"ColoradoTown.com KEYWORD Dillon Schoolhouse Museum"
Built in 1883 as a school, this frame building with original belfry and bell has undergone changes in use - originally as a school, in 1910 as a church and in 1972 as a museum - as well as in location. The railroad had arrived in Dillon #3 months before the school was constructed, so it was built of modern materials such as four-by-four casement windows and a pressed-tin ceiling. It sported a raised platform with curtain for programs. The outside walls were clapboarded and the roof covered with split-shake shingles.
Turn-of-the-century artifacts fill the museum. In the one-room classroom are McGuffy desks, Heath Readers (with hand-crocheted bookmarks), slates and chalk, individual learning stations (rolls), Centennial flag, flip chart, chemistry set, black constellation globe, kerosene slide projector and glass slides, phonograph, piano, organ and sand table. Other artifacts in the classroom and adjacent "store" include typewriters, clothing and jewelry, baseball paraphernalia, grinder, post office boxes, buttons, beaver traps, snowshoes, fire apparatus, blacksmith tools, assay scales, ballot box, beer bottles, cigar mold and tobacco cutter, saddles and butcher block.
The annex contains the historical society's archives: newspapers, books, brochures, maps, photographs, governmental documents, clothing, correspondence and more. It is the only archival depository in the county.
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