There’s not much mysterious about Barbara Hardt. She has lived here so long (since 1986), and has her fingerprint on so much going on in the Peak to Peak area that, if you live anywhere around here, you’ve run into Barb or been involved in some project she has touched. But this is about Barbara and The Mountain-Ear.

Barbara has been involved with The Mountain-Ear since October 31, 2006. She began working in classifieds when the paper was owned and published by another. She caught the journalism bug, and with her family’s help, bought the paper in 2007. She sold the paper January 3, 2023, to Christian Vanek.

Since then, she has worked on every aspect of the paper, including sales, marketing, publisher, editor, graphic design and layout, web design, social media, writing, photography, circulation and more. She strongly believes that “every position at the paper is a spoke that holds the paper together and keeps the wheels turning smoothly.”

She is thankful to have an amazing group of people, professional and volunteer, up to 46 contributors per month, who pull together to make the paper happen every week. Among other tasks at the moment, Barbara manages nine interns this semester.

She received the Colorado Press Association (CPA) Innovation Award for her leadership of The Mountain-Ear in April of 2017. At that time, the judges for the award said of The Mountain-Ear, “A strong weekly newspaper doing it all, well. Under Barbara’s leadership the paper is adapting and soaring to new heights in the changing world of the printed newspaper, online and new media. Congratulations on a job well done.”

Barb (as the community knows her) has been almost unbelievably active in service to her community. She’s volunteered for local nonprofit organizations including the Peak to Peak Healthy Communities Project, Nederland Area Seniors, and the Nederland Area Historical Society. She has served as a deacon and an elder at Nederland Community Presbyterian Church. She is a board member with the Nederland Downtown Development Authority. 

Her community extends to Gilpin County, where she has been a member of the Eagles’ Nest Early Learning Center Board, as well as a member of the Gilpin County Health and Human Services Advisory Board. She was recently selected to serve on the Gilpin Advertising Panel (GAP), where she can use her extensive knowledge of marketing and advertising to help the county.

Remembering and honoring her longtime friend and tireless reporter, Barbara Lawlor, our Barb also raises funds for and administers the Barbara Lawlor Memorial Scholarship, which she established in 2019. The fund has honored over a dozen local students with scholarships for college.

As her passion for local journalism developed, Barb’s educational goals also developed. She attended Lamar Community College from 1991 to 1992, studying Horse Training and Management, Farm and Ranch Management and Marketing and Futures. Then she attended Arapahoe Community College from 1998 to 2000, focusing on Paralegal Studies. From 2012 to 2016, she attended school part-time at Front Range Community College, graduating with a degree in Sociology and a minor in Graphic Design.

Oh…she has also assisted in marketing and promoting Brightwood Music since 2010. Those tasks developed as her relationship with Brightwood’s owner, Doug Armitage, also developed. The two married in 2020.

She plans and expects to remain in the Peak to Peak region for at least another five to ten years, full-time. She hopes to spend a bit of time each winter in a warmer location, when the time is right.

Her youngest child, Hayden, is 17 years old and is a senior at Nederland High School. Hayden also works for The Mountain-Ear, as well as TEENS, Inc. Her daughter, Allison, is 20 years old and lives in Evans, Colorado. Her older children, Matthew and Alexandra, graduated from Nederland High School in 2012 and 2013. Matthew is in the armed forces outside Seattle and Alex owns a mobile dog grooming business in Cheyenne. Barb, Doug, and her dad own a home south of Nederland.

Barb’s long term goal for the paper was to find a local buyer, and she couldn't be happier than having Christian as her new boss. She was determined to keep the paper local, and is equally determined to keep up the quality of journalism that has been established and enhanced over the last four decades.