Trinidad History Museum

Top choice in Southeast Colorado

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This is a lot of museum, a full city block in fact, set smack dab on Main St. There are three sights here: the adobe Baca House (1870), the French-style Bloom Mansion (1882) and the Santa Fe Trail museum.

Early settlers Felipe and Dolores Baca, who came to Trinidad in the 1860s, bought the unusual two-story Baca House for 22,000 pounds of wool in 1873. Entry is by tour only (open 10am to 3pm).

Next door is the Bloom Mansion, a symmetrical brick building with French eaves and moldings on the exterior and wrought iron on the roof and terraces.

But the real prize here is the Santa Fe Trail museum, set in the Bacas' workers cottage. Displays trace the course of early Trinidad – an interesting mix of Mexicans and settlers from as far off as Nova Scotia – through its heyday during the Santa Fe Trail peak and on to its transformation as a railroad and mining town.

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