Carbon County Museum in Rawlins, Wyoming

This is a great museum. It's not as good as the Burns County Museum, home of the giant ball of twine, but it's also packed full of goodies and artifacts telling the tales of the mining and ranching ventures in this area as well as the Thomas Edison expedition and an extensive photograph collection of early day scenes and people in Rawlins and the surrounding areas.

No admission is charged, but donations are gladly accepted (I gave them $4.00). When I first arrived, I was greeted by a woman who was very nice and let me use their outlet to re-charge my camcorder battery. However, within five minutes I was accosted by an old shrew of a woman who came running over to see why I was photographing items. After explaining that I'd gotten permission from the first woman, she said, "Oh. I thought you were a professional photographer. We don't allow them." Uh, yeah. OK. But wandering around the museum, I'd turn around and there she'd be peering around the corner spying on me. Maybe she thought I was gonna steal something?! Old crabapple.

There's an old fire engine plus a giant steel safe that was uncovered about 20 years ago. They did a "Geraldo-type" opening only to find it empty. Too bad! Would've been cool to find an old mummified body stuffed inside!

The main attraction to this museum is the Big Nose George exhibit. This is such a freaky exhibit that I can't believe some long-lost relative of Big Nose George's hasn't come forward yet to decry the displaying of his remains. Whatever the case, the Carbon County Museum has a pair of shoes made out of Big Nose George.

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