Established | 2011 |
---|---|
Location | 1333 Camino del Rio Durango, Colorado |
Coordinates | 37°16′44″N107°52′48″W / 37.2788°N 107.87997°W Coordinates: 37°16′44″N107°52′48″W / 37.2788°N 107.87997°W |
Type | Science museum |
Website | powsci.org |
Powerhouse Science Center, formerly The Durango Discovery Museum, is an interactive science center located in Durango, Colorado. The museum opened on February 23, 2011 in what was once a power plant. [1]
The museum is located in the Durango Light and Power Company building, built in 1892. The plant was a very early alternating current power plant, the power we use today, meaning the town of Durango had AC powered street lights before many large cities in the East. In honor of its past, the museum focuses on energy-related themes throughout its exhibit spaces and in its outreach programs. The renovated Mission-style powerhouse is a state and national historic place. Today, the original boiler room remains intact and serves as the science center's theater.
Located on the bank of the Animas River, along the Animas River Trail, the museum is part of the City of Durango's initiative to revitalize the riverfront to improve Colorado tourism. [2] The Museum is located at 1333 Camino Del Rio, Durango, Colorado.
The Four Corners FIRST LEGO League, a regional Lego Robotics competition, was coordinated by the museum in 2014. [3]
The Durango Discovery Museum closed in May 2015 due to financial troubles. Community organizations then began reorganizing and reopened the museum as the Powerhouse Science Center. [4] [5]
Colorado is a state in the Mountain West region of the United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains. Colorado is the eighth most extensive and 21st most populous U.S. state. The estimated population of Colorado is 5,758,736 as of 2019, an increase of 14.5% since the 2010 United States Census.
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, often shortened to Rio Grande, D&RG or D&RGW, formerly the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, was an American Class I railroad company. The railroad started as a 3 ft narrow-gauge line running south from Denver, Colorado, in 1870. It served mainly as a transcontinental bridge line between Denver, and Salt Lake City, Utah. The Rio Grande was also a major origin of coal and mineral traffic.
The City of Cañon City is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Fremont County, Colorado, United States. Cañon City is the principal city of the Cañon City, CO Micropolitan Statistical Area and is a part of the Front Range Urban Corridor. The city population was 16,400 at the 2010 United States Census. Cañon City straddles the easterly flowing Arkansas River and is a popular tourist destination for sightseeing, whitewater rafting, and rock climbing. The city is known for its many public parks, fossil discoveries, Skyline Drive, The Royal Gorge railroad, the Royal Gorge, and extensive natural hiking paths. In 1994, the United States Board on Geographic Names approved adding the tilde to the official name of Cañon City, a change from Canon City as the official name in its decisions of 1906 and 1975. It is one of the few U.S. cities to have the Spanish Ñ in its name, others being La Cañada Flintridge, California; Española, New Mexico; Peñasco, New Mexico; and Cañones, New Mexico.
The City of Durango is the Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of La Plata County, Colorado, United States. It is home to Fort Lewis College. The United States Census Bureau reported a population of 16,887 in the 2010 census.
The City of Montrose is the Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Montrose County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 19,132 at the 2010 United States Census. The main road that leads in and out of Montrose is U.S. Highway 50. The town is located in cardinal-western Colorado, in the upper Uncompahgre Valley and is an economic, labor, and transportation waypoint for the surrounding recreation industry. It is also the home of a few major engineering projects, namely the Gunnison Tunnel.
The Powerhouse Museum is the major branch of the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences (MAAS) in Sydney, the others being the historic Sydney Observatory at Observatory Hill, and the newer Museums Discovery Centre at Castle Hill. Although often described as a science museum, the Powerhouse has a diverse collection encompassing all sorts of technology including decorative arts, science, communication, transport, costume, furniture, media, computer technology, space technology and steam engines.
Animas River (On-e-mas) is a 126-mile-long (203 km) river in the western United States, a tributary of the San Juan River, part of the Colorado River System.
The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, often abbreviated as the D&SNG, is a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow-gauge heritage railroad that operates on 45.2 mi (72.7 km) of track between Durango and Silverton in the U.S. state of Colorado. The railway is a federally designated National Historic Landmark and is also designated by the American Society of Civil Engineers as a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.
A railway town, or railroad town, is a settlement that originated or was greatly developed because of a railway station or junction at its site.
The Southern Ute Indian Reservation is a Native American reservation in southwestern Colorado near the northern New Mexico state line. Its territory consists of land from three counties; in descending order of surface area they are La Plata, Archuleta, and Montezuma Counties. The reservation has a land area of 1,058.785 sq mi (2,742.24 km²). Its largest communities are Ignacio and Arboles. The only other community that is recognized as a separate place by the Census Bureau is the CDP of Southern Ute, which lies just southeast of Ignacio.
The Animas-La Plata water project is a water project designed to fulfill the water rights settlement of the Ute Mountain and the Southern Ute tribes of the Ute Nation in Colorado, USA.
Metropolitan State University of Denver is a public university in Denver, Colorado. MSU Denver is located on the Auraria Campus, along with the University of Colorado Denver and the Community College of Denver, in downtown Denver, adjacent to Speer Boulevard and Colfax Avenue. MSU Denver had an enrollment of 20,192 students in the Fall of 2018.
Electra Lake is a privately owned reservoir in La Plata County Colorado. Owned by Xcel Energy, Electra Lake provides water storage for the Tacoma Hydro Generating Station. The reservoir's maximum capacity is 29,800 acre⋅ft.
The Montrose County Historical Museum is located in Montrose, Colorado, USA, founded in 1973 by the Montrose County Historical Society. The society's mission is to preserve, display and interpret the historic and cultural legacy of Montrose County and its surrounding region. Its building, the Denver and Rio Grande Depot, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The 2015 Gold King Mine waste water spill was an environmental disaster that began at the Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colorado, when Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) personnel, along with workers for Environmental Restoration LLC, caused the release of toxic waste water into the Animas River watershed. They caused the accident while attempting to drain ponded water near the entrance of the mine on August 5. After the spill, the Silverton Board of Trustees and the San Juan County Commission approved a joint resolution seeking Superfund money.
The Durango Fish Hatchery is a Colorado Parks and Wildlife cold water fish production facility located near the Animas River in Durango, Colorado. The hatchery staff raise rainbow, brown, Snake River and native cutthroat trout, and kokanee salmon.