Pawnee Pioneer Trail | Northeast CO visit our website Colorado's northeastern high plains show the traveler and native adventurer that Colorado is more than just mountains.  The 128 mile Pawnee Pioneer Trails Scenic and Historic Byway gives visitors an opportunity to experience the roll of the prairie, the run of the river, the majestic Pawnee Buttes rising from the plains, the lost dreams of the homesteader, a sea of grass, and scenic sunsets over the Rocky Mountains.

Four Mile Historic Park | Denver, CO 720-865-0800 | visit our website Four Mile Historic Park is a 12-acre park, home to the Denver area's oldest standing structure, Four Mile House.  It was built in 1859 to serve as a stage stop, wayside inn, and tavern for travelers on the Cherokee Trail headed to newly founded Denver City.  Levi and Millie Booth, owners from 1864 until the 1940s, grew the small wayside inn to a 600-acre working ranch/farm.

Steelworks Museum of Industry and Culture | Pueblo, CO 719-564-9086 | visit our website Colorado Fuel and Iron (CF&I) played a major part in the industrialization of the West. It was the first integrated steel mill west of the Mississippi, controlling all of the natural resources necessary to produce steel: coal, iron ore, limestone and water.  Begun in 1872 by General William Palmer to provide steel rails for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, CF&I was later controlled by John Osgood of Redstone, Colorado and John D. Rockefeller.   The company produced necessities for the West, including iron rails, fencing, nails, and steel pipes.  The reach of CF&I was broad; the company owned and operated 62 mines and quarries and numerous sales offices and subsidiaries across the country.

Byers-Evans House Museum | Denver, CO 303-620-4933 | visit our website Built in 1883 by founding Rocky Mountain News publisher William Byers and sold in 1889 to the family of William Gray Evans an officer of the Denver Tramway Company, the Italianate Byers-Evans House is a testament to the growth of a new frontier city. Using his position in the newspaper business, William Byers was an enthusiastic promoter of Denver as the leading city of the west.  The Rocky Mountain News promoted Denver as the Queen City of the Rockies, imagined possibilities of an active river front on the South Platte, and championed the importance of irrigated agriculture.  In 1859, Byers authored one of 17 guidebooks welcoming newcomers to Denver.  He was also significant in forming the city's new Chamber of Commerce.

Boggsville Historic Site | Las Animas, CO 719-456-1358 | visit our website Boggsville is the oldest unfortified permanent settlement in southeast Colorado. A major site on the Santa Fe Trail, Boggsville was settled in the 1860's by Rumalda Luna Bent, her husband Thomas Boggs, John Powers, and his wife Amache. Thomas Boggs was the son of a Missouri Governor and the grandson of Daniel Boone. He met his wife, Rumalda Jaramillo Luna Bent, stepdaughter of Charles Bent, when he worked at Bent's Fort.   John Prowers, who later became a cattle baron in southeast Colorado, started at Bent's Fort in 1857. Amache was the daughter of Cheyenne Chief Lone Bear, killed at the Sand Creek Massacre.  Together these families -- along with Christopher "Kit" Carson -- settled Boggsville.

Barney Ford House Museum | Breckenridge, CO 970-547-3112 | visit our website The Barney Ford House Museum honors Barney L. Ford, an escaped slave who prospered and became a prominent entrepreneur and black civil rights pioneer in Colorado. The house is located in the center of downtown Breckenridge, at the corner of Washington and Main Street.

MacGregor Ranch | Estes Park, CO 970-586-3749 | visit our website MacGregor Ranch is the last remaining working cattle ranch in Estes Park and one of the few sites operating as both a working ranch and youth education center in northern Colorado. It is unique in that its historic collection and structures are original to the 1873 homestead family, and its collection is completely intact. MacGregor Ranch offers a window into the past for its visitors. Take a step back in time as you come in the front gate. Percheron draft horses and ranch hands work the hay meadow. The main ranch house, now the museum, is warm and inviting - welcoming children's groups and summer visitors. The Black Angus cattle and horses grazing the meadow remind you of simpler times.

This project is paid for in part by a State Historical Fund grant
from the Colorado Historical Society.