GFSM Visitors Post Record Attendance in January 2012!

GFSM got some great news this week: January paid attendance figures jumped more than 200% over the same month last year.

        We’ve experienced a sizable jump in numbers and everyone is running around here with huge grins these days.  Figures for January 2012 totaled 1,443 paid visitors with approximately 80% coming from areas outside of Greeley/Evans.  Last year’s monthly attendance was 554 with about 15% coming from Greeley proper. The museum attracted more than 15,000 paid visitors in 2011, another record for our attraction.

        Our popular non-profit, privately-funded museum will celebrate its third anniversary this coming Memorial Day weekend and we will continue to feature one of the world’s largest, continuous HO scale miniature railroads.

        Michelle added that she just completed a successful trip to Texas to the American Bus Association and is expecting national bus tours to begin scheduling Greeley as a stopping point in the summer of 2013.  “We’re excited about the bus prospects and we’re putting together a 15-20 minute promotional film for bus companies to show their guests as buses approach Greeley for visits.”  Jim Inglis is heading up the museum’s “production company” which will turn out the film.

Field Trip for RE-1 4th Graders

So what do forest fires, shipping port operations and railroad cabooses have in common?  For one, they were all topics covered in the recent visitation from the Gilcrest, Pete Mirich (Lasalle), and Plattville Elementary fourth grades to the Greeley Freight Station January 26^th.   More than 151 students, accompanied by their teachers, chaperones and principal toured the museum on a field trip designed to education youngsters in a host of railroad-related topics.   The field trip was sponsored by Cecil Vigil of Farmer’s Inn Mexican Restaurant in LaSalle, and a service organization asking to remain anonymous.

         Included on the program for the day were topics that covered the history of the caboose, railroad safety, forest fire prevention, movement of products through a shipping port, railroad car identification, Colorado railroad history,  along with a good dose of train watching. 

         As an added bonus, the Union Pacific added to the event by having a giant “Blade train” from nearby Vestes run through Greeley during one of the sessions.  Students got to see the giant wind machine blades up close and personal and the train rumbled north on the railroad's mainline.

         Instructors for the day included Darrell Ellis, Loveland; Don Allender, LaPorte; Wayne Hansen, Cheyenne; Karl Luce, North Denver, Jake Reese, Johnstown; Bob Owens and David Trussell, Greeley.  Other volunteers for the day included Barry Maxted, Johnstown, who handled the computer control of four trains that were demonstrated on the museum’s massive 5,500 sq. foot miniature railroad.  Phil Todd, Steven Parsons, Christine Ellis, John Vonk and John Eisenman also helped out.

         The program was under the direction of museum director Michelle Kempema and has been made available to regional school districts throughout the Northern Colorado area.