The story behind the museum should give bidders more than just a tantalizing hint of what they can expect to see in the auction catalog. It’s not like anything that has come to auction in decades.
A popular tourist attraction for nearly a century, the World’s Wonder View Tower was the promotional invention of C.W. Gregory – known as Colorado’s P.T. Barnum – and his partner, Myrtle Le Bow. The original tower structure was erected in the mid 1920s, but its expansion continued over the next decade. Intentionally gaudy and designed to lure passing tourists to its theme rooms, curio shop and museum, the roadside attraction became known to locals as simply “the Genoa Tower.”
In 1934, the US Geological Survey confirmed the tower to be the highest point between Denver and New York City. Visitors who braved the challenging 87-step hike to its 65ft pinnacle were rewarded with a panoramic view of six states. Long before the tower and museum were constructed, the site, with its natural spring, had been a stop on the Lawrence and Pikes Peak Stagecoach Line. It also could be seen from the Texas-Montana Trail.
The tower’s colorful history and inextricable connection to America’s Old West were reflected in the amazing array of collections and natural curiosities that lined its museum’s walls, shelves and ceiling rafters. Within those collections are many items of genuine historical importance, including old rifles and guns; fossils and geological specimens, pottery, stoneware jugs and Indian artifacts. Additionally, the auction inventory includes Western paintings, furniture, tools, pocketknives, antiques and old furniture.
Amateur archaeologist the late Jerry Chubbuck – who was credited with discovering an 8,000-year-old Native-American site in 1957 – took over the museum in the 1960s. He enhanced the museum’s core collection with his own private holdings of 20,000+ Indian arrowheads, artifacts, old photographs, bottles and other antiques. Chubbuck was known for his remarkable natural-history discoveries, many of which became part of the museum’s collection and will be included in the auction.
All items will be sold to the highest bidder, regardless of price. Start time will be 10 a.m. Mountain Time.
For additional information on any item in Bruhns’ Sept. 19, 2014 auction of the contents of the World’s Wonder View Tower Museum, call the gallery at 303-744-6505 or email Bruhns Auction Gallery at bruhnsauction@gmail.com. Visit Bruhns online at www.bruhnsauction.com .
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ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE
