The Colorado History Museum, known until 2026 as the History Colorado Center, is Denver’s state history museum on Broadway in the Golden Triangle. Its hands-on galleries cover everything from Ancestral Puebloan cultures to mining camps, ski towns and the communities that shape Colorado today.

The museum is the flagship of History Colorado, the state agency that grew out of the State Historical Society of Colorado, founded in 1879. The modern building at 1200 Broadway opened in April 2012 in Denver’s Civic Center cultural district, a few blocks from the State Capitol, the Denver Art Museum and the Denver Public Library. In 2026 History Colorado renamed it the Colorado History Museum, a name it says better describes what visitors find inside. The mission is the same, and so is the building with its four-story atrium hung with Colorado flags. Signs and maps may still say History Colorado Center for a while, so don’t be thrown if you see both names.

The galleries are built for touching, listening and playing as much as reading. Exhibits move through Colorado’s past from the people of the Four Corners and the Plains to the boomtowns of the mining era, the homesteaders of the eastern plains and the rise of skiing and outdoor recreation. Along the way are artifacts like the Denver-built Fritchle electric car from the early 1900s, photographs and oral histories from communities across the state, and rotating special exhibitions on sports, music, food and culture. The museum is open every day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. except Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. Adult admission is $20, and children and History Colorado members get in free. The Rendezvous Cafe on the ground floor serves lunch and coffee, and the museum is an easy walk from downtown and Civic Center Park.

Check current exhibitions, family days, lectures and History Colorado programs on the Colorado History Museum website.