New projects for Carbon County Museum

The Carbon County Museum is currently working on two different, projects that they hope will boost tourism in the County. According to Kelly Bohanan, Director for the Carbon County Museum, they are working on renovating the Hugus-Ferguson building for their new museum facilities and building a walking trail along Merrell Hill off Interstate 80.

The Hugus-Ferguson building was, according to Bohanan, built in the 1890's, and is located in downtown Rawlins on the Corner of Fifth and Cedar.

Bohanan had it in the back of her head for a while; thinking about the potential that facility may have for renovation.

"Literally I was losing sleep over the idea of sort of saving the Ferguson building," Bohanan said.

According to Bohanan, she first divulged her idea at a design committee meeting when she was informed that Main Street Wyoming had some funds available for the Museum. Bohanan knew that the Ferguson building first needed a structural assessment to see if there was potential to move the museum to that location. She was told that she could use the money for that purpose.

Eventually, it was decided that the museum would move along on the project and the town, on Dec. 30, 2013, bought the Hugus-Ferguson building with intentions of creating the Carbon County Museum and Research Center.

According to Bohanan, the building has three stories-allowing for a much larger space then their current facilities.

"The whole new facility will do on a much larger scale what we are doing here; there will just be a lot more interpretation and interaction," said Bohanan.

One of the more notable features of the new museum is the visitor center that will be located within the building. "Right now Rawlins does not have a central visitors center that is a full-time, year-round facility and that's what this one will be," said Bohanan.

The Hugus-Ferguson building is intended to be a three-to-five-year project. After the town bought the building, the museum employees were not allowed into the facility due to a dangerous building citation. So, according to Bohanan, they have only had access to the interior of the building for the past six months.

Museum staff has been working on demolition of the interior and 90 percent of that has been completed.

"Were at a point now where there is really not much else that the employees can do," Bohanan stated. "County Commissioners just approved the funding for the construction documents."

The other project that will take less time will be the walking trail on Merrell Hill, a historical property where Judge Homer Merrell, District Court Judge, built a mansion on.

Although the mansion is no longer on the property, Bonahan hopes to use this area to promote tourism.

"Right now that's a huge gap in what we are doing as far as building up tourism," Bohanan said. "And we are one of the communities right off the interstate that has the potential to pull from that."

The vision is to create a walking trail that is essentially a map of the county. Each town will be represented on the trail and each town is able to contribute by adding objects to their location along the path.

Bohanan describes these objects, as preferably large-sized. In attempt to explain the type of size on objects they are looking for, Bohanan mentions the large buffalo that is located off an exit in Fort Collins along Interstate 25. Bohanan exclaims, "That buffalo is five times the size of a regular buffalo."

Bohanan thinks that's what will catch the attention from Interstate 80 drivers-resulting in more activity within the region.

"Its our job to be trying to capture the next tourist dollar and everyone should be doing what we can to talk each other up and do what we can. Whether it's a cup of coffee or an additional meal. The goal of course is an overnight stay, put some heads in beds."