"Summer Hours" Monday - Friday, 10AM - 4PM, call for Off SeasonHours. Free Admission,
Frudenthal Memorial Library ground level-east entrance. Trinidad State JuniorCollege, Trinidad, Colorado.
A great place for family afternoons, the museum treasures all kindsof dinosaur bones, pottery, models of ancient village life and burials,including a fish that lived on the Santa Fe Trail back when Trinidad wasa seabed.
The Trinidad State Jr. College Archaeology Department was establishedin 1942, under the direction of Norman Dondelinger and Robert Tatem. Throughoutthe years, many noted archaeologists have taught at the college and conductedexcavations and scientific studies at numerous sites in the region. Theyrecorded many finds, recovered artifacts during supervised excavations,and cataloged and stored the artifacts at the college. Many of the itemswere put on display in a small campus museum set up by Haldon Chase. In1967, when the Freudenthal Memorial Library was built at the college, spacewas allocated on the ground floor for a larger museum.
One of the most popular exhibits, especially with local school children,contains copies of fossilized dinosaur prints -one from a duck bill dinosaur,and the other from a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The T-Rex footprints are enhancedby a beautiful backdrop painted by Willard Louden. It shows the environmentand plant life which would have been in the area when the dinosaur roamedsouthern Colorado.
A replica of the Trinchera Shelter is another special display. The rockshelter, which was discovered in eastern Las Animas County, turned out tobe a very important archaeological site. Because of the protected locationof the cave, and the subsequent dry conditions throughout the centuries,many perishable items were preserved over time, including pottery shards,projectile points, yucca sandals, braided ropes and grass mats. A few yearsago, another archaeological excavation was conducted in Trinidad when contractorswho were building an addition onto a local home discovered some large bones.They proved to be skeletal remains of Mosasaur dating back to the prehistoricCretaceous Period. Nearly 80% of the dinosaur's skeleton was recovered,and it is now on display at the museum.
The Louden-Henritze Archaeology Museum is named for Richard Louden, WillardLouden, and Ruth Henritze, three individuals who played key roles in establishingthe museum and organizing its collections and displays. Among these fascinatingdisplays in the museum are a mammoth tusk and bones recovered near Kim,CO in 1966, a fossilized skeleton of a prehistoric reptile which was discoveredand excavated near the Trinidad Power Plant, and the Abe Mason collectionof Indian artifacts. There is also a rare fish egg fossil, and a rock petroglyphdonated to the museum by a rancher who discovered the large artifact onhis property in eastern Las Animas County.
To learn More about the Geology, Fossils, and Archaeology of the TrinidadArea, visit the Louden-Henritze Archaeology Museum. The museumoffers visitors a unique look at millions of years of the area's history.On display are:
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