Article by Rayna Bailey
History – July 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
DESPITE ITS gold-painted wood siding and belfry complete with bell, the Silver Cliff Museum is a simple, unornamented building which reflects its original purpose: to serve as the town hall and firehouse. Located on Main Street in Silver Cliff, the historic two-story building was built in 1879, and is once again open to visitors — following a renovation project that took nearly five years and cost more than $176,000.
Restoration work included stripping off stucco that had been applied over the building’s exterior and replacing it with wood siding similar to the original. The metal roof was replaced with material which gives an appearance of wood shingles, also similar to the original, and the belfry was repaired, as were the three fire-cart doors that span the front of the building.
The building’s interior was also given a facelift and now boasts a rewired electrical system and new forced-air furnace. With plenty of elbow grease, contributed in part by volunteers, the walls have been painted, the floors scrubbed and polished, and the museum’s large collection of artifacts and memorabilia, most donated or offered on loan by descendants of the area’s early settlers, has been cleaned, cataloged, and prepared for display.
Now visitors to the museum can enjoy a walk back in time to Silver Cliff’s 1880s heydays when it was a prosperous silver-mining town with a population of about 3,500 people. The bustling community had two banks, five hotels, a hospital, saloons and dance halls, several newspapers such as the Silver Cliff Rustler, grocery stores, and more.
AMONG THE ITEMS on display in the museum are a hook and ladder wagon the town purchased in 1879 as part of the fire department’s equipment, which is described as “in excellent condition and nearly priceless,” as well as other tools of the fire-fighting trade from that era such as fire hose carts, gas masks, and rescue kits.
As a reminder of Silver Cliff’s beginnings as a mining camp, lamps and tools used by the hundreds of men who flocked to the area to work in the silver-rich mines are also on display. The mines, which were located in the town’s surrounding cliffs, included the Geyser Mine, with a shaft that eventually reached some 2,700 feet deep and produced about $3 million in silver ore.
The museum’s collection includes photographs of late 1800s clothing, ranching memorabilia, and household items. There’s also a room of the museum furnished and decorated much as a home in Silver Cliff in the late 1800s might have been.
In addition to the firehouse and town hall building, which now houses the museum, visitors may take a look at other original buildings that still remain. The Enterprise Store building, once a busy grocery and dry goods store, is located across Main Street from the museum but is no longer in use. The former Shaffer Brothers Drug Store, located just east of the museum, is now a popular pizzeria.
The Silver Cliff museum building, located at 612 Main Street (State Highway 96), is listed on the Colorado Register of Historic Places. The museum reopened to visitors Memorial Day weekend and is open Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $3 for adults with discounts offered for students and seniors. For additional information or to confirm the museum’s weekday hours, call 719-783-2615.
Rayna Bailey does free-lance writing and editing from greater Westcliffe.
