Barbara Lawlor, Nederland. Summer is the time to throw open the doors, to let in the breezes, the sunshine, the sounds and smells of new life and new green. It is also the time, if tourism is your biggest source of income, to welcome visitors who want to know more about our historic mining town.
People from Iowa have never seen the machinery that pulled gold, silver and tungsten from the depths of the earth, from the mines that surround Nederland, Ward, Gold Hill, Black Hawk and Central City. They see the hills of rusty, brown tailings and the collapsing shafts, and then an ore car, but much of the mining artifacts have been scrounged by collectors or historians interested in keeping them available to the public.
The Nederland Mining Museum opened last Friday. Although it is now managed by the Boulder County Parks and Open Space, it retains most of the tools, machinery and artifacts that the Nederland Historical Society and many local miners worked so hard to collect. Open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, admission is free and offers an informative journey through Nederland’s childhood, the days of the mining boom and the formation of the town.
Kids love the gears and wheels, the carts, the picks, the pieces of fool’s gold, the tracks for the ore carts, and the tools that picked the precious metals out of the hard rock.
A signal bell is there to ring, just like the miners did when they wanted to be hoisted out of the dark tunnel. If some of the old time machinery isn’t there in person, the museum has many photographs archiving the people and the operations that ran the mining industry in Boulder County.
Leslie Brodhead is the new Nederland Mining Museum Coordinator and couldn’t be happier with her new position. She and her husband, two dogs and two cats, have lived in Nederland for the past six years. She says that being able to live and work in the town she loves is a dream come true.
Before Leslie came to work for Boulder County, she spent 17 years as an Interpretive Park Ranger with the National Park Service, working at seven different national parks around the country, most recently with Rocky Mountain National Park.
Last year she was hired by the BCPOS as a seasonal Education and Outreach Specialist, which led to her position at the museum.
She and her husband have a passion for the history of the area and she relishes digging into the stories and lives of our mining past and sharing them with visitors from all over the world. She loves being outdoors, skiing, hiking and mountain biking, and looks forward to welcoming the visitors that poke their heads into the door, curious about what secrets the museum can offer to them.
