In the Folk Center
Winter in the Center
Adios Amigos:
Hola Mexico!
detail from
Swedish Design Sampler #3
Copyright Ó 2006. Dancing Bear Folk Center
Trapping in the
Big Horn Basin
Home on the Range
Early Wyoming Photos
Glade Edwards Collection
Expanded Quilt Block Wall
New Marbles
in the Collection
1870s Shipwreck Marbles
Mazet Family Marbles,
Ten Sleep, Wyo.
Exhibit: "Putting By"
A History of Canning:
Fruit Jar Collection
* Dancing Bear Quilt by:
Judy Zehner & Kim Mosher, Quilted Legends,
Steamboat Springs, Colorado
*
The Work of Our Hands
Welcome to Dancing Bear Folk Center!
Our mission is to recognize our rural Western past -- to celebrate our present -- and to preserve traditional skills for the future.
Until the widespread invention of water-powered and steam-powered machines in the 1700s and 1800s, most families built their own shelter and made their own clothes. They grew or hunted their food. When people moved to cities, people no longer had to do everything for themselves. But people in rural areas still grew much of what they ate - made what they wore - what they played with - and the tools with which they worked.
Many people who came to Wyoming from 1880 to 1920 were first-generation immigrants. They came from England, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Scandinavia, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Russia. They brought with them the traditions of their home countries - foods, songs, dances, stories and skills.
Some of those traditions are still practiced, but many are being lost. It is our goal to help preserve those traditions - to teach the skills to preserve them - and to adapt them to today's world.
Other Links of Interest
Natural Resources & Wildlife