Checking it out, inside Top; An interior view of an old pit outhouse with double holes (built date unknown) that has been used for wood storage; it was painted with the same pink paint as the “master bedroom” of the cabin it belongs to.[/caption]

It all started because of the pandemic. The board members of the Gold Hill Museum debated in a spontaneous, part serious and part humorous, email exchange in March 2020 about what the coming season should look like.

“We were bouncing ideas back and forth to help more vulnerable community members with grocery shopping and ideas about living without toilet paper,” remembers board president Debra Yeager. It was the first day of the first complete shut down in Boulder County. At this point nobody had a clue that it was going to extend into summer. Summer is the busiest time of the year for the small non-profit in the historic gold mining town west of Boulder, Colorado, 10 miles up Sunshine Canyon. “That’s when we are open to the public, have fundraising events, the annual Community Outreach for the town people, all opportunities to collect donations,” said Yeager. Funds that are badly needed for continuous maintenance of the 1941 wooden structure that houses the museum. With none of this possible, the prospect was bleak.

However, despite the doors being closed throughout the summer of 2020 the all-volunteer museum experienced an amazing outpour of support from the community and was able to collect enough donations to perform some needed maintenance and end the year in the black. The wooden entry area with staircase and a deck received the attention it required and the original window frames that are constantly brutalized by harsh mountain weather finally got the necessary deep treatment. The unexpected closure actually made the extensive works possible.

With concerns of toilet paper shortages the board members at the Gold Hill Museum started thinking about an exhibit about privies in Gold Hill as well as the history of toilet paper as a commodity.

“With more time available the new special exhibit transpired,” recalls board member Anna Poisson, who has been photographing the outhouses still standing in town. Poisson has also researched and designed the exhibit. “Sparked by the considerations about what people used to wipe themselves before toilet paper we looked into ‘where they did it’ before the eve of indoor flush toilets.”

By the end of summer her husband, Paul, was done with the construction of an outhouse replica on the south lawn of the museum, to create additional exhibit space outside of the building. They built everything with materials and objects reclaimed around town. “It’s the best constructed outhouse in Gold Hill,” he jokes.

By the end of winter two panels with examples of and stories about outhouses in Gold Hill, as well as an 8’x 4’ outdoor panel with the timeline of the history of toilet paper were designed and ready for display. “It is a huge project for our museum and it comes as a huge thanks to the community that makes our museum possible,” says Poisson.

With regular operation possible this year, new and old challenges arise. The electrical panel needs an update to accommodate a heating/cooling system. At this point the museum does not have any means to control the temperature in the building. It makes the space useless in wintertime. Yeager says, “It restricts our ability to be open to the public and to raise funds. We had to close the doors on short notice on the first weekend of the season in late May, because it was too cold to have anyone inside the building. We also need to restrict the opening times in the afternoon during the warm summer months because by the end of the day it gets unbearably hot in the building. The heat makes wearing masks nearly impossible.”

It’s a bit of a Catch-22. You need to control the room temperature to be able to comfortably have visitors inside, but you need visitors with donations to be able to keep the museum alive. Yeager and the museum’s board hope that they will be able to raise enough money this season to tackle this among other maintenance projects. “Who knows, maybe it will spark another outburst of creativity,” adds Poisson.

The Gold Hill Museum is located at 661 Pine Street in Gold Hill, Colorado. The museum is open now through September 7, 2021. They are open Saturdays and Sundays 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. The entry is free and donations are always gratefully welcomed. The new special exhibit is titled The 2020 Outhouse Project.