Brush Museum board member Steve Rhode explained the evolution of farm power to kids attending a recent history camp in Brush.
Brush Museum board member Steve Rhode explained the evolution of farm power to kids attending a recent history camp in Brush. (Lisa Jager/News-Tribune)
Summer is camp time for many kids and area history buff Bruce Fyfe decided several years ago to hold  a  two-day history camp  for  grade school kids in Brush to share his interest in history and cultivate interest in the Brush Museum.
This year’s camp had a railroad theme and kicked off with a living history presentation by Steve Lee of the Colorado Railroad Museum, during which Lee portrayed Hiram Wheeler, a fictitious old-time railroad conductor.
Lee, who was a sixth grade teacher in the Denver area for 32 years, works a number of different stories into his depiction of Wheeler, including the true story of the opening of the Rio Grande Southern Railroad between Ridgway and Rico in Colorado.
Lee also portrayed Otto Mears later in the day at the Brush Museum Sack Lunch program. Mears was instrumental in building numerous roads in Colorado’s southwest mountains in the late 1800s.
Fyfe, who has known Lee for a number of years, said he once used the Hiram Wheeler character in a  Christmas story he wrote for a third grade class that involved the class traveling back in time to visit the Colorado Railroad Museum.
During the first day of the history camp, presenters also included Brush History Museum board member Steve Rhode explaining the evolution of farm power, mountain man demonstrations by Jon Erickson and a Dutch oven  cooking demonstration with Doug Jones.


During the second day of the camp, the campers took a field trip up to the Colorado mountains where the campers rode on the historic Georgetown Loop Railroad, marking the first time many of the campers had taken a ride on the train. They also took a tour of the silver mine about half-way through the train ride during which they learned about early day mining.
Fyfe said the camp is designed to “cultivate an interest in the museum with these young people.” He said many of them have visited the museum on school field trips and during past involvement in summer history camps in 2011 and 2012.
Fyfe, who has volunteered as a reading tutor with the Brush school system, said he started the camp because he likes teaching kids about history. Fyfe, who is not only a history buff but a railroad buff, dressed up as an old-time railroad conductor during the first day of the camp. Fyfe said his father was interested in trains fostering an interest in trains for Fyfe since he was a young boy.