Barney Ford House Museum

The Barney Ford House is located at the corner of Main and Washington in Breckenridge, Colorado. Behind a chain link fence and shaded with beautiful cottonwood and spruce trees, the quaint home built in 1882, has now become a historic landmark and museum to honor Barney Ford, a prominent black Coloradoan who was the first owner of the home.

Elias Nashold, a prominent craftsman, designed and built the home for Mister Barney Ford, his wife Julia and their children Lewis, Sadie and Frankie. In its day, the Barney Ford House was considered a showplace home in Breckenridge.

Barney Ford was born a slave in Virginia in 1824. When he turned eighteen, he began heading west, first as a waiter on a Mississippi steamboat as his owner hired him out. He then escaped with the help of the Underground Railroad and went to Chicago where he met Henry Wagoner. Both men taught themselves to read and write, and Ford later married Wagoner's sister, Julian and fathered three children.

In 1860, Ford headed to Colorado in search of gold. Through tremendous refusals due to racial issues, and many trials and tribulations, Ford found great treasure. Legend has it that Ford had buried his gold on a mountainside in Breckenridge, Colorado. In 1964, that mountainside was historically named "Barney Ford Hill".

Ford became a prosperous tycoon in the hotel, restaurant and barbershop businesses in Denver. By the 1870's, Ford had amassed a fortune estimated at close to a quarter of a million dollars. He was a great influence to many as he aided run-away and newly freed slaves, and established Colorado's first adult education classes for Blacks. Ford, who championed the Black cause all of his life, died of a stroke in 1902.

In 2002 longtime residents Patty and Robin Theobald established the Saddle Rock Society, a non-profit foundation. They donated the Barney Ford home to the Society, in hopes of providing a public benefit for the community of Breckenridge. On July 4, 2004 the Barney Ford House Museum was opened to visitors. The Saddle Rock Society's goals for the Barney Ford House Museum are to educate the public about Barney Ford along with the role of people of color in Colorado history.