Gunnison Museum

The Golden West Pioneer Council established a Telephone Exhibit in the Gunnison Pioneer Museum, Gunnison, CO in the spring of 2001. The museum is open from Memorial Day to Labor Day during the daytime hours. Many items are still being collected and transported to the museum from our Golden West Pioneers. Dave Collard, one of our board members, is a friend and former classmate of C.J. Miller who currently is President of the Gunnison County Pioneer and Historical Society and is in charge of the Pioneer Museum. If you are ever in the Gunnison area we strongly urge you to stop by and visit the museum. Tell C.J. that you are a telephone pioneer, and he will give you a special welcome with open arms.

The following photograph shows a portion of the Telephone Exhibit in the Gunnison Pioneer Museum.

Telephone Exhibit at Pioneer Museum, Gunnison, CO

During the first week of July 2005, Dave Collard and Jack Brophy delivered a telephone booth to the Gunnison Pioneer Museum. The telephone booth was donated to the museum from Jim Redman, a retired Qwest employee living in Grand Junction. The telephone booth was originally used in the Alliance, Nebraska railroad depot and was removed from service in the 1960's. Railroad telephone booths can be identfied by the unique design of having a wide and narrow glass pane in the folding door. Since the delivery of the telephone booth to the museum, Jim Redman also donated a very classy pay phone that will go into the telephone booth.

A photograph showing the telephone booth in the museum is shown below.

Left to Right is C. J. Miller (Museum Curator) and Jack Brophy (Qwest Pioneer) With the Alliance Nebraska Telephone Booth

On June 16, 2008, 8 Qwest Pioneers went to Gunnison to join 3 Gunnison Pioneer Museum volunteers to rearrange, remove duplicated items, and to log items to be put into computerized records. Most of work done that day was to computerize record keeping. Jim Wight and Bob Mc Crery worked diligently to repair a working telephone system. Thanks to their efforts that mission was accomplished. We all broke for a wonderful lunch obtained from a local deli.

Qwest Golden West Pioneers Enjoying a Great Lunch

The Golden West Pioneers are always looking for additions to the Gunnison Pioneer Museum. If you have any items of historical interest, please contact Dave Collard (See Board of Directors).