On a recent Wednesday we took a day trip to Cheyenne Wells, a town in southeastern Colorado. Earlier in this year we sent away for a vacation packet that featured museums and attractions in the area, and we decided to visit two museums we'd read about which are in Cheyenne Wells.
We started out running backroads down to Denver, then headed east on I-70 to Limon, where we headed south on US 287 to the turnoff for east US 40 and Cheyenne Wells. It was a beautiful day, weather-wise, mostly sunny and hot, but there was a nice breeze blowing that kept anywhere in the shade pretty cool and pleasant. And it was a beautiful drive to CW.
Our first stop was the city park for lunch. We packed the fixings for sandwiches and some snacks and drinks, so we found a shady parking spot and had a very tasty picnic lunch with the windows down and the breeze keeping us nice and cool.
very pleasant park
Joe is assembling his BLOB (Beef, Lettuce, Onion and Bacon) sandwich.
--------
Our next stop in CW was the Telephone Museum. CW was the first community to have a wireless phone system installed, and it was in 1946. The earliest cell phones, though of course these were "regular phones" tethered to the wall, not today's tiny portable phones. It is an interesting story of how all this came about, and the museum also has displays of phones and related hardware from the past.
--------
The Cheyenne County Courthouse is right across the street from the Telephone Museum
--------
Our next stop was the Cheyenne County Heritage and Old Jail Museum
The jail cells featured some very interesting metalwork. Large levers on the outside of this contraption opened the cell doors. There was a grated opening high on a wall above the cells so the sheriff could look in on the jail from his home, which was also in the building.
2 tiny cells, with 4 folding bunks and very little floor space
detail of the metalwork
display of old tools and miscellaneous pieces, still in the the jail half of the museum. All the items had informational cards near them, and these cases are open, no glass, allowing the items to be handled, turned over, or whatever for closer examination. This wouldn't work in most museums, but it is a fantastic feature in this one. We were the only visitors at the time we were there, and we suspect that they don't often get large crowds. We had to cross the street to the county building and ask to have the museum opened, it seems to be pretty much on request. A very nice woman opened the place right up and stayed to supervise our visit and answer questions.
displayed jug with informational card
this room, also in the jail half of the museum, was full of collections of arrowheads and other Native American artifacts found in the area over the years, along with some local artwork --an eclectic display
gourds, of course, caught my eye...
blue and white cups in on upper left shelf look like Gail's dishes...
all kinds of stuff, much haphazardly arranged, which just added to its charm
--------
The other half of the museum building houses the Cheyenne County Heritage Museum, full of all kinds of stuff of various vintages, put together to "furnish" a house. Again, the open arrangement allows for closer examination than the usual behind-glass displays.
kitchen
another view of the kitchen
butter churn that holds 9 gallons of cream
tiny stove
laundry room (with cream separator in the corner)
--------
Leaving Cheyenne Wells, we headed north on US 385, a road almost in Kansas.
T-A-L-L stack on a building in Burlington, CO
--------
Last Spring we were hoping to make it out to the area north of Wray, CO where the lesser prairie chickens do their mating dances. With all we had going on in Feb and March we didn't make it, so we decided to check out some of the areas off county roads where we might park to watch them next Spring. (Roads north of Wray off 385) Turned out to be a wonderful drive through some spectacular grassland terrain.
one of the county roads
view from the road
a great vantage point
box turtle we saw crossing the road
these flowers were blooming in many areas
--------
Done with driving the county roads, we got on US 34 and headed for home
10 years ago there were lots of sunflower fields along 385, beautiful, endless fields of yellow, flowers all facing east...today most of the acreage seems to have gone to corn cultivation
which means lots of silos
A great trip!
