Historical Society of Idaho Springs & Visitor Center — Attraction in Idaho Springs

If I had the option to not give any stars, I would. My husband and I went into the visitor center to speak with the forest ranger on duty. Unfortunately she was not there. But that isn’t the issue.

The staff of the visitor center was extremely rude, and was very combative from the start. She asked my husband if he needed help. To which he replied that he did. He explained that we needed to show ID to the ranger so he could get his veterans disability discount for a reservation made through the forest service. To which she became combative and huffy and puffy. She began saying “well what do you want me to do? And I don’t know what you want! And speak to her like a human being.” Mind you, he had pulled up the email prior to this explosion that explained exactly what we needed.

She was so rude I had to step in and tell her she was being rude and she needed to not speak to us in that way. I asked to see the manager. Who basically didn’t do much to educate her employee on customer service because she kept chiming in every chance she could get.

After all this, we were told that the ranger was on lunch but would be back in 15 minutes. But the clerk attempted to kick us out of the visitor center. Didn’t happen.

Meanwhile, my husband and I noticed that every time a Caucasian person entered the center, she was all nice and proper. But had nothing but a nasty attitude from the beginning of her interaction with us.

If you are in the customer service industry... I suggest you check your racial bias’ at the door and learn to control your emotions. This situation could easily have been handled if she would have just said, you know what, I don’t work for the forest service but the ranger would be back soon. Didn’t need her...

I was there very early in the morning. Parking was NOT an issue. Navigating through hoards of tourists was NOT an issue. I stopped here early in the morning solely for the purpose of walking my dog. Early in the morning is NOT the time of day for tourists with questions to ask, and have answered, because the Visitors Center is closed till approximately 0800. Since I was here early in the morning, I cannot provide any information about the service one would receive, if they were in need of services. Signage depicting the location of The Visitor Center is lacking. Perhaps it's by design? Westbound on I-70 there is a Blue Sign depicting Idaho Springs Visitor Center next Exit. I exited I-70 on the East end of town, the off ramp feeds into a Traffic Congestion Circle. Centered in this circle is a reproduction of a Mine Shaft. (Idaho Springs is where the Gold rush began.) Directly don't do what I did. I ended up going clear around the Mine Shaft, departing from the wrong exit and proceeded to the Police Department. I saw an old building and thought to myself; "Self, this must be the Forest Service Department and Visitors Center. Yeah, it cannot be anything else it looks just like the Forest Service Department, in Woodland Park." I am still certain that Suki, my four-legged companion still laughs about my gaffe. Well, I recovered quite nicely and got headed in the correct direction, and made it to the Visitors Center. Suki looked at me a few times and was most likely thinking; "Silly human, you should probably get your eyes checked, I saw this place from the Police Department."

As I said I cannot review any more...

Came here on a weekday mid-day. Staff was highly uninterested in talking with visitors. We inquired about the cost of the museum, and were informed we could walk around the desk to find out the cost. After walking around the desk to read the sign (it's7 dollars unless you're military or retired), we bought tickets. No further info on the town or museum was offered, just told we could walk through into the museum. Staff never greeted any visitors while we were there, but did spend time talking about their personal lives loud enough to hear them in the museum. The museum, while it contains a cool collection of items and photos, and has a neat sounding expansion underway upstairs, really suffered from a lack of signage. For example, there was a beautiful dress in a case. No signage about the age or materials of dress, or who it belonged to, or why it was in this museum at all. We deduced that there was a printing press in the back room, since we had an idea of what one might look like. The museum took about 20 minutes to go through, since there wasn't much info...