DEL NORTE — After devoting more than a year scanning 2,500-plus photographs, the Rio Grande County Museum recently finished archiving all the shots online for viewing and download. These donated pictures started to accumulate when the museum opened in 1959, some pieces dating back to the 1870s.
The most delicate artifacts are too fragile to display, but now the whole world can see them online through SmugMug, the company that bought Flickr and now offers easy access to the museum’s videos and photographs through the Internet.
Viewers can scroll for free, but if they glimpse an image they can’t resist (perhaps a scene they see in Rio Grande County every day), they can purchase a print. Proceeds support the museum’s brick-and-mortar building operations and help fund future archival projects.
The next project will capture the museum’s newspapers, a huge stack that skips a century into the past. The broadsheet format makes the scanning job more time-intensive, and image-editing can be tedious. The Rio Grande County Museum board — a 501(c)(3) nonprofit — purchased two scanners and a laptop for the SmugMug archival projects.
The first wave of pictures show mining scenes, farmers at work and campers in formal dress. Football photos from the 1920s show tough guys with minimal padding, although the rodeo cowboys in the Ski Hi Stampede shots wore even less protection.
In addition to ordering online for delivery, visitors at the museum can buy prints from wallet sizes to 16X24 inches. Prices range from 99 cents to $19.99, plus shipping. The prints are museum-quality, allowing staff to safely archive original photos and display copies in exhibits.
Museum officials operate like librarians for visitors. They give guided tours and expertly delve into exhibits ranging from the Fremont Fourth Expedition, Native American and early Hispanic settlements to the potato industry and towns of Del Norte and Monte Vista today.
In addition to art shows and exhibit openings with catered receptions, the museum extends hospitality on Saturday afternoons to serve coffee and share historic details.
The Rio Grande County Museum non-profit raises private funding for public benefits. Membership fees fund the organization, which involves no county monies. With this SmugMug endeavor, the museum opened a new revenue stream to help maintain the facility. But archive print sales are more than donations. People get great photographs to hang on their walls.
One look at the museum’s three-tiered admission pricing for non-members shows how the operation runs off passion, not profits. Adults older than 12 pay $2 and children 6–12 get in for a buck. Kids under six and active duty or retired military service members get in for free. To either make a donation or join the Rio Grande County Museum non-profit, contact the Rio Grande County Museum at 657-2847 or email [email protected].

Closed on Sunday and Monday, the Museum operates from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 to 3 on Saturdays.