_scaled_45_30.jpg "June Events 2010")
Travel Features
Top 10 Museums of 2011
Looking back at the best Western history and art exhibits in 2010; plus, fan favorites from our Facebook friends.
- Written by Johnny D. Boggs
- Published August 29, 2011
- Top 10 Museums of 2011
- Western Heritage Center
- The Autry in Griffith Park
- National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum
- John Brown Museum State Historic Site
- Van of Enchantment Statewide
- Draper Museum of Nat’l History
- Pueblo Grande Museum
- National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
- Clark County Museum
- HONORABLE MENTIONS
- 3 MUSEUMS TO WATCH IN 2011
- Art Museum of the Year
- Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art
- New Mexico Museum of Art
- Phippen Museum
- Heard Museum
- HONORABLE MENTIONS
- 3 ART MUSEUMS TO WATCH IN 2011
- All Pages
1. Buffalo Bill Museum & Grave (Golden, Colorado)
He might be buried atop Lookout Mountain near Golden, Colorado, but William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody will never really die.
His story is told in the town where he was born (LeClaire, Iowa, at the Buffalo Bill Museum) ... in the town he founded (Cody, Wyoming, at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center’s Buffalo Bill Museum) ... and outside of Denver where he died.
Golden’s Buffalo Bill Museum & Grave—the True West Museum of 2011—was founded in 1921, four years after Cody’s death, by Cody’s foster son, Johnny Baker. The more we study Cody, the more we learn, and the Buffalo Bill Museum adapts with these revelations. Museum director Steve Friesen’s research led to a new look, and new interpretation, of Cody’s life in December 2009. In March 2010, the temporary exhibit, “Colors of Faith: Art of the Native American Church”—put together in consultation with church members—showed how Indian and Christian beliefs converged.
The museum also negotiated a donation of almost 1,000 dime novels, Wild West programs, postcards and books, while Friesen’s book Buffalo Bill: Scout, Showman, Visionary was launched in July 2010. Throw in the annual re-creation of Cody’s burial, the Buffalo Bill’s Western Roundup history festival and Cody’s birthday party, and folks easily see why this is one great museum.
Besides, you can’t beat that view from atop Lookout Mountain.
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