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museum of the mountain west

August 18, 2020

On a narrow highway running east out of Montrose, Colorado is a hidden gem of Old West history and culture where visitors can walk among early frontier relics (and maybe even ghosts) of the past.

With over half a million artifacts, Museum of the Mountain West holds one of the largest collections of Western memorabilia in the United States. While several of its historical buildings have been relocated here, the entirety of this curious place is really the result of the longtime passions of founder and director, Richard Fike, a retired federal archeologist, who began amassing his extensive collection at the age of 4. In interviews on the nonprofit’s website, Fike shares stories of his first museum, which he built out of his parents’ Nebraska home when he was 8 years old.

As you wander through the buildings—an 1889 schoolhouse, an 1882 section house, and a hotel and saloon, just to name a few—your eyes float between more objects than you can fully study within a short visit. Huge leather bellows for aerating a hearth rest against an inside wall of the Carriage Works building where iron clamps, a coil of barb wire, and other rusted tools hang alongside. In The Stott Hotel and Saloon, a monumental elk trophy stares across the bright red lobby to an 1890s bar and back bar that burned during a 1990s fire in Delta. It took a full year for volunteers to sand it down beyond the char, restoring it to its former glory. Many of the bottles on the shelves still have their original labels and contents. In a Doctor/Mortician’s office, thick tubing drapes off of a table from a machine once used to suck the fluid out of a human body. There are skeletal parts, and a Dictaphone, developed by Thomas Edison, also nearby.

What you won’t learn on the self-guided tour is that this place is also said to be haunted. In 2017, the Travel Channel show, “Ghost Adventures,” investigated the museum, including one building not open to the public known as “the murder house,” rumored to be the scene of a gruesome killing where a man killed his wife and daughter. On the show, the crew captured unexplained footsteps and voices, including apparent spirit responses, and light anomalies on their audio and visual equipment. There were also several eye-witness sightings of black masses and dark figures. Separately, they captured a black shadow moving within a corner of the Carriage Works building.

If you’re looking for a really amazing destination in Colorado, head to Montrose and visit Museum of the Mountain West. And while you’re there, be sure to explore Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, located just 9 miles from the museum. For more things to do in Colorado, check out Colorado’s Best Hidden Gems and Best Colorado Trip Ideas for some fresh road trip inspiration!

Happy exploring!

Text and photographs by Elaine Skylar Neal / Travels and Curiosities

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