By Shannon Lukens.
The North Park Pioneer Museum in Walden opens for the summer season on Saturday, May 24. Jason Slane is the docent for the museum.
“We have 27 fantastic rooms filled with things that are little bit of everything from North Park. We really love it and we’re proud of it and we love to show it off. We hope you come to see us this summer.”
The museum is behind the Jackson County Courthouse in Walden, at 365 Logan Street. It is in an original ranch home built in 1882 and donated to the museum, which opened back in 1963. Everything in the museum represents North Park pioneers and their everyday lifestyles. All items have been donated by North Park natives.
Rooms include a kitchen, school room, pool hall, country store, Hahns Peak Depot and Hand Car, post office, laundry room, reading room, Centennial Room, bunkhouse, children’s room, music and camera room, a military collection, and a buggy shed.
That’s where you will find an antique surrey.
“This surrey actually was Rose (Post) Jones. She was a pioneer. She drove this by herself from St. Louis and it was old and decrepit. There is a family that lived here named the Storys, and they ran a ranch down in Rand. Steve Story and his son, Bart, that I actually went to high school with, restored this. This shows the state that it was in kind of and what they brought it back from. Steve and Linda Story brought it down in a stock trailer and we brought it in. This is my most favorite thing. They did such a beautiful and amazing job restoring this. And actually we could use it in parades if anyone knew how to drive a horse.”
The typewriter room has old typewriters and the first switchboard in Walden.
“This is actually a really popular room with the young people that we get here. Kids are really drawn down to this because they have absolutely no idea what any of these are. And that’s why we keep a piece of paper and a typewriter so that they are welcome to figure out how things world ran before they had a laptop. This is one of the original Walden switchboards. And in the old days when you called the operator, they would connect your call for you.”
One room on the top floor has old clothing and sewing machines.
“Right now, this room is kind of the catch all for the old clothing and the sewing machines. And my favorite thing about this room is that view. It’s why we all live here and stay here. Those mountains just become part of who you are and it gets in your soul and you’re just not you if you live anywhere else.”
The museum is open daily, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 24 through Labor Day. Or appointments can be made by calling 24 hours in advance to 970-846-7507 or 970-594-4190.
