Ghost Town Museum in Colorado Springs is a whole Wild West town tucked indoors: wooden boardwalks, a saloon, a general store, a livery stable full of stagecoaches and buggies, all built from structures and artifacts rescued from the Pikes Peak region. And no, it isn’t haunted.

The museum opened in 1954 to save what was left of the region’s mining-era towns. As gold camps emptied out, their buildings were left to rot, so founders gathered storefronts, furnishings and everyday objects and set them up inside a sturdy stone building on the west side of the city. That building has its own story: the Colorado Midland Railway built it in 1899 as a shop for the steam locomotives that hauled gold ore to the Golden Cycle Mill across the street. The museum and the big stone Roundhouse next door are all that remain of those operations, which closed in 1949.

Inside, you stroll a wooden boardwalk past old storefronts and peek into a general store stacked with tins and crocks, a drugstore, a Victorian parlor, an old office cluttered with typewriters and ledgers, and the Pikes Peak Saloon. The livery stable is a highlight, with a Concord stagecoach, buggies, carriages and an early automobile. The best part is how hands-on it is: crank a butter churn, try the shooting gallery, plunk coins into antique arcade machines and nickelodeons, and catch a short film on the gold mining era. From May to September you can pan for real gold outdoors, included with admission.

Most visitors spend 45 minutes to an hour, longer with kids who get hooked on gold panning. It sits right on Highway 24, the road to Pikes Peak, so it’s an easy add-on to a day in Old Colorado City, Garden of the Gods or Manitou Springs. Insider tip: grab an old-fashioned sarsaparilla in the gift shop and look for the online coupon for $1 off admission.

Ghost Town Museum is open year-round since everything is indoors. September through May it is open daily 10 a.m.-5 p.m. (June-August until 6 p.m.), with last admission 30 minutes before closing; it closes on New Year’s Day, Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Gold panning returns in May. See ghosttownmuseum.com for tickets and group rates.