Richard E. Fike

Richard E. Fike is currently director and president of the board of the Museum of the Mountain West, Inc., in Montrose, Colorado. He is a noted historical archeologist, western historian, and author. After working with the Smithsonian Institution and several other museums, he worked for 29 years with the U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management, leading the archaeology programs in Utah and Colorado. Fike was appointed by the governors of Colorado and Utah to represent historic archaeology on the state and federal registers of historic places. While serving on these committees he increased his knowledge of the best practices in historical restoration and oversaw many restoration projects. Fike began collecting historical artifacts at the age of four, had his first museum in his home at age eight, and then realized this lifelong pursuit of establishing a museum beginning in 1998 when he built the Museum of the Mountain West, Inc., designated as a non-profit museum in 2005. The museum contains eighteen historic buildings that have been donated by the community to be preserved and shared for the education of people in the importance of preserving western history. The main museum contains well over one-half million artifacts in ten recreated stores and offices… a whole western town. Richard is the author of numerous technical historical books, and most recently, a western novel.