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Historical Society Museum |
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San Juan County Historical Society Museum History
Silverton’s Historical Society Museum is in the old San Juan County jail. It was built in 1902 and was the first structure on Court House Square. In 1965 the jail was opened as a museum, and on Memorial Day in 1995, with Silverton’s community Brass Band playing and two inches of fresh snow on the ground, the museum celebrated its 30th anniversary.
Built from a pre-fab kit, the jail was transported to Silverton by train from St. Louis, Missouri. While built to house prisoners, part of the first floor was designated as living quarters for the sheriff’s family.
The family had a kitchen, bedroom and living room. The living room had the only door that entered the jail from the family’s living area. There was a heavy steel door separating that room from the rest of the jail. In exchange for free living quarters, the sheriff’s wife cooked meals for prisoners. From her kitchen was a small opening through which she passed food to the female prisoners.
Jail records suggest a rarely empty jail. Hopes for gold and silver brought many colorful and interesting characters to town, including the famed Wyatt Earp, briefly in 1883. There was also an abundance of gambling, saloons, dance halls, shootings and violence.
Today the side entrance (handicapped accessible) into the museum looks out upon the San Juan County Court House. In 1902, six years before the Court House was built, that entrance was the jail entrance. The first room in the jail was the processing room. Female prisoners were placed behind the steel door in back of the processing room (this room is now a bedroom display). Up the stairs, through three sets of steel doors, male prisoners faced the cell block, an intricate design that resembles a cage in the middle of the room.
The basement of the jail was used for the family’s storage of food. However, from time to time it was also used as a drunk tank.
By the 1930s Silverton’s population and crime had dwindled. A holding cell in the Town Hall could be used, and eventually the jail closed. For a time it was used as a poorhouse and a number of men lived or slept there. Eventually the jail was abandoned and left to the quiet and cold ghosts.
In the late 1950s Lena Scheer Bausman set about to organize the beginnings of a museum. The County Commissioners allowed her to use the jail to house many donated items. She was never able to open the jail formally as a museum, but years later, in 1965, the jail was officially dedicated and became the San Juan County Historical Society Museum.
Today the jail is no longer home to prisoners, but to items and collections donated to the Society by generous people. The exhibits include a collection of Otto Mears Silver Railroad Passes, an extensive local mineral collection, early day mining and surveying equipment, a Derringer handgun collection, old-time switchboard, early day school room, and a fully equipped turn-of-the-century kitchen. And upstairs, are the original jail cells, complete with ball and chain. Bring your camera!
Our new Mining Heritage Center is entered through a tunnel which connects the basement of the jail with the new addition—three floors of displays, exhibits and artifacts. |
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Silverton, Colorado |
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San Juan County Historical Society |
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Photo by Judy Zimmerman |
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To contact us: |
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San Juan County Historical Society P.O. Box 154 Silverton, Colorado 81433 |
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Copyright © San Juan County Historical Society |