I'm glad my friends who visit Telluride each year recommended I stop in this museum. It was the…read moreinitial hospital during the mining days, which was later converted into a museum. It had so many interesting displays and pieces of history, from the Native American Indians times, through the boom-and-bust mining days, to the present-day ski resort revitalization of this charming town. The exhibits are strategically placed to allow you to experience how the area evolved. It is easy to walk around, taking your time examining specific items that are of interest to you. The small gift shop is charming and has a number of books and periodicals of the town's history that may be difficult to find elsewhere. For a nominal entrance fee, you can easily spend an enjoyable hour or two learning the history of this great town. There is also a museum donation canister at the entrance way, which I gladly deposited additional money in as I finished my tour as it was definitely worth it!

Interesting displays, including audio features and a rotating special exhibit; broad range of…read morecultural, environmental, and economic stages touched on in a short time; and a very reasonable admission fee. If you can visit on a walking tour day, it's well worth the time (1.5 hours), and you are able to go inside some of the most historic buildings, like the opera house, and the "New" Sheridan Hotel and connected bar. Ours was by Ashley, and he was engaging, friendly, fielded every question with aplomb. It may be hard to engage small, active children but older kids and adults will find plenty of interest.

Hours listed are not accurate. We drove to check out this museum buy to find it closed despite it…read moreshowing open on Yelp. Business is closed unless you pay a $20/person fee for a tour.

Bottom Line: A unique and quirky museum featuring a carefully curated collection of pharmacy…read morememorabilia and artifacts. I love American history, Americana, weird history and local museums so I was eager to check out the Ouray Alchemist. The Ouray Alchemist is a small museum that only offers private tours and storytelling about Wild West pharmacies. To visit the museum you must call or email ahead to schedule your visit. The admission fee is $12. The tour duration can range from an hour or more but if you have limited time you can let the museum know. Curt, the owner and a retired pharmacist, has spent his lifetime collecting, and restoring where appropriate and necessary, artifacts related to pharmacies in the 1800s Wild West and particularly Colorado. His collection is incredible! My jaw dropped multiple times. I was impressed with the entrance to the museum which is from an c. 1888 Aspen drugstore but I was also impressed with the volume of artifacts and the many antique mercantile displays. Two things that really caught my eye were two sets of antique drawers for selling spools of thread and two soda fountains. The one soda fountain in particular was incredible . . . it had been fully restored to working condition. The marble and chrome (presumably) front of the soda fountain was like a work of art. As a lover of history and museums I really enjoyed this visit as did my husband. But for those who aren't into guided tours or lengthy museum visits, this might not be the best choice in Ouray. Also, I wouldn't recommend it for kids because its almost like a lengthy show-and-tell but don't touch type of experience. The museum also has a small gift shop and they sell products for high altitude adjustment.

I'm giving this museum a 10++! Silverton was the best part of our mining towns tour through…read moreColorado and this museum was filled with surprises at every turn! We spent 2.5 hours there and could have spent more! The greeter/docent was full of information about the entire town and its history. This is a MUST STOP AND SEE!

This place was very interesting. We were on a girls trip to Colorado and went on a drive from…read moreDurango to Silverton to see the trees changing colors. We stumbled upon this museum and we were interested in seeing what they had to offer. It was a mining museum that had collections of rocks and minerals, uniforms and tools used by the miners and other items that were interesting. For those folks that need it, they do have a small elevator. This is also next to the restroom on the lower floor. Besides the rock/mineral room, I found the assay section interesting, where they had scales and weights used to weight the gold or minerals mined. In the gift shop I found two rocks I liked and bought them and a few postcards. Included in the tour is a visit to the jail and the quarters for the acting sherriff. The sherriff quarters had glimpses of a typical bedroom and kitchen for the late 1800's. My sister went to the jail and she said it was an open room with an iron ball with lots of chains to connect the prisoners to. Outside the jail is caboose used to haul minerals from the mines.

Tried to visit the museum but it was closed. The only small indication was a small notice on the…read moredoors stating "closed for end of season". This seems rather strange as we paid for HIGH season for our hotel room. So we do not feel like mid August should be end of season. While restaurants and shops in Ouray were open post COVID, doing business carefully with social distancing, mandatory masks, limited capacity and so forth, this museum is closed :(( I think it's a huge miss because tourists could bring some much needed funds, if they were only given a chance. Undeterred by the closure we tried to make the best of our visit by perusing the museum's grounds. There are 2 old cabins which have been transported from the surrounding areas and preserved on the museums grounds. I wish I could give them more stars, but I am literally giving them one star each for the two things we were able to visit...the two little cabins (and what we could peek of the insides from the dusty windows) and the small grounds they sat on.

