the buildings. We missed the 1913 German Lutheran Church, the Olathe Section House, and the Portland, Colorado Residence. Another I would like to see is the Montrose Railroad Depot with its collection of posters of all the movies filmed in Colorado such as Centennial and How the West Was Won. Fortunately, you can take an excellent video tour of the museum at their web site.
You will find the Museum of the Mountain West at 68169 Miami Road just outside of Montrose. Their telephone number is (970) 240-3400. Hours are Monday-Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Admission prices are $10 for adults and $5 for those under age 18. Plan on spending a full day there as you won’t want to miss anything.
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Sometimes you find attractions that are gems in small towns. Montrose, Colorado has one of those at the Museum of the Mountain West. Ranked runner up in the top ten western museums in the United State, it deserves the honor for two reasons: its authenticity and making sure everyone receives a guided tour. Plan on spending a full day here as we quickly discovered the three hours we spent were not enough.
The museum collection of 500,000 artifacts was started by its owner Richard Fike. Raised in Nebraska, he spent time as a youth in Alaska since his father worked on the Alcan Highway. When he was four, in 1944, he found his first item, a rusted, ten inch tall, mother of pearl inlaid clock dated August 1898. It had been cleaned during the Klondike Gold Rush. He threw a small tantrum and refused to get back on the boat without it. It can still be found in his home’s china cabinet.
Richard had his first museum in Valparaiso, Nebraska when he was eight years old. By age ten, he had read all of his father’s paleontology books. At the age of 12, he visited Mesa Verde and decided to become an archaeologist. He had a career for 30 years working for the Bureau of Land Management in that profession. He worked with the National Park Service in at such places as Sand Creek, Little Bighorn Battlefield (Custer’s Last Stand), and the Smithsonian. He helped create Phoenix, Arizona’s Pioneer Village.
In 1979, he purchased many buildings in Ridgeway, Colorado in the hopes of establishing a museum. That is the town where the film “True Grit” with John Wayne was filmed in 1968. Not being successful, he purchased property near Montrose, Colorado where he established a non-profit museum in 2005.
Presently there are about 28 buildings, mostly original stores and homes.
The main building consists of ten stores and two storefronts. These include two dental offices and two doctors' offices representing different time periods. After touring this building, spend time at the many exterior structures. These include a 1913 German Lutheran Church and a 1889 schoolhouse.
His wife, Carol Harris-Fike, is a life coach. She is the educational director for the museum.
THE MAIN BUILDING
FURMAN’S PHARMACY
The pharmacy was named after Dick Furman who volunteered at the museum for nine to ten years almost daily. Its 1908 counters came from a drugstore in Sheboygan, Wisconsin and graced a drugstore in Olathe, Kansas. The ceiling is almost identical to that pharmacy’s, but came from a House of Ill Repute - Ma Zaller’s in Cumberland, Wyoming outside of Evanston, Wyoming.
At this store, Richard showed us what he touts as the largest collection of patent medicines on display in this country. In 1751, John Day of Philadelphia was the first company to market medicines wholesale. Between 1850 and 1860, the United States government issued 55,000 to 60,000 patents for medicines. Almost all were false cures since anything could be bottled. Before 1906, if you purchased sugar water, it had opiates. You could even buy cocaine over the counter. In 1909, the Food and Drug Administration passed a law where medications had to state what they could cure on the label.
Richard pointed out several products including Kickapoo Indian Sagwa, a cure all, whose company was one of the sponsors of Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show. Granny White’s Remedy was a douche made of ground up cow ovaries. Cooper’s New Discovery was a medicine developed to pass tapeworms. Tapeworms were great for losing weight.
Larger pharmacies usually had soda fountains. Fresh tobacco overwhelmed the smell of medicine.
MINER’S DELIGHT SALOON
Next he took us to the 1890's saloon. He pointed out the bison head, circa 1888/89 on the wall. In 1850/1860 there were 50 to 60 million of this animal. By 1890, they were down to a few hundred. The bison were an American Indian staple that we destroyed. There are now less than 400,000 with only 15,000 in the wild today.
