Four Mile Historic Park

 

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172

misha r.

Denver, CO

4/3/2009 5 photos

Trying to find the best free fun for your family?  This Denver spot is not only fun and educational for the entire family, it's also *free.  Denver's Four Mile Park is located just four miles from Downtown Denver, open year round, is situated on a beautiful 12 acre working farm, and boasts the oldest home in Denver.  Here is my list of reasons why it is one of Denver's best free family fun spots.

   * Live animals-  3 draft horses, 1 mule, 3 angora goats, 5 hens, 1 rooster, 1 farm kitty, and 9 honey bee hives.
   * Horse drawn carriage rides-  3 working wagons, 1 stage coach, 1 prairie schooner, 3 hay racks, 2 single family  covered wagons, 1 snow sleigh wagon (equipped with horses in sleigh bells in the winter months.)
   * Living historical demonstrators-  The park hires angora wool spinners, weavers, quilters, black smith's, sheep shearers, and even Native American historians to come and teach the methods of the past.
   * Yearly events-  pick pumpkins in the pumpkin patch in October, enjoy the wine and cuisine event in May, celebrate an antique Christmas in December, enjoy an old fashioned July fourth celebration, and much more.
   * 1 room school house-  An original school house, with all of its antiquities, also a black smith's barn, a root cellar, a fur hut (with a real wood burning stove,) a Miller's tool shed (with all the old tools used on a farm,) a Native American tepee, a gold panning stream, a well with a water pump and a wind mill, as well as a dance hall, and so much more.
   * A farmers garden-  The children, and you too moms and dads, can actually hoe the garden and pick vegetables in the spring and summer months.
   * School field trips-  *School sponsored field trips are not free but very low cost to each student.  The park hires a full staff to educate and entertain the children with square dances, quilting lessons, gold panning, sleigh rides, pioneer games, prairie school lessons, butter making, farm chores, Native American sand painting, and so many more fun activities.
   * Summer Camps- *Summer camps at 4 Mile House are not free.  Children can participate in week long camps, for 3 or 6 hours each day, and participate in fun activities like dressing up in clothing of the 1800's,  learning to cook on the wood burning stove (with antique kitchen supplies,) publish an old fashioned newspaper, work on the railroad, and many other jobs of the wild west.
   * Real Colorado history-  The Four Mile staff takes great pride in bringing back the slow pace of the 1800's, the life style, the lessons, the hard ships, and the simple family fun.  They even dress in period clothing on a regular basis.  The park hosts hundreds of original antiquities from the era for visitors to handle and even use.  If you tour the park, no matter your age, you will learn about Colorado history.
   * It's Free-  *Most of the park's activities are completely free to the public.  Tours of the museum (on the property) include a small fee.  The park is funded mostly with donations, monetary gifts, and memberships, which allows the public access to almost all it has to offer, free.

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150

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Carrie R.

Denver, CO

6/17/2007 1 photo

By now, I can only guess the Denver Yelp community imagines me as some sort of slightly senile older woman with dozens of cats and newspapers dating to the 40s stacked inside my home.

But let me assure you, my out-of-the-mainstream interest in historic Denver and old houses in general is not reflective of any deeper obsessive-compulsive disorder, and I am in fact a rather sane Gen Xer. Therefore, you really should read this review because it COULD MAYBE interest you.

Located on the shores of Cherry Creek, this 12 acres is what remains of a 600 acre homestead. It boasts a home/stage coach stop which dates to 1859, making it Denver's oldest standing house!

Admission to the park is FREE, enter through the Grant Family Education Center and let them know you just want to walk around. Visit the goats and the mule and see the root cellar. Have a picnic under a cottonwood. I like animals, so I like this part of the park. But it gets better:

For $2, just $1 for the kids, you can get horse-drawn wagon ride! The horses, Sam and Smokey, are HUMONGOUS!!!!

Or, for a mere $3.50, get the icing on the cake, admission to the house museum. Step back in time and see a bit of Denver's history! The family stories are really amazing. In particular, the women who lived here were, well, pioneering!

Be sure to check their website for hours, which are limited.

Also worth checking out is the Old-Fashioned Fourth of July celebration -- just $7, $4 for kids, free for kids under 5.

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