What an adorable county museum…read more It's in an old miners' hospital, so I'm assuming there's a few ghosts in that building. But the volunteers are nice, and there's lots of area-artifacts and a child-friendly exhibit in the basement on the history of underground mining in the area. There's also a decent gift shop with relevant books on local history. I loved how they restored some rooms such as the basement's hospital kitchen, just like walking into the 1930's. The other rooms which would have been patients' rooms, house certain themes like "a day in the life of sewing" or "Native American History of the area" or "history of railroading." One room morbidly exhibits some freaky mannequins, one of which is getting a surgery done without anesthesia. In the same freaky room, is a stuffed half-way grown brown bear who was allegedly a pet then killed because he was getting too rowdy with people. So a strange mix of politically and non-politically correct items. Well worth the $5 smack down to get in.

We had a fun doing something different. Bobby the tour guy was full of information and history. You…read moreget to go into the mine. See the way they mined by hand 100+ years ago. Worth the trip.

We drove our vehicle up which was no problem but would highly recommend a day trip with a 4x4…read morearound Bachelor loop and stop on the way down at Last Chance Mine. We did a 45 minute tour and my 3 teenagers enjoyed the tour. Words cannot describe what you will see. Truly once in a lifetime experience. Go and you won't regret it!

Wild west museum located in Montrose, CO. This was an amazing museum for all ages. The items are…read morefrom the 19th and early 20th century. The main building is set up like a small town consisting of salon, drug store, dental office and more. Filled with authentic items. Then you walk outside to the outdoor town. Homes from many different years, school house, hotel, sheriffs office and many more. The kids will love it! So many items I'm sure they have never seen before. Such a wonderful educational experience. They do offer tours but not on the day we were there. The kind lady in the office said please come back to her if we had any questions. This is a must visit!

If you want to go back to the old west time....this is a good place to get that feel. If you want a…read moreguided tour pay the extra $2.00. If you do the self tour just be aware that you will not to be able to go past the chains. When I went the guide was already giving a tour so was asked if I was ok with doing a self tour and I said sure, not knowing that the chains were only to keep the ones on the self tour from seeing the full display's of the exhibits. I asked about it and the lady told me it was for liability reasons. Fair enough but, they should tell you what the difference is between the tours, because I would have liked to be able to step in and see more. The place is well done and nice, if you're in Montrose I would recommend going. It's pretty unique and you do get that feel of an old west town.

Fun and educational! Very friendly staff. Everything was clean, well kept. Lots of great things in…read morethe gift shop. Reasonably priced. Plenty of parking. Would stop again.

I found this to be an excellent addition to my San Juan trip. Coming back from Ouray to Denver, I…read morewas tempted to stop in here after seeing it. I'm glad I did! For only $6, you can see a huge amount of artifacts and history collected into one place. They recently redid the building, so it's very new and clean inside. There's a nice winding path that takes you all through the Ute Story, from the creation and Bear Dance, to interaction with other tribes, and the eventual coming of the white man and their put into reservations. It's very touching and somber, but enlightening as well. The Utes roamed, loved, hunted and camped nearly all the Rocky Mountains we play in now. Do yourself a favor and see the history that was here before many of us came, and still lives on to this day!

Must see if visiting Gunnison/Crested Butte area. Comprehensive collection of historic artifacts…read morein multiple buildings; all well documented. Friendly helpful staff. Site is large and golf carts are available for those who can't walk it- very nice. Impressive collection of antique(pre 1950) and collector cars (many from 1950s, 1960s) and multiple historic buildings (cabins, workshops, houses, school house, train depot, etc.) from the area. And a fun collection of railroad locomotives and train cars. Allow plenty of time to see it all.

If you like going through an old attic this is the place for you. I don't think the curator has…read moreever turned down a donation. It wasn't really organized in a way to tell you much about the area

Oh gosh.. we joined the historical special ghost tour and we learned so much about Lake City!…read more Loved learning about the cat houses, the Wild West way of dealing with "bad people", Alfred Packers mark on the town, and cool, little known facts about some of the buildings... we even met a local who has encountered many ghosts ... but I will leave this for you to enjoy when you stop by the museum