Log in Subscribe

Keeping the region alive, figuratively and literally

CHRISTOPHER KELLEY
Posted 1/22/25

A great character in modern fiction once said, “when two separate events happen simultaneously pertaining to the same object of inquiry, we must pay strict attention.” This couldn’t have been proven more true than in a recent case involving...

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Keeping the region alive, figuratively and literally

Posted

PEAK TO PEAK - A great character in modern fiction once said, “when two separate events happen simultaneously pertaining to the same object of inquiry, we must pay strict attention.” This couldn’t have been proven more true than in a recent case involving mountain-born Emmit Hoyl. 

First, in December, 2024, a local resident submitted to The Mountain-Ear a recommendation for a news story about Emmit Hoyl.

No more than a week later, during a meeting of the Nederland Fire Protection District Board of Directors, it was announced that a ceremony was being planned to honor the actions of two locals residents…one of them Emmit Hoyl. 

The two matters for which Hoyl was being celebrated were completely different.

Just doing an advanced search of Hoyl’s name on The Mountain-Ear’s website will provide a window into why his name can be heard across different corners of the Peak-to-Peak region. For decades he has served the community where he grew up in a myriad of ways.

His work with the Nederland Area Historical Society has helped to keep the Town’s past times in our thoughts, as he has worked continuously to maintain the Gillaspie House, to teach and carry the skills of traditional blacksmithing and mining, and to keep the great 100-year-old steam shovel moving and whistling. 

He, along with his wife Dr. Shivaun Hoyl, ran the Miners’ Days event in Nederland for several years, which featured activities, shows, and competitions that highlighted the early pioneering days in the Colorado mountains.  

And, continuing his work of revering the culture of mountain folk and representing Colorado on the world stage, Hoyl has won the World Championship in Single Jack Drilling several times, doing so for the 10th time in 2024. 

“It’s a historical reenactment of the old methods of hard rock mining, and that developed into a work:sport competition that was one of the biggest sporting events in the western U.S. in its era, equivalent of a football game today,” Hoyl explained.

“Mining was the central economy for this region, so all these area mines would pit their best miners against each other, and there were high stakes.”

Hoyl’s achievement was the news story recommended to The Mountain-Ear, as this most recent feat is a testament to his dedication. 

“I started doing it as a kid in Nederland when Old Timers’ and Miners’ Days were going on,” Hoyl said. “I would do the kids’ mucking competition. I never did single jack as a kid, but then came back to it as an adult when the historical society began putting on Miners’ Days.”

With other Nederland locals to look up to, such as Mike Smith, who won world championships in 1972 and 1975, and Tom Williams, who won in 1977, Hoyl began competing professionally in 2005, and has since been trading first place wins with his rival Tom Donavan from Reno, all to reach his personal goal of winning the championship more than 13 times.

Hoyl’s accomplishments in this field have never been better described than by the great Barbara Lawlor in her article “Hoyl reclaims world championship,” published in The Mountain-Ear on November 11, 2015.

Lawlor wrote that Hoyl “frightened some of the hand drilling competitors with his bulging biceps and formidable forearms so terribly that he drilled his way to win the 2015 World Championship.” 

But it wasn’t always easy, as single jack drilling can be a grueling task, often a dangerous one, even for those who have done it for years.

“The crux of the whole thing is, if you’re not accurate and you hit your hand, it’ll be a pretty short-lived career. I’ve hit my hand once,” Hoyl noted. 

During the 2011 world championships in Carson City, Nevada, a chip of Hoyl’s hammer flew off after a strike, puncturing an artery in his arm, causing him to lose a liter of blood. Though he was still willing to compete, Hoyl forfeited at the request of a doctor, who warned that continuing could result in his death.

The injury is what set him back, until rising up with those aforementioned biceps to take the win in 2015. 

“Blacksmithing strengthened my arms and got them tuned up for swinging a hammer for five minutes straight, and world championships is a ten-minute-long competition!” 

The strength, endurance, and technical precision required in competing in single jack drilling are also essential in the many other activities that Hoyl has participated in, including public service.

