2025 GCHA President’s Report
B. Travis Wright, MPS‘s 2025 GCHA President’s Report for the Grand County Historical Association was presented on November 15, 2025.
Dear Members and Friends,
Last year began with questions about how much strain a small county nonprofit could bear—rising costs, shifting staff, and a market that tested our nerve. By year’s end, the Grand County Historical Association had turned uncertainty into momentum, advancing stalled projects while expanding its reach across the county.
Thanks to the Board of Tourism, Colorado Gives Day supporters, and several private donors, we are on track to close 2025 with a stronger financial position than we began. That stability allowed us to focus on mission, not margins—to sustain well-trained staff, advance museum care, and plan for the future instead of reacting to it.
The work that most defined this year, however, was preservation leadership. For decades, GCHA’s focus has been on the stewardship of its own museums. In 2025, that circle widened while remaining true to our mission. We helped move the long-awaited Historic Preservation Board and intergovernmental agreement closer to adoption—an effort that will relaunch Grand County’s preservation framework that had been dormant for over a decade. We also secured $250,000 of funding through the State Historical Fund for the Kremmling Depot restoration, ensuring that one of the county’s most significant rail landmarks will be repaired and interpreted for future generations.
GCHA also served as a consulting party under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act for the Looking Glass Project, led by the US Forest Service with participation from Winter Park Resort. The undertaking involved the retirement of a chairlift eligible for the National Register of Historic Places and meeting all seven criteria for significance. Over the course of more than 250 hours of review, research, and technical consultation, GCHA introduced several interpretive and mitigation concepts that helped clarify what meaningful preservation outcomes could look like in future projects. Our role was to strengthen the draft Memorandum of Agreement—pressing for stronger documentation, clearer interpretive commitments, and a defensible public record. In the end, the GCHA Board of Directors voted not to sign the final document. The experience was instructive: when key details surface late, even well-intended consultation struggles to build the trust and clarity it needs. The takeaway is clear—transparency must begin on day one. And it is worth noting when others get it right. FedEx’s longstanding aircraft-donation program offers a useful example. Over the past two decades, the company has donated more than 70 retired Boeing 727s to museums, aviation programs, and training institutions—demonstrating how early planning can turn the retirement of a resource into lasting public benefit. Like other complex projects we’ve navigated, it reinforced the value of early coordination and documentation that can withstand future scrutiny. That insight will guide how we engage from here on: open dialogue early with all stakeholders, clear expectations throughout, and shared accountability for the outcomes we shape together. Through that and continued coordination with the US Forest Service, History Colorado, and the State Historic Preservation Office, GCHA remains a consistent, solutions-oriented partner in preservation decisions across Grand County—committed to balancing long-term heritage stewardship with responsible progress. As the Looking Glass era concludes, the retired chairs will be transferred for auction through the Grand Foundation. While the Board feels that approach differs from a preservation outcome, it underscores the need for early coordination on how historic resources can be retained, reused, or interpreted within community-benefit frameworks. It wasn’t the preservation ending the Board hoped for, but it won’t be the last chance to get one right.
Equally important was our engagement with the public. From the Festival of Trees to Doc Susie’s Birthday to our sold-out August fundraiser, each event reminded us that history thrives when people see themselves in it. That sense of connection—between memory, place, and participation—is what sustains our mission long after the event lights dim. More than one-third of our museum visitors now come through programs—evidence that storytelling and preservation are inseparable. Partnerships with the towns of Fraser, Granby, and Kremmling, along with Colorado State University’s History Harvest internship, expanded both our reach and our relevance. Across our sites, GCHA welcomed hundreds of new visitors, restored key facilities, and deepened partnerships in nearly every corner of Grand County.
This was also a year of internal renewal. We navigated staff transitions, welcomed new colleagues, modernized systems, and clarified succession planning. Our team’s professionalism and adaptability kept the organization steady through every change. Board members continued to provide crucial guidance, balancing fiscal realism with commitment to mission. This progress reflects the steady guidance of our Board of Directors and the daily dedication of a professional staff whose expertise keeps our museums vibrant and relevant.
Looking ahead, our horizon stretches beyond museum walls. As Grand County grows, so does the importance of protecting its cultural and historic character. The coming years will bring new opportunities tied to the 2026 statewide sesquicentennial and the 2028 centennial of the Moffat Tunnel, one of Colorado’s most ambitious engineering achievements. Our role is to ensure that the stories we tell are accurate, inclusive, and rooted in the places that shaped them—and that preservation works hand in hand with thoughtful growth. True preservation isn’t about freezing time; it’s about reinvesting in the buildings, streets, and gathering places that keep a community alive. Every project we take on strengthens local pride and trust, proving that heritage and progress can move forward together.
As we move into 2026, we invite our partners—public, private, and civic—to join us in shaping how Grand County tells its story together.
To every member, donor, volunteer, staff member, and board colleague who stood with us this year: thank you. Together, we honor the past by understanding it, serve the present by sharing it, and shape the future by protecting it. GCHA’s charge is not simply to preserve what remains, but to ensure that history continues to live—guiding the choices we make today and the legacy we leave for tomorrow.
With gratitude and resolve,
B. Travis Wright, MPS
November 15, 2025