It has an 1858 rebuilt bar from a stop at the Nevada/Utah border that was associated with the Pony Express and stage coach run between Salt Lake City and Ely, Nevada.
The highlights, however, are the unique musical instruments housed in this room. He has one of 200 to 400 surviving Mills Violano Virtuosos which he demonstrated. It has an electric violin and plays a piano mechanism with paper rolls. It was by Mills Slot Machine Company in Chicago. Richard demonstrated this for us.
He also played for us an 1889 Calliope music box. Other instruments housed here are a 1855 Martin guitar, a 1890 banjo that was his grandfather’s, and his father’s 1920's saxophone.
He pointed out the 1908 pool table that had been in his grandfather’s home in 1924. It had originally been a snooker table and was converted to a regulation pool table. The saloon also had a couple of games of chance. Its 1870's water cooler had a doughnut looking tray full of gravel. The gravel acted as a filter when you poured water into it.
In a back room, he pointed out that his father, Ronnie Fike, had his own orchestra prior to World War II. Large posters of big band performers such as his father, Cab Calloway, and Earl Gardner line a wall.
1885 DENTAL OFFICE
The museum has three dental offices, two of which are on display. Our next stop was the 1885 Anthony Hoag dental office. If you wanted the ethyl chloride which would deaden the area for a short time, it cost $.50 to work on your teeth. Without that drug, it was $.25.
He pointed out the dental lab with its false teeth. All false teeth until World War II were composed of rubber. Plastics came out in the 1930's and became popular during the war. The museum exhibits rubber and porcelain dentures as well as the colors that match the teeth. The drill came out of a Telluride dental office.
SCHMIDT’S CASH STORE
We then visited the 1880's Schmidt cash store. His grandfather and great-grandfather had bought a grocery store in Valparaiso, Nebraska in 1922 and turned it into a dry goods/general merchandise store. This town is where Richard had his first museum.
The cash register and pendulum clock were in their store. The clock was made between 1887 and 1896 when the company went out of business. These time pieces were offered free to merchants. Originally, people put kerosene in the clock to oil it. Today, they use cotton balls with rubbing alcohol.
Many of the bottles with condiments in the store are original. Several have reproduction labels from Leadville dating from 1878 to 1853. A man found them under a home and was able to put the pieces together and copy them. Richard obtained a set from him.
The original post office, now in this store, used to be across the street from Schmidt’s Store. On Christmas in 1965, Richard rescued the post office from a pond on the Martin Farm in Valpraiso by chipping it out of the ice. It had two windows - one for telegraph and packages and the other for stamps and mail.
In the back room, visitors find bulk storage supplies and an old safe. The safe was from Ridgeway Mercantile. The store sold feed, grain, and pottery - a little bit of everything.
At this point in our tour, Mike Ackerman, the museum’s assistant director, took over. He was delightful. It was easy to tell that his background was in theater due to the stories he told and the way he told them on the rest of our tour.
HOLLAND’S DRY GOODS STORE
We saw the Holland’s Dry Goods Store which was from Delta, Colorado. The counters were used in Delta but made in Montrose in 1902.
Mike mentioned that shirt collars were separate items from the shirts. Sleeves were big and full so all size men could wear them. They had garters to gather up the loose slack in these sleeves if men were smaller.
All kinds of hats made from straw, felt, and beaver are displayed. Silk and felt hats replaced beaver which slowed that animal’s trade. The collapsible opera hat could be taken off of one’s head, flattened, and put on the shelf under the seat at a theater. Then it was popped up again and taken home.
Mike spoke about women’s hair, grown to their waist and kept long to make extensions. When extensions weren’t needed, the women sold their hair to wigmakers. Two of the cutoff braids belonged to Richard’s grandmother. One of these was wrapped in a 1927 newspaper. She cut them off when bobbed hair became popular during the 1920's Flapper era.
The women cut worn clothing to make clothes for the children, quilts, and rugs. Earl remembered that being done since his grandmother made braided rugs.
1944 DENTAL OFFICE
The museum has tried to replicate this office as much as possible. It had running water and an electric drill that was driven by belts. Patients used to spit into a bowl. It houses a 1937 x-ray unit and a 1937 Zenith radio. In those days, dentists, like doctors, made house calls as they had portable drills.
