The Animas Museum has entered the 21st century! Our new website www.animasmuseum.org, launched at the end of March, sports a new design and many exciting new features. We're adding new content on a regular basis, so be sure and check back often. Here are just some of the new features on our website:

Research Page - An entire section is dedicated to providing the best possible resources for those interested in local history. Currently a section lists files available for viewing at the Animas Museum and another features articles on La Plata County history. There are also links to our photo archive and resources available at other institutions.

Upcoming Events - This section is devoted to keeping visitors up to date on the fabulous special events hosted by the La Plata County Historical Society. Check back often, as new events are added regularly.

The Museum Gift shop - Currently under construction, our Animas Museum Gift Shop online will enable visitors to browse our exciting merchandise and even make purchases from the comfort of home.

Walking Tours - Do you ever wonder, as you stroll down Main Avenue, what the stories are of those fantastic buildings? Well, wonder no more! Simply visit our website, print out our walking tours, and you will have the answers in the palm of your hand. Currently available are tours of Main Avenue and Third Avenue, but check back soon for a tour of Animas City. 

Historic Durango - This year's edition of Historic Durango will be available for viewing on our website.

Kid's Page - Coming soon! This page will include fun and exciting activities designed to get children interested in local history.

Exhibits - For those unable to visit the museum in person we have added pages for many of our exhibits, including those that have been taken down in preparation for the roof restoration. Some of the featured exhibits include:
        Trails, Roads, and Rails
        Controlling The Fire Fiend
        Durango on Glass

At long last the construction phase of our roof restoration project has begun.  Work on this major reconstruction effort is expected to take at least a year, and museum operations will change significantly. Many people have wondered whether the museum will remain open during the construction period, and if so, what exhibits and programs will be offered?
The Museum will remain open during the construction period, and we're making plans for new exhibits and programs during that time. While we have dismantled the exhibits in the upstairs galleries to accommodate construction activities, we are planning new exhibits in our newly remodeled basement area.

Contractors from the Home Builders Association of Southwest Colorado volunteered to construct both a temporary storage room for artifacts displaced by the roof project and a new handicap accessible restroom. In addition to our new Window to the Past exhibit, we are currently planning a new exhibit, which opens May 26, to commemorate the centennial of the San Juan National Forest.

The museum will also be offering some new programs. For example, we have developed a new History Mystery Trunk for school classes and other children's groups.  Designed for hands-on, interactive activities, the trunk employs real "artifacts" to engage kids in learning about major themes in our history.

Also in the works is a new bicycle tour of Animas City. Initially we will offer this as a guided tour, but we eventually plan to develop it into a self-guided tour.

Besides these and other new programs, the museum's permanent exhibits (including the Joy Cabin), research library and gift shop will remain open. Revenue from admissions and gift shop sales will be critical in keeping the Animas Museum afloat during the construction period, so come and see our new offerings and encourage visitors to put the museum on their list of must-see attractions.

volunteers have assembled many artifacts that have never been displayed to the public. A large window into the room gives museum visitors a peek into the past and a chance to unravel mysteries of history. The Center of Southwest Studies donated dozens of industrial shelving units, which were moved and installed by volunteers Henry Ninde and Richard Bird. While dismantled exhibits from upstairs are packed away during roof construction, a varied assortment of stored items will be cycled through the viewable storage space downstairs.
        Imagine having 35,000 artifacts and archives to care for, with approximately 1,000 on exhibit to the public at any one time. Where would you keep all those treasures? How would you find the tiniest collar stud amid hundreds of square feet of storage? Where would you store the square grand piano?
        Museums rarely exhibit all of their artifacts all of the time. Changing exhibits tell new and different stories while protecting fragile artifacts that need to rest in the dark periodically. Animas Museum volunteers have been busily cataloguing more than 12,000 items for the past nine years. Henry Ninde, who created the collections database and volunteers about a thousand hours each year, has entered those searchable records into the computer. Carrie Foisel dates and identifies period clothing, while Heather Lundquist shares her expertise on quilts. Holly Schlattman is cataloguing hundreds of Ancestral Puebloan pots, and JoAnne Bruton has documented the subjects of hundreds of photographs. Bill Morrow identified and catalogued electric radios and related equipment. Marilyn Barnhart specializes in dolls, Navajo weavings, genealogy and archival papers. Twelve thousand down - 23,000 to go. Want to help?
        Come look through A Window to the Past and view some of the weird and wacky objects in the museum's permanent collections. Help us unlock exciting secrets in the museum storage rooms. You just might get hooked on history.

        Without electricity, how would the dentist drill your tooth, a seamstress sew seven dresses, or a harness maker stitch leather? Without power equipment, how would a miner drill holes in solid rock for dynamite?
        The Animas Museum basement is full of stories waiting to be told. If a picture is worth a thousand words, think of the value of having the "real thing" - the object that survived from the past.
        Volunteer contractors from the Home Builders Association of Southwest Colorado have built a viewable storage room in the Animas Museum basement where staff and