Jennifer Livingston, Nederland. Jessie Ansari and Emmit Hoyl sat excited and smiling as they spoke about the new life and new ambitions of the Nederland Area Historical Society (NAHS). The NAHS is a key nonprofit organization and is important to the history and future of the area’s heritage, as well as the return of the Miners’ Days! 

Miners’ Days in Nederland began in the late 1890s and was revitalized in the 1960s. Hoyl has been involved with the Nederland Miners’ Days as far back as the 1990’s and in many ways was the de facto organizer back then. He was eventually conscripted to the NAHS board of directors in 2015 and was thrilled to receive a call from Ansari and her seemingly endless energy and enthusiasm. 

Ansari’s hard work in the Nederland community is already much appreciated. She’s been a committed member of Nederland’s Parks, Recreation and Open Space Advisory Board, working closely with Wild Bear on a mutually beneficial grant, and is also on the board of the Mountain Forum for Peace. Ansari also kept the gorgeous Gillaspie House Museum, housed in a 1905 cabin, open this summer. Her involvement with the Gillaspie House led her to reach out to the Nederland Area Historical Society, and Hoyl responded. 

Ansari grew up in England, a place steeped in history so old and almost ubiquitous, so that when she moved to Nederland she could recognize it, the heritage, and felt at home, connected. She said, “Nederland is a place that still has a history, you can feel it. I think you can take history for granted when you’re in it.” For her, this heritage includes the miners, but also the women who had the knowledge and skill to survive rough frontier conditions, and the children who played in the same places ours now do. This sense of place and history also reaches to the Ute and Arapaho who traded and made camp here. She mused that perhaps another name for Miners’ Days might be Heritage Days. Regardless, a recognition and celebration of the meaning of this place, now called Nederland, is returning and requires the honor and attention of its current residents.

With new clarity and refreshed energy, the NAHS has taken the property beneath the steam shovel and the old icehouse, off the market, with committed plans for preservation. The sale of the lot had been intended to finance the restoration of Bryant House, work on the Nederland Cemetery, and to catalog, digitize and display a truly amazing collection of photographs, documents and memorabilia, which are currently housed in a closet at the Nederland Community Center. The Gillespie House list includes creating a kitchen garden and native plant area, noxious weed removal, repainting, replacing the windows damaged by BB shots, and some foundational repair. 

The NAHS, a nonprofit organization, is committed to finding other ways to fund and move those projects forward. It needs the active and committed involvement of the community. People with gardening, home improvement, fundraising, grant writing, accounting, public relations, social media and web development skills, are encouraged to help the NAHS with an impassioned effort to revitalize the organization and preserve and protect the history and sense of place that is so uniquely Nederland. 

They would also like to update the organizations records and create more transparency, expand the collection with additional historical items, conduct oral interviews, create print material, update the website, organize historical events, have speakers, movies and story tellers etc. Hoyl said, “There’s a lot of work ahead, but there’s a lot of interest here in Ned, and people who’ve moved here can appreciate [our] historical identity.”

The NAHS is also continuing the conversation with the Nederland Library and local archeologist Brandy Hale around organizing and displaying the fascinating archive. The library is all “about preserving and sharing history and is part of our community story building project,” says Nederland Library Director Elektra Greer.

 The library, Nederland Downtown Development Authority, and others have been working to bring back the historical Miners’ Days with a broader look to the heritage of this place and in loving memory of Tom Hendricks. 

The event will return on September 19 and 20, 2020. It will include a host of family friendly events and activities, perhaps a cemetery crawl, as well as a Pack Burro Race organized by the Nederland Library. Mark your calendars and reach out a helping hand to continue to maintain and develop the NAHS and to organize an amazing event honoring the heritage and history of the area, and also Tom Hendricks who will surely be there in spirit. 

(Originally published in the February 6, 2020, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)