Jennifer Livingston, Nederland. Two rock pillars, understated and solemn, mark the entrance to Nederland’s cemetery. Tall, well kempt Ponderosa stand as dignified stewards of their buried wards. “If you want to understand a town, a people, their history, get to know their dead,” says local archeologist Brandy Hale. It makes sense, especially coming from an archeologist. The remains of many of the stories, the loves, the losses and the lives lived here in Nederland are resting there. But where exactly? 

Nederland’s cemetery was not always there, off Forest Road. Hale explained that it was actually relocated to its current place sometime in the 1920’s. Record keeping was a bit dodgy then, and even now, with limited budgets and personnel pulled in myriad directions, with broken headstones and lost descendants, there remain significant questions as to exactly who is where, the location of empty plots, and with whom the deed to empty plots may now rest. 

In a valiant effort to begin to answer such questions, Hale has teamed up with Jennifer Muha, chair of the Front Range Community College (FRCC) Geospatial Science Department. Muha won a grant from the National Science Foundation allowing FRCC faculty to support students with the guidance and expensive technology needed to actually apply GIS technology and create real world GIS solutions.  

In this case, FRCC has been able to partner with the Town of Nederland to allow Hale and Muha to use GIS technology and professional level expertise to do something Nederland would probably not be able to do on its own. Hale will be able to create an interactive map, searchable by attribute, that can include information about the deceased from the Nederland Area Historical Society, documents such as death certificates and news clippings, and record who hold deeds to yet empty plots.

But where are those empty plots exactly? Nederland’s Cemetery is not alone in wondering. Caribou Cemetery has suffered vandalism, the theft of headstones and other such desecration and abuse. Peyton Jackson of Grand Island Resources Foundation has been working to partner with Colorado University to use Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and visualize plots without disturbing remains. The Denver History Museum also has a collection of information and photographs that could be used to piece together a more cohesive understanding of Caribou Cemetery. It’s entirely possible that through partnership and collaboration both cemeteries could one day have accurate and thorough records archived in an interactive and searchable GIS database.

FRCC and Muha stand ready to offer the Nederland Area additional opportunity beyond honoring our dead and understanding our history. Muha explains that GIS technology is used for species and migration mapping, water and fire planning, environmental impact analysis, surveying, geology, mapping patterns of human traffiking etc. The 12 credit certificate program FRCC offers prepares students with the information and experience they need to be able to immediately enter the workforce, and to create and execute projects that matter. FRCC has reached out to Nederland Jr./Sr. High with this program on offer, creating what could be a huge opportunity for our local youth to be able to design their own projects and create compelling resumes and work histories. 

Advances in technology are astounding, as are professionals and students like Muha and Hale who dedicate themselves to learning and using new tools to uncover the past and inform the future. Citizens and descendants of the Nederland area stand to benefit greatly from Hale’s project, the efforts of Grand Island Resources Foundation, and the support of FRCC as we look forward to more meaningful and mutually beneficial community partnerships. 

(Originally published in the November 14, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)