Rangely Outdoor Museum

10/08/2026

Rangely is an important stop on the Dinosaur Diamond Scenic Byway.

from Ted Alan Stedman - 'A Jurassic Journey'

1.s3.amazonaws.com/cuttingpdfs/1707719/82a9cf4f33be4dcff23b1a6e224defa4.pdf

09/25/2026

We are wanting to include a photo from the Septemberfest parade ( of the Dominguez Escalante guys of course) into the new permanent exhibit. If you took any photos, and wouldn’t mind us using it, please post them here. Whichever photo we think would best fit the exhibit, we can have printed. We will most definitely credit the photographer should your photo be chosen. Thanks!!

09/22/2026

Time for another artifact from the museum, this time from another pioneer family. These moccasins were brought to us by the Robertson family ( Cheryl Robertson is our Board President by the way), they belonged to her mother Ruby (Rector) Kirby. Ruby was born in 1902, and the moccasins were a gift from members of the Ute Tribe. It was a custom among the Utes to gift adult sized moccasins to newborns so they would grow into them. The infant mortality rates were high among settlers in the west, and even higher among the native peoples. The photo of Ruby was taken when she was a teenager.

09/19/2026

My wife and I traveled to Spanish Fork UT to help them celebrate their Domínguez Escalante event. We handed out a bunch of flyers, the museum, the TANK, Town of Rangely, Canyon Pintado, and met a lot of great people. The Native dancers were great, a lot of kids from the NEPO school. Hopefully Rangely will have a few more visitors next summer.

09/16/2026

Can anyone help identify this old timer? Just kidding, sometimes AI does help humanity, and sometimes it doesn’t. One of the cool things about being an admin is the FB gives us an analytics rundown on our page. While the majority of our followers are females over the age of 65, our next largest demographic is followers under the age of 35. This makes me happy 😊. We have almost reached 800 followers, do you think we could get to 1000 by the end of the month? Please share our posts to anyone you think might enjoy it. THANKS.

09/16/2026

Got some photos from the City of Spanish Fork’s visit on the 10th. The traveling cross they had made will end up at a ceremony in Spanish Fork this Friday. I will be there, and get some photos. Thank You Caleb Pollak and to the City Council of Spanish Fork UT.

09/15/2026

Our Facebook friends keep getting more and more plentiful every time we post something cool, so I thought it would be a great idea to post about some of our artifacts.
This washing machine belonged to Rangely’s first school teacher, and was brought to us by Jon and Fran Hill. Caroline Blakeslee came here with her sister in the late 1800’s to teach school and stake out a homestead. It took several days to get from Grand Junction to Rangely back then, and must have felt like going to the moon for a young lady from back east. Caroline wrote about the experience several years later. While her sister chose to return to the east, Caroline met, fell in love with, and married C.P. Hill. They ran a trading post at the junction of the White River and Douglas Creek, and later moved the operation to Bitter Creek.
Frontier life was not easy, but Mrs. Hill was more than up to the task. She and C.P. raised their children here, and built the foundations of a community.

09/11/2026

Our first official Domínguez Escalante Expedition Day and Highway Marker Rededication was very nice. It was wonderful to honor not only the brave men of the 1776 expedition, but also the preservationists who placed a memorial 75 years ago to the day. It was a beautiful evening. Thank you to Mayor Todd Thayne and Jeannie Caldwell from the Town of Rangely for presenting us with a framed copy of the Town Councils official declaration. Thank you to all of the people who were there to support our efforts.
The City of Spanish Fork UT sent a representative and a photographer to the museum today, sorry I didn’t get photos, but it’s because I was in all of the photos. When they send pics to me, I will post them. They had a really cool display.

09/09/2026

I hope everyone was able to visit the museum last Sunday for the Ice Cream Social, and I hope you were able to visit our new Domínguez Escalante Exhibit. Thank you so much to History Colorado, who’s $7,500 grant paid for the majority of the display and the parade activities. Huge Thank You to Dr. Lisa Jones and Jennifer Barker from Colorado Northwestern Community College, they funded and put together the map, frame and all. To all of the people who helped me with D&E research, Thank You.
The museum will be open for our D&E Expedition Day and highway marker re-dedication at 7:00pm tomorrow, and again on Thursday at 3:00 for the Spanish Fork UT traveling memorial, then we will be closed for the season.

09/07/2026

A huge Thank You to Wade Allred, C**t Allred, Jarrod Fiscus, and Connor Dastur, for representing the Dominguez/Escalante Expedition for the museum in this morning’s parade. Thank You to everyone who came to Sundays Ice Cream Social, and supported the Rangely Outdoor Museum! We are celebrating the official “Domínguez Escalante Expedition Day” on Wednesday the 9th, at 7:00pm. We will re-dedicate the roadside marker, across the highway from the museum, that was placed 75 years ago this year. We will have refreshments, and answer any questions that we can about the 1776 exhibition. On Thursday the 10th, representatives from the city of Spanish Fork Utah will be at the museum with a traveling memorial to the expedition, at 3:00pm.