TIME LINE OF CASES
Outside this office is a time line in various cases running from pre 1870 through the 1930's. The first case had conquistador stirrups from the 1570's and 1776 Continental money. It was money that was backed with a promised loan from Spain. Since it wasn’t backed with anything tangible, it was worthless.
The 1870 to 1900 case had photos of Buffalo Bill Cody and Sitting Bull. Sitting Bull would sign playing cards for $1 when people were making ten cents an hour. He then gave the money to a white man’s orphanage. They also have a book on Buffalo Bill.
The 1900 to 1930 case contains photos of Jack Dempsey (whose original name was Harry) and his gloves. He was a local boy from Montrose whose mother worked in a soup kitchen.
For the time period after 1930, a case holds a variety of radios that were pre 1940's. Another is full of early cameras. Mike told us about the one with the flask used during Prohibition Days. People would fill up the flask with alcohol, raise it to their face, and pretend they were shooting a photo.
CARRIAGE WORKS
This Montrose structure dates from 1895 when it was a blacksmith shop that sold Studebaker wagons. The ground floor contains all the equipment for a blacksmith. When a school group visits, they fire up the forge. It also contains wagon tire sizing equipment.
Its second floor is where Dempsey trained from 1912 through 1915. He had to use cleats to get up there as there were no outside stairs until later. The museum still has the remains of a ring.
One of his first fights was in downtown Montrose against the champion of the mining camps. Fighters went around the country and earned $100 if they won. Harry was just out of high school and challenged Andy Malloy, the champion. In the third round, Dempsey knocked Malloy out. The referee asked Dempsey his name and he said, “Jack” which is how he became Jack Dempsey. His mentor was another boxer named Jack Dempsey, no relation, and details about this Dempsey are lost to obscurity.
The building was located in downtown Montrose. They took the structure apart, moved it here, and then put it back together. “A lot of buildings that would have been burned were taken down and moved here,” said Mike. “Their original purpose was not always kept for the same building.”
GENERAL STORE
This was originally a horse barn. It was finished off inside and made into a store. The bean counter was a counter of beans, etc. where customers could ask for a pound or more. Women’s clothing is also exhibited.
It also served as the barber shop. Mugs on which are written names are displayed. Every person who used the barber had his own mug,
The barber used a straight razor. If an alleged criminal was getting a shave, under the cloth he might cock the hammer on his gun. Since the barber had a razor, they quickly came to an understanding.
They have a mourning cape from the Civil War from an Arkansas family. Mike said the family usually got a letter expressing regrets as the remains weren’t sent home.
STOTT HOTEL AND CLIPPER SALOON
The saloon was built to house the large 1890's bar made by J. T. Paulsen in Denver for the Clipper Saloon in Telluride. It was sold in 1986 to Tex’s, a bar, in Delta, Colorado. In 1990, the building housing the bar burned down, and the bar was all but destroyed. It sat for 20 years in an open shed. It took over a year for 20 volunteers to sand the badly scorched cherrywood bar and bring it back to life again.
The wallpaper is 1800's style. The museum had a visitor from York, Pennsylvania who had the oldest wallpaper supply company in the country. He sent the museum samples of the era and donated the paper.
Mike pointed out the bell that the hotel guests would ring for service. The device downstairs indicated which room was ringing.
They have many original liquor bottles with contents. On the wall is a Budweiser advertisement done in 1890 by Otto Becker, a painter of the Little Bighorn battle. Those prints ended up in saloons all over the west.
Poker, until the 1890's, was not as popular as the card games of farrow and monte. Cards did not originally have numbers on them. You could still recognize what had six or eight spades. The numbers came when card players held them in their hand. They have an original poker table on loan from the Telluride Historical Society. The museum's complete farrow layout, made in San Francisco, is very rare.
Miners had gold in a pouch instead of money. The bartender would ask how much credit they wanted. He would have a scale, rub his mustache to get the wax off of it, grab a pinch of gold and put it in the tray to weigh it. Over the day, he gathered quite a bit of gold in his mustache. He would comb his mustache to get the gold dust. A lot of gold would also sift down from the floor boards.
