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Photo by Dan Olsen

Lou Wyman acquired this belt-drive milling-machine from an auction of Bernard Buckley's estate in Georgetown for display at the Wyman Living History Museum. Buckley was a collector of antiques and memorabilia, one of the largest landowners in Georgetown and was the source of the 1890s hearse located at the Wyman Museum.

Craig — The girls who work the front desk at the Wyman Living History Ranch and Museum keep telling Lou Wyman to stop shopping for more antiques because the place is getting full.

But the longtime resident and museum owner Wyman can't curb his attraction to old artifacts and antiques.

When he heard that Bernard Buckley, the largest landowner in Georgetown, passed away at 92 years old, Wyman knew an upcoming estate auction would feature items that might be the right fit for the living history museum in Craig.

"I knew he had a lot of old stuff and Claypoole had three auctioneers working at one time, so it must be big," Wyman said. "There's mining equipment (displays) on all the street corners in Georgetown. That's part of his stuff."

Buckley was a life-long collector of memorabilia in the town on the other side of the Continental Divide, and he was known for driving a golf cart around town after losing his license.

He owned a stamp mill in town used for crushing rock containing gold, and he was an important part of Georgetown history.

"He didn't really collect things. He used it, and sometimes even took it apart so nobody would steal it," Wyman said. "He just bought stuff and accumulated everything."

An 1890s hearse at the Wyman museum came from the Buckley collection sometime ago.

It sits restored just inside the museum doors, a near copy of one used at the turn of the century in Craig.

The items collected by Wyman at the latest auction include a milling-machine and a set of lathes.

An old engine, which is thought to be from a 1918 Beaver, caught his eye, and a Harley Davidson transmission from 1922 was discovered in a discard pile.

He bought part of an automobile believed to be a Nash.

Wyman plans to have many of the most recent acquisitions on display in the near future, and also looks ahead to more trips east as the Buckley collection is liquidated.

"I'll go down again before too long," Wyman said. "He has two places in Idaho Springs too. I think he had about 40 acres of stuff."