NEDERLAND — Just five miles above Nederland lies the remains of Caribou, where silver mining boomed over 150 years ago, before tragedy and the decline of the mine whittled away at its legacy.

But just as stone foundations can still be seen among the overgrowth and wildflowers, the allure of Caribou persists and entices many of us who come to these mountains.

On Sunday, August 23, 2026, the Nederland Community Library hosted a special presentation by local historian, researcher, and author Silvia Pettem, based on her upcoming book, Caribou, Colorado: The Lure, Lore, and Remains of a Mining Town.

Local historian and cold case expert Silvia Pettem presented "Caribou, Colorado: The Lure, Lore, and Remains of a Mining Town."

Photo by Christopher Kelley

Pettem became inspired to become a local historian almost immediately after moving to Boulder, Colorado, in 1965. Her love of history has propelled her career as a writer, as she has worked as a Historical Features writer for the Daily Camera, the Longmont Times-Call, and is currently a history columnist with Boulder Reporting Lab. 

“Part of Caribou’s allure is the history, in my opinion, because you can’t really understand the present unless you go back to the past and put it in historic context,” Pettem said, before diving right into the beginning—the early 1860s, when a prospector named Conger discovered the Caribou silver mine after following the creeks as he hunted for elk.  

Pettem engaged the audience with tales from the old mining days of Caribou, detailing much about the ways of life back then—including the operations in the mines, and how what we know as Boulder Canyon Drive was built to deliver supplies directly to them—as well as gleefully revealing the truth behind many of the rumors that swirl around the story of Caribou.

“One of the reasons I've been doing this research is to try and disprove the things that I don’t think are true. Well, this one still needs further research,” she started to explain.

“In 1873, President Grant went to Central City and there was a lot in the newspaper about these silver bricks that were laid down in front of the Teller House. There are sources that said that the silver bricks actually were made at the Caribou mill, using Caribou ore. And then there are other sources that claim they might not have been, so the jury’s still out on that one.”

“But there was an article published in 1919 about an old timer who was just a boy, like seven or eight years old, when President Grant came to visit. He said that there definitely were silver bricks on the ground but that Grant did not walk on them, he walked around them.”  

As Pettem took the crowd on a journey through the 1870s to the turn of the century, describing each building in Caribou and where it once stood in relation to the view of those hills that we have now. 

Pettem continued through the 1900s, disproving the rumor that Al Capone owned the Potosi Mine, and highlighted how uranium was discovered in the Caribou mines in 1948. She also spoke about the 1970s and about Tom Hendricks, one of the last of the local pioneers, who spearheaded a mining revival when he bought the Cross Mine and incorporated modern, ecologically-minded procedures. 

“Tom went through a lot of boom and bust cycles,” Pettem said, noting how the price of gold is going up again. “I wish Tom was around now; maybe he could’ve made it. I’d like to think so.” 

While Pettem has published several books on local history—from Inn and Around Nederland to Boulder: A Sense of Time and Place— she has also been fortunate to work in, and write about, another of her favorite fields: cold case investigations.

Her work consulting for the Boulder Police Department, instructing under the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, and as a historical researcher and public speaker specializing in cold cases and unidentified remains, led her to a slightly uncommon interest.

“I love cemeteries,” Pettem confessed, describing what drew her to her involvement with the historic Caribou Cemetery. “The first burials were in 1875, and there’s no map, no plots, no grids. They just buried somebody wherever they wanted to be buried—which is exactly what Tom Hendricks did.

“Tom took some of his closest friends to the Caribou Cemetery, and he laid down on the ground with this beautiful view of the mountains in the background and said, ‘this is where I want to be buried.’”  

Pettem explained that the men of Caribou mostly died from mining accidents, and that many children died from scarlet fever and diphtheria. She also noted that many of the graves were unmarked, while some were displaced, broken, or completely lost to vandalism, and added that some of the historic fencing and pieces of stone have been found in the backyards of Boulder residents. 

“Everything had been vandalized, destroyed, knocked down, or disappeared; there were spaces where the stones once were, and so we couldn’t tell whose graves they were—it was very sad,” Pettem said, remembering the cemetery’s condition before some care began to be put back into it. 

The restoration of Caribou Cemetery is a mission that goes beyond the mere passing down of history, but requires hands-on dedication like that which has been performed by Pettem and the Friends of Caribou Cemetery.

In 2023, the Friends of Caribou Cemetery teamed up with the Nederland Area Historical Society; the current owners of the Cross and Caribou mines, Grand Island Resources; and the townspeople of Nederland, to fulfill one simple goal: to make that very special piece of history look like a cemetery again. 

Volunteers worked to mitigate fallen trees, repair gravestones and local graves, and to rebuild parts of the fencing and add proper signage. Forensic K-9 units and anthropology students from CU were brought in to locate unmarked gravesites, and to help restore Tom Hendricks’ final resting place to its proper glory. 

 Thanks to historians like Pettem—and to organizations like the Nederland Community Library and Nederland Area Historical Society who highlight them—the legacy of people like Hendricks and of places like Caribou continues to shine as a beacon, luring new generations to learn and to carry forth the lessons of history.