The idea of Victorian women's clothing might conjure thoughts of corsets and crinolines, but what did the average Colorado woman in the Victorian era actually wear on a daily basis?  This dressing sequence will explore all of the layers of a pioneer woman's wardrobe from the inside out to find out what she wore, how she wore it, and why she wore it.

Angela Weeden has a background in anthropology, ethnohistory, and history museum education with 20 years of experience in living history interpretation. Her primary areas of interest center around fashion history, historic foodways, domestic history, and women's work in the Victorian era.  Angela holds a B.A. in Anthropology from Eckerd College, she is a Certified Interpretive Guide through the National Association for Interpretation, and she works as a Historic Site Interpreter at the Littleton Museum.

Date:  Friday, May 23, 2025

Time: 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Cost: $10/person

Buy tickets HERE!

Mr. Schaubs has had an interest in the culture of the fur trade since he was a child when he would walk corn rows outside of the Wisconsin community he grew up in and where he would find projectile points, pot shards, trade beads and gunflints.  On entering college, he was undecided as to whether to pursue a course of study in geology or archeology.  

Although employed as a geologist since 1978, he has maintained a keen interest in the fur trade throughout his life.  After retirement, he developed a deep interest in fur trade inventories and the material culture of the fur trade and has applied his background as a scientist in evaluating these inventories.  He shares his passion and knowledge of the fur trade with the general public as a living history interpreter in the role of a fur trader at special events held at Bent’s Old Fort NHS, Fort Laramie NHS, Fort Uncompahgre (Old Spanish Trail Association), for the Tesoro Cultural Center, and at numerous schools and public groups in the area in which he resides.  

Michael will present stories on:

Wild Tales and Lies: An 1830s Mountain Man Remembers - June 8, 2025 from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.  

Click HERE for tickets. 

Bent's Fort, the Santa Fe Trail, and the Plains Indian Fur Trade: Business in the Far West - June 29, 2025 from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. 

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"The American trapper stands by himself and is peerless for the service of the wilderness. Drop him in the midst of a prairie, or in the heart of the mountains, and he is never at a loss. He notices every landmark; can retrace his route through the most monotonous plains, or the most perplexed labyrinths of the mountains; no danger nor difficulty can appall him, and he scorns to complain under any privation. In equipping the two kinds of trappers, the Creole and Canadian are apt to prefer the light fusee; the American always grasps his rifle; he despises what he calls the "shot-gun." 

So wrote author Washington Irving on the subject of the mountaineers of the 1830s who roamed the plains and mountains of the American west in his monumental work “The Adventures of Captain Bonneville” originally published in 1837.

Writer and living historian Vic Nathan Barkin will explore those choices, firearms technology of the period, and the adventures of that unique breed, the American mountain men of the Rocky Mountains during the 1820 to 1840 period in their own words from men such as Hugh Glass, Osbourne Russell, Benjamin Bonneville, Zenas Leonard, Warren Ferris and Joe Meek.

In addition, on display will be a “museum” of original early American rifles, fuses, pistols and accoutrements along with a discussion of the business-end of firearms industry unique to the needs of the fur companies operating in the West.

Date: Friday, July 11, 2025

Time: 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Cost: $10/person

Buy Tickets HERE!