Here’s a chance to pan for gold, learn how old-mining-town chemists assayed the valuable claims and check out the actual sluices and flumes used in placer (surface) mines. This site, which was active in the 1860s, also gives visitors the chance to sniff around a miner’s cabin, complete with wood-burning stove, musical instruments, snowshoes, pack saddles and other sundry items needed for survival.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby attractions

1. Blue River Plaza

0.38 MILES

A beautifully landscaped riverside plaza with ample seating looking out onto the numbered peaks. There is sculpture, a 19th-century wagon, a small toddler…

2. Edwin Carter Discovery Center

0.41 MILES

This award-winning museum sheds light on a pioneer lured west by the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush in 1858. He reached the Blue River valley in 1860. An original…

3. Breckenridge Arts District

0.43 MILES

This block-long stretch of historic Breckenridge is where you’ll find a burgeoning arts scene. It has a live-work art space for visiting artists, a…

4. Barney Ford Museum

0.45 MILES

Barney Ford was an escaped slave who became a prominent entrepreneur and Colorado civil-rights pioneer, and made two stops in Breckenridge (where he ran a…

5. Summit Ski Museum

0.48 MILES

This small museum celebrates the first ski town in Colorado – that would be Breck – and the first century of Summit County skiing. There's a documentary…

6. High Line Railroad Park

0.89 MILES

This isn't much of a park, but it is notable for its display of a vintage narrow-gauge rotary plow and the locomotives that powered it up the famed,…

7. Boreas Pass

6.76 MILES

Originally known as Breckenridge Pass (11,481ft), this road first began serving stagecoaches in 1866 when prospectors flooded into the area from South…

8. Frisco Historic Park & Museum

6.85 MILES

Set on the site of the original town saloon in 1889, and later converted into the town’s second school in 1901, this museum features a number of…