South Park City facts for kids
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| Established | 1959 |
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| Location | 100 4th Street Fairplay, Colorado |
| Type | Open air museum |
South Park City is an exciting open-air museum located in Fairplay, Colorado. It's like stepping back in time to a real mining town from the old days! The museum shows what life was like during the Colorado Gold Rush and the later Colorado Silver Boom. This was in the South Park area, from the late 1850s through the 1880s.
Contents
Discover South Park City
This special museum has thirty-five real buildings that were moved here from other places. Inside these buildings, you'll find over 60,000 items from the past. These items show how people lived and worked in a gold or silver mining town in Colorado during the late 1800s. Two of the buildings, the South Park Brewery and the Summer Saloon, are so important that they are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
A Special Church Building
One interesting building is a log structure called "Father Dyer’s Chapel." It used to be a hotel in a town called Montgomery, Colorado. But it was taken apart, moved to Fairplay, and rebuilt as a church in 1868. The church is named after John Lewis Dyer. He was a traveling Methodist clergyman who preached in this area from 1861 to 1877. Father Dyer is one of sixteen important people from Colorado's history honored at the Colorado State Capitol in Denver.
How the Museum Started
South Park City first opened its doors in 1959. It took the South Park Historical Foundation two years to get everything ready. You can visit the museum every day from the middle of May until the middle of October.
Step Back in Time: Living History Days
Every year, on the second weekend of August, South Park City hosts "Living History Days." During this event, volunteers dress up in old-fashioned clothes. They act like people from a 19th-century town. You can see demonstrations of old games, like Faro, which was popular during the California gold rush of 1849. These demonstrations happen at Rache's Place Saloon in the park.
A National Treasure
The museum was officially added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2015. This means it's recognized as an important historical site for everyone to learn from and enjoy.
