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The Santa Fe Trail Scenic Byway Visitors Center is located inside the Trinidad History Museum (A Colorado Historical Society Property) 312 East Main Street, P.O. Box 377, Trinidad, CO 81082, Phone 719-846-7217, www.coloradohistory.org/
Come by the museum and see our Byway Interpretive Center and Podcasts. Free maps and brochures of the Santa Fe Trail.
The Trinidad History Museum
Located on 300 E. Main Street, U.S. Highway 350 in Trinidad. Step back
in time at the Trinidad History museum, a unique complex overlooking the
Santa Fe Trail. The Museum consists of four attractions occupying an entire
city block. The Baca House and Santa Fe Trail Museum are part of the Trinidad
History Museum, a unique historic site which also includes the Bloom Mansion.
Heritage Gardens contain native plants, century-old trees, and a Victorian
flower, herb and vegetable garden, complete the picture of perfection. Historic
photographs, family possessions, and commercial goods on display evoke the
life ways of early inhabitants of southeastern Colorado in the Santa Fe
Trail Museum, which extends behind two distinguished hilltop residences.
The charming museum bookstore has an extensive collection of books about
the Santa Fe Trail and its famed characters and legends. Learn more about
some of the characters from Trinidad's past (Kit Carson, Bat Masterson,
Billy the Kid, and Mother Jones) and about the people who built the kingdoms
of ranching and of coal, the wealth on which Trinidad was built.
The museum features exhibits depicting local history from Trail days through the 1920s. The museum houses a chuck box from the Bloom Cattle Company, and other objects ranging from beer bottles to a brougham. Other attractions on the site include the Baca House and Bloom Mansion. The museum also contains a bookstore, research archives, and Scenic Byway Visitors Center. The two landmark homes are available by reservation for groups of 12 or more people.
Historic House Tours
Enjoy tours of the Baca House and Bloom Mansion at the Trinidad History Museum on two upcoming Saturdays, December 11 and 18, 2010; at 10:00 am, 12:00 pm, and 2:00 pm. Meet at the Museum Bookstore at 312 E. Main. Limited to twelve people per tour; fee charged. Call 719-846-7217.
Open hours
Schedule subject to change ~ Call 719-846-7217
BOOK AND GIFT SHOP, DAVENPORT GALLERY, AND TOURIST~BYWAYS INFORMATION CENTER, Open Wednesday-Saturday, 10 AM-4 PM. In December, the book store will be open Mon.-Sat., 10 a.m.–4 p.m. Groups over 12 please make reservations. Admission is charged. For more information, call 719-846-7217.
SANTA FE TRAIL MUSEUM , is available for groups of 12 with reservations; please call at least five days in advance to make arrangements during off season.
The Heritage Gardens 
The Gardens are stunning with the brick pathways which wind through a landscape of century old trees. The heritage gardens are filled with herbs and vegetables of the Hispanic Southwest, and recreated Victorian flower beds. The garden contains old stock grape and trumpet vines as well. Several times during the summer, these cool and winsome gardens are the setting for special musical, arts and children's frontier crafts events.
Santa Fe Trail Museum
The Santa Fe Trail Museum, located in the same block as the other museum.
This is where the Bacas' workers lived and is filled with local artifacts.
Exhibits feature life and times from trail days through 1920, people and
episodes from the Santa Fe Trail period and Trinidad's heyday as a commercial
cattle ranching and coal mining center.
See Kit Carson's fringed buckskin coat on display. This historic adobe building served as living quarters for employees and here you will find historic photographs, family heirlooms, commercial goods, and other local artifacts. The museum sponsors the annual Santa Fe Trail Festival the Second Saturday in June.
The Baca House
The Hough- Baca House was built near the end of the Santa Fe Trail era
by John Hough. John Hough moved to Trinidad with his wife Mary and their
two daughters from the Trail town of Boggsville. His mercantile firm in
Trinidad, Prowers & Hough, boasted that it carried the "Largest
and best selected Stock of Dry Goods, Groceries, Tobaccos, and Liquors in
Colorado Territory." The Santa Fe Trail passed near the house and several
of its present furnishings were brought west on the trail.
In 1870, workers constructed a two-story adobe house for the Hough family. The impressive structure was built using Hispanic construction techniques and English design. John Hough called it "a fine residence for them days." The Hough family lived in the house until 1873, when they moved to West Las Animas, Colorado, where Prowers & Hough set up a forwarding and commission business at the new railhead. Hough worried about selling his expensive house, but Felipe and Dolores Baca were interested. They negotiated a price of $7,000 worth of wool for the property. For an additional $1,500 in wool, the Houghs sold their furniture to the Bacas.
Felipe Baca was one of Trinidad's founders and most prominent businessmen. The Bacas were farmers, ranchers, merchants and civic leaders. Felipe Baca lived in the hacienda with his wife Dolores and their children. The two-story adobe Baca House, evokes the lifestyle of a prominent period. The adobe blends Hispanic folk art with the Victorian opulence of it's furnishings. The Historic Baca House displays a bed and piano from the original Hough-Baca trade, period furnishings from the region, Hispanic folk art, and Baca family possessions.
Bloom Mansion
Next door to the Baca House stands the Bloom Mansion, a Victorian home
built in 1882. Flower, herb and vegetable gardens, a gift shop and bookstore
are located at the complex. The Bloom Mansion was home of merchant, banker,
and cattle baron Frank Bloom and his wife Sarah. The house is French in
design and is complemented with ornate furnishings. The restoration of the
Bloom Mansion formal parlor and dining room is complete and the house is
fully open to the public. Hand-printed wall papers are reproduced from President
James Garfield's Ohio estate and historic homes in Denver, California and
North Dakota.
Receive free admission with your Scenic Byway Membership
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