Redstone Historical Society & Museum Description

Redstone Historical Society & Museum is a cultural and educational institution in the historic town of Redstone, Colorado, preserving and presenting the area’s unique industrial and social history. The museum showcases the heritage of Redstone’s coke oven operations and the planned community created around coal mining activities in the early 1900s, serving families, history enthusiasts, and visitors throughout the Roaring Fork Valley seeking to understand the industrial development and cultural legacy of this distinctive Colorado mountain community.

The museum’s mission is to preserve, present, and protect local historic sites, documents, artifacts, and stories while encouraging public awareness and participation through events and activities celebrating the area’s rich historical heritage. The museum building itself is a historic artifact, constructed circa 1899 as a lamp house outside the Coal Basin mine. This structure served as the shop for carbide mining lamps, where coal miners collected their lamps before entering the mine and returned them after their shifts.

Redstone’s history revolves around John Cleveland Osgood, founder and chairman of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company in the late 1890s and early 1900s. Osgood developed a railroad system in the Crystal River Valley, 250 brick beehive-shaped coke ovens, and a model town consisting of cottages, a school, clubhouse, bathhouse, store, and community garden for coke oven workers. The Highline branch of the Crystal River Railroad ran eight miles from the coke ovens to the coalmine in Coal Basin with nearly 3,000 feet of elevation gain. By 1901, the company had constructed 70 homes for miners in Coalbasin, followed by a store and clubhouse. Osgood lost control of the company in 1903 and the Coal Basin mine closed in 1909.

The museum collection includes historical photographs of Coalbasin, Redstone, and Osgood’s baronial home Cleveholm Manor, also known as Redstone Castle. Period pieces from the mining days are displayed including china, tools, postal artifacts, and written documentation. In the early 1980s, Mid-Continent Resources donated the original lamp house to the town of Redstone, and it was placed at its current location in Redstone Park under management of the Historical Society.

The Redstone Museum is free and open daily starting Memorial Day weekend from 7am to 7pm. Visitors can explore the Log Cabin Museum in Redstone Park, trek the Historic Coke Ovens self-guided walking trail, meander the National Historic District, and reserve guided tours of Redstone Castle. Walking tours resume in June by reservation. Located at 295 Redstone Boulevard, the museum sits amid preserved buildings and coke ovens that tell the story of this remarkable Colorado community. Contact history@redstonecolorado.com for more information.

Services: Museum Exhibits, Self-Guided Walking Tours, Guided Castle Tours, Educational Programming, Historical Research
Category: Culture
Features: Family, Museums, Events
Address: 295 Redstone Blvd, Carbondale, CO 81623
Directions: View on Google Maps