big timbers museum

I had such a surprisingly good time here! It was pretty cool to learn about the history of the area and the lady working there was so wonderful... she taught me so much! I loved hearing about the wild west outlaw aspect of the history. It was also really interesting learning about a few famous citizens. I would definitely recommend checking it out and chatting with one of the really nice staff!

We arrived just 20 minutes before closing, but the curator gave us a nice whirlwind tour of the highlights. We just went too early in the year; summer hours don't begin until June.

Very friendly staff & a comfortable intimate atmosphere. I was able to research & explore on my own & some one was nearby to answer any questions I had. I definitely plan to return when ever I'm in town.

When we visited recently and I asked about the dustbowl exhibit (seen here), the docent told me they didn't have a dustbowl exhibit. She says people ask for it all the time and that someone donated some tiny black and white pictures that one day they would go through and choose a few for an exhibit. What they do have, however, is excellent local history and color. Enjoyed tremendously. We were asked for a $5 donation (two of us).

I am a fan of history and this is one is a real hidden jewel. The lady was very nice and helpful with questions we had, and even our five year old enjoyed this place. Will return again!

We almost couldn't figure out how to get off the highway to this place! I think we circled back twice! They have an impressive collection of wagons and carriages! Didn't have My good cameras with Me! Darn It!

The Big Timbers has increased their buildings allowing for more displays and a great deal of local history..

I was pleasantly suprised at the great museum I found in Lamar ! It has the largest collection of Sand Creek massacre site artifacts and many other suprises as well. Well worth your time if you are a history buff !

This is one outstanding local history museum. Great exhibit of vehicles from bygone days, local history includes the Dust Bowl, weather phenomena, and a bank robbery.

This museum has a nice collection covering local history. The 1928 bank robbery artifacts are interesting, and a collection of antique wagons and carriages is housed in a separate building. A collection of WWII memorabilia is worth a look.

I was visiting a friend who landed in Lamar, Colorado for work. There's an Amtrak stop in Lamar so I made it a point to stop and visit him. The town is smallish, and it was my first visit to anything in Colorado. The fact that they have and support a local museum is fabulous, and I stopped in one day to be delightfully greeted by a curator who informed me that I was her one visitor for the day. She said they average maybe 1 per day during the winter. She was very talkative and very informative about the museum's contents. She spoke enthusiastically and knowledgably about the local history: the good, the bad and the ugly - all with the requisite neutrality of a researcher and the big pulsing heart of a true believer. I have no doubt she was a volunteer, as most of the museums contents were fairly recently acquired and it's not like they have some huge endowment to draw from. I any case, I absolutely loved walking among the artifacts ... some as simple as an ashtray to photographic evidence of jackrabbit and buffalo slaughters, not to mention the existence of trees on a now barren landscape terra formed for the cattle industry. You can SMELL the cattle around the museum. They had wedding dresses, uniforms, and quite a lot of stuff on a local bank robbery where two people were killed and it was the first time the FBI used fingerprints to nail the suspect. I'm a professional psychic reader, so it was great listening to her narrative while I was in my own realm reading all the stuff around me. I get stuff around the people that handled these objects, and together it wove a fascinating day. They have an interesting collection of buggies and wagons in a separate building that I was actually too exhausted to spend much time with, but is really worth the visit. Museums like this are priceless and should be taken advantage of. There is always something in a museum that will capture your imagination or trigger a remembrance or feeling. This is the stuff of life, and Big Timbers is loaded with it. A must-see in Lamar.

We had a fun respite from the heat as we visited Big Timbers. Things that stood out to me were the photos of an old professional ice skater and the tales of an old bank robbery. They also have a new building filled with some really cool vehicles and wagons. Friendly staff and family rates. The best part may have been the War poster collection. Amazing and touching.