16. Museo de las Americas
City: Denver, CO
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (303) 571-4401
Address: 861 Santa Fe Dr.
Description: The Rocky Mountain region’s first museum dedicated to Latin-American art, history, and culture, the Museo de las Americas showcases art from all the Americas, including the Caribbean, in changing exhibitions.
17. Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum
City: Denver, CO
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (303) 277-0377
Address: 1213 Washington Ave.
Description: The tiny Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum is as much a resource center for quilters as a museum, with more than 300 old and new quilts in its collection. Exhibits change five times a year. Quilts and other needlework are offered for sale at the museum, which also conducts classes and outreach programs. The museum is open daily.
City: Denver, CO
Category: Tours & Attractions
Address: 320 W. Colfax Ave.
City: Denver, CO
Category: Tours & Attractions
Address: 10035 S. Peoria St.
20. Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum
City: Denver, CO
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (303) 360-5360
Address: 7711 E. Academy Blvd.
Description: Perhaps the last remnant of Lowry Air Force Base in east Denver, this air and space museum on the site of the decommissioned base houses a wide range of aircraft and space memorabilia. Its permanent collection includes a B-18 Bolo, an RF-84K Thundercraft parasite, a B-1A Lancer, and an Apollo control module. It’s open daily.
21. Colorado Governor’s Mansion
City: Denver, CO
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (303) 866-5344, (303) 866-4686
Address: 400 E. 8th Ave.
Description: Completed in 1907, the governor’s mansion was originally the private residence of the Walter Scott Cheesman family. In 1927 the house was sold to the Boettcher family, and in 1960 the Boettcher Foundation gave the property to the state to use as the governor’s mansion. The colonial revival structure contains artwork from all around the world and a Waterford chandelier that once hung in the White House. The mansion can be visited on Tuesday afternoon between June and August. Tours start every quarter hour and last 45 minutes. The mansion is open to the public for a week during December, when it’s decorated for Christmas. Call for dates, as they vary every year.
22. Colorado State Capitol
City: Denver, CO
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (303) 866-2604
Description: The Colorado State Capitol stands exactly 1 mile above sea level. On the 13th step there’s a carving stating the elevation as 5,280 feet, but a small brass plaque on the 18th step corrects the carving and proclaims itself the true mile-high marker. Inside the capitol building, free tours lasting about 45 minutes are given Monday through Friday. Due to heightened security, there is no public access to the gold-plated dome. Although the gold on the outside of the dome tends to receive more attention from the casual passersby, the real precious mineral is on the inside of the building, where rose-colored Colorado onyx was used as wainscoting. The onyx came from a small quarry in Beulah, Colorado, and has never been mined elsewhere.
23. Cussler Museum
City: Denver, CO
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (303) 420-2795
Address: 14959 W. 69th Ave.
Description: Author Clive Cussler lived in Metro Denver during his early years and, as his popularity grew, he diverted some of his financial proceeds into an extensive vintage automobile collection. Among the rarest are the foreign cars—a 1929 Isotta Fraschini and a 1936 Avions Voisins, for example. Cussler found ways to write many of the vehicles into his Dirk Pitt novels, and he often posed with them for the book jacket photos. Today the collection is tended by his daughter and open to the public Monday and Tuesday May through September.
24. Fairmount Cemetery
City: Denver, CO
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (303) 399-0692
Address: 430 S. Quebec St.
Description: This 320-acre privately owned cemetery dates from 1890 and is the final resting place for many former mayors, socialites, gunfighters, madams, and Civil War veterans. An infamous “resident” is Colonel John M. Chivington, responsible for the massacre of defenseless Indians at Sand Creek in 1864. The grounds contain more than 50 types of trees, and tours are given periodically by the Denver Botanic Gardens for those interested in this aspect of the cemetery. Self-guided tours are possible anytime (a guidebook can be purchased at the site), and free guided tours are available.
25. Four Mile Historic Park
City: Denver, CO
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (720) 865-0800
Address: 715 S. Forest St.
Description: Designated a Denver Landmark in 1968, Four Mile Historic Park commemorates the site of a former stage stop and contains the oldest home still standing in Denver. In addition to the 1859 log home, visitors can tour the living-history farmstead and, on nice days, have a picnic here. Special-events days are held about six times a year and include horse-drawn wagon rides and demonstrations of blacksmithing, butter churning, and other chores. There are reenactments of Civil War events during the spring and summer as well as a heritage program and evening concerts. It’s open Wednesday through Sunday.
26. Lakewood Heritage Center
City: Denver, CO
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (303) 987-7850
Address: 801 S. Yarrow St.
Description: A historic site and museum with several structures, including an 1880s farmhouse and a 1920s schoolhouse, Lakewood Heritage Center also has a barn gallery with changing exhibits. The visitor center has a permanent exhibit on May Bonfils, daughter of one of the founders of the Denver Post, and exhibits of work by local artists that change monthly. The visitor center is staffed Tuesday through Saturday. Call to ask about special children’s programs. Groups of five or more should make reservations.
City: Denver, CO
Category: Tours & Attractions
Address: 6028 S. Gallup St.
City: Denver, CO
Category: Tours & Attractions
Address: 1340 Pennsylvania St.
29. Riverside Cemetery
City: Denver, CO
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (303) 293-2466
Address: 5201 Brighton Blvd.
Description: Denver’s oldest cemetery, founded in 1876, contains the graves of three Civil War medal-of-honor winners; Augusta Tabor, the first wife of turn-of-the-20th-century silver baron Horace Tabor; and Colorado’s first African-American ballplayer, Oliver E. Marcel. Visitors can pick up a booklet and map for $2 during office hours, weekdays 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The cemetery is on Brighton Boulevard about 2 miles north of I-70.
City: Denver, CO
Category: Tours & Attractions
Address: 1007 York St.