Hoyl has served as Lieutenant with the Timberline Fire Protection District (TFPD), where his indomitable spirit was channeled through fighting fires and pursuing wildfire mitigation funding for Gilpin County, to protect the land and the people that he loves. 

Being a part of the TFPD was something that Hoyl wore with respect, and he demonstrated that due regard in ways beyond just his service.

In 2012, Hoyl participated in the annual 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb, where he and 343 fellow firefighters climbed the 110 stories of the CenturyLink building in downtown Denver, in full bunker gear—twice.

He wrote his first-hand account of this ceremonial event in the article “TFPD participates in Memorial Stair Climb,” published September 13, 2012.

One passage reads: “It was humbling to stop and think that all of us were a representation of the firefighters who died that one fateful day. A long moment of silence was given at 8:28 a.m., the Mountain Standard Time when the second tower collapsed. It was only broken by the haunting melody of bagpipes, which served as our rally cry to start climbing.”

Though Hoyl is not as directly active with the TFPD as he was back then, the fundamentals that he learned as a firefighter rang true with his own ethos, so much so that he still carries them with him today.

It was made apparent that those fundamentals of fighting a fire stuck with him, when on the morning of October 31, 2024, what was thought to be a routine slash burn on a neighbor’s property quickly grew out of control.

“I received a phone call from a contractor who does work for us at the Los Lagos Ranch and he said there was a fire on our property,” Hoyl explained, noting that the ranch has been in his family since 1894.

“It was actually on the neighbor’s property, and I asked ‘did you call 911?’ and he said ‘no, I called you,’” Hoyl laughed. “I said ‘call 911’ and hung up on him.” 

Within minutes of the fire being officially reported, as the Nederland Fire Protection District (NFPD), TFPD, U.S. Forest Service (USFS), Boulder County Emergency Services, and Boulder County Fire Management were being dispatched, Hoyl and Scott Porter began fighting it, putting to use Hoyl’s own brush truck.

“I’ve always had a passion for fighting fires and in trying to keep myself in that world a little bit, and because we have so much acreage on the ranch, 12 years ago I bought a firefighting pump and have been maintaining it and keeping it running all these years in the anticipation of the inevitable,” Hoyl said. 

“Scott was just in the right spot at the right time,” Hoyl explained how he was in his office doing paperwork at the ranch, and how it was kismet that he and Porter were there that morning.

“We parked (the truck), got things running, and got water on the fire pretty quickly. Funny enough, a pack rat had got to the pump wiring, which shorted out the battery,” he added ruefully. The thoroughly inconvenient setback made the next five minutes mitigating the issue seem like an eternity.

But despite the minor hiccup, Hoyl and Porter were able to successfully douse the fire, keeping it from spreading before the authorities could arrive. 

On January 15, 2025, during the NFPD’s Board meeting, Nederland’s Fire Chief Charlie Schmidtmann, TFPD Fire Chief Paul Ondr, and Edward LeBlanc from USFS, acknowledged Hoyl’s and Porter’s “fast thinking and swift action.” 

“These actions prevented this incident from spreading and becoming a larger incident, possibly damaging multiple properties, losing homes, and endangering lives,” Chief Schmidtmann said. 

Hoyl added, “For me it’s always been a matter of ‘when,’ not ‘if,’ which led to my involvement with the fire department and to all that training, so I could get to this point where I felt comfortable enough to go and do what I did.

“But I certainly wouldn’t recommend anyone who doesn’t have that background knowledge trying to engage in that kind of scenario.” 

Hoyl’s interview with The Mountain-Ear ended as he was due to coach ice hockey for those eight years old and younger. His motto for the kids: “If you can skate, you’re doing great.” 

The proud husband and father of two—eight-year-old Wade and three-year-old Briggs—in his job, in his volunteerism, in his public service, and in his life, works to truly embody the mountain spirit.

Because of his blacksmithing, his artistic ironwork, making his own tools (including the Hoylaski firefighting axe), his real estate and home construction work, or all the things mentioned in this article, Hoyl’s name indeed does echo across the Peak to Peak, because he strives to keep the region alive, both figuratively and literally.