Travel back in time millions of years to witness Denver's astonishingly varied past! The original Ancient Denvers landscape paintings and images are currently on display at the Museum.

The result of a unique collaboration between local artists and Museum scientists, the exhibition shows how the rock layers beneath our feet and exposed along the Front Range have yielded evidence of the region's surprising past.

Ancient Denvers Companion Book: To help you in your journey into the past, pick up a copy of Ancient Denvers: Scenes from the Past 300 Million Years of Colorado’s Front Range, on sale in the Museum Shop. It will propel you back in time with full-color reproductions of the paintings, along with detailed descriptions of the landscapes and a map to help you track down geologic remnants of Denver’s distant past. So find out what lies beneath your feet. You’ll be surprised at where you’ve been walking!

Funding Sources
The Ancient Denvers paintings were funded by the National Science Foundation (Grant no. EAR-9805474). Ancient Denvers is an outreach effort of the Denver Basin research project at the Museum. Primary funding for the Denver Basin Project was provided by the National Science Foundation, the Colorado Water Conservation Board, the Colorado State Engineer's Office, the United States Geological Survey, the Colorado Division of Water Resources, Elbert County Commissioners, Jefferson County Open Space, the Colorado Natural Areas Council, and Prima Energy.