Visiting South Park City

I have visited Fairplay, an old mining town in the mountains southwest of Denver, a number of times. It has a nice old hotel, an Italian restaurant with great pizza, a few old buildings housing a variety of shops, and South Park City, a collection of 44 historic 19th century buildings from the mining era. Seven of those structures are on their original sites (such as the 1879 brewery in the photo on the left), while the rest were moved to the site from around the area. I never cared much for Fairplay, but I have never visited that museum until this past Saturday, and was very impressed. It was definitely worth the nine dollar admission fee.

All of the buildings at this museum have been carefully restored, and filled with period furniture and artifacts. Saving these buildings was the idea of a lawyer from Colorado Springs named Leon Snyder, who used to come to the area for recreation. He noticed that many of the buildings in the area were neglected and deteriorating, and if nothing was done, they would be lost forever. Back in 1957, he organized a group to save them, and began moving these historic structures to Fairplay.

Today these buildings are arranged on a dirt street, complete with wooden sidewalks, that recreates a typical mining town from the 19th century. There is a saloon, a drug store, blacksmith shop, other commercial buildings, and a number of pioneer homes, going from the very rustic to the quite posh. I definitely think it is worth a visit, and the staff are very friendly and helpful. It is a shame I was too cheap to visit the museum sooner. But, as a confirmed skinflint, very understandable.