In the hotel office, they have a desk that survived the San Francisco earthquake in 1906. They also have United States government land deeds. One was signed by President Franklin Pierce and the other by President John Tyler. The papers have been laid out on a counter and covered with glass to protect them.
On the Land Office wall, visitors find a huge map displaying the United States territories before they became states. It reveals the original boundaries of Texas and shows that Florida once contained Mississippi and Louisiana.
LEE WONGS LAUNDRY
This structure was originally a local cabin. Mike informed us that the Chinese originally came over to work on the railroads. After the rail lines were completed, they worked in laundries, became cooks, or did other kitchen work.
Montrose once housed a laundry owned by a Mr. Wong. He was short and didn’t speak English very well. A prostitute came in to retrieve her laundry and passed out. Wong ran to the nearest business. When the businessman checked on her, he said, “Well you killed her.” He was kidding. Lee Wong left his business and belongings and was never heard from again. The businessman was fined $20 equivalent to $200 today.
1909 MONTGOMERY WARD BLUE PRINT WILLIAMS/DE JULIO HOME
Constructed from a 1909 Montgomery Ward blueprint kit, it was moved from the east end of Montrose, the Italian section of town. The back was added in 1928. The home has been restored as a 1929 exhibit.
Entering the home of plaster and lathe construction, you see a parlor, dining room, and bedroom. The dining room is beautifully decorated. Mike pointed out that ladies tea cups had a guard on top to keep the leaves out. The men’s mustache cups had mustache guards. The parlor has a piano. If you were a bachelor, having a piano attracted women. Picking out a wife who played well improved your social life because it drew parties to your house.
JUTTEN SCHOOL/TEACHERAGE
In 1883, the Fairview School was a half mile from the museum. It had a teacherage that was built in 1913 and closed in 1934. The teacher normally lived with a farmer's family. However, if they lived at least six miles from the school, the school board often provided them with a house called a teacherage. They were extremely rare.
The Jutten School, from eight or nine miles south of Montrose, was built in 1889. It opened in 1890 with 23 students and conducted classes from the first through the eighth grades. It closed in 1895 or 96 when they built another schoolhouse. It was painted red for two reasons: red paint was the cheapest and the easiest to see in a blizzard.
Inside, visitors spot a huge dictionary, an old typewriter, and a piano which the teacher knew how to play. They’ll also see old student desks with slates and books on them. In the earliest schools, they didn’t have blackboards. They used sand boxes and slate boards to write on.
There were no lady teachers until the Civil War. They signed a contract that if they married, they were fired. They couldn’t wear colorful clothes, had to wear two or three petticoats with dresses no higher than two inches above their ankles. They had to be at their quarters by 7:00 or 8:00 p.m. Going to ice cream parlors was prohibited since they might meet men there. This lasted until the 1930's.
DETAILS
My only regret is that three hours wasn’t enough time to explore all the buildings. We missed the 1913 German Lutheran Church, the Olathe Section House, and the Portland, Colorado Residence. Another I would like to see is the Montrose Railroad Depot with its collection of posters of all the movies filmed in Colorado such as Centennial and How the West Was Won. Fortunately, you can take an excellent video tour of the museum at their web site.
You will find the Museum of the Mountain West at 68169 Miami Road just outside of Montrose. Their telephone number is (970) 240-3400. Hours are Monday-Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Admission prices are $10 for adults and $5 for those under age 18. Plan on spending a full day there as you won’t want to miss anything.
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Richard Fike
Furman's Pharmacy
Miner's Delight Saloon
Poster of Ronnie Fike, Band Leader, Who Was Richard's Father
One of the Two Dental Offices at the Museum
Schmidt's Cash Store
Holland's Dry Goods Store
Blacksmith Shop
Where Jack Dempsey Trained on the Second Floor
General Store
Mike Ackerman at the General Store
Barber Shop in General Store
Stott Hotel
Clipper Saloon in Stott Hotel
Lee Wong's Laundry
1909 Williams/De Julio Home
Parlor in the Home
Jutten School and the Teacherage
Interior of the School