“There’s nothing like a clean slate, and this is the cleanest slate I’ve ever been given in my life.””

Kay O'Neil

NEDERLAND - It has been over a month since the Lakeview Fire, and the wreckage of the shopping center is still there, reminding us of what was lost.

To those who once had shops there, the piles of steel, wood, and ash represent something different: to some, a job; to others, a second home. It was where they ran their businesses, and to many, where they shared their purpose, their gifts with the community. 

The site of the disaster still resonates with the echoes of the past decade and a half. Passing by it daily, as you drive through town, visit the Train Cars for a cup of coffee, or go shopping at The Market, the memories of what made the Caribou Village Shopping Center such a vibrant place still hang in the air. 

Nederland came alive in so many different ways there—the friendly commotion booming from Backcountry Pizza, the smell of marinated meat emanating from Tres Gringos, the hustle and bustle of community members checking the time and running to go switch their laundry, passing by the long line of Wild Bear Nature Center kids following the leaders to some outdoor adventure—all while the faint sound of music could be heard, maybe coming out of Very Nice Brewing Company, or Brightwood Music, where someone might be curiously plucking a mandolin. 

For many of those who watched all that burn away, who have gone through stages of shock and trauma, time slowed for the weeks after the fire.

And then, the world quickly came back into sharp focus, with some finding clarity. For those, when the smoke finally cleared they found new paths laid before them, courses set not by fear or anxiety, but by their own determination and conviction of spirit, body, and mind. 

Danielle Crouse of dmc Artwork was manager of Kaleidoscope Fine Arts Gallery, and the Nederland Art Studios, two distinct business models with two different roles for Crouse to play, as she spent years hosting at the gallery, presenting others’ artwork, and then shifted to managing space for other artists to do their work.

Kaleidoscope, started by owner Roz Bagtaz back in 2021, was an integral part of Nederland’s arts community, as it provided a powerful platform for locals to showcase their work, and highlighted for residents and visitors alike the unique perspectives and styles of Nederland artists.  

Crouse was the face of the gallery, but for her it was often a challenge, balancing her own need to express herself and sustain herself through her art with her duties to the gallery and to the artists displayed within.

With the gallery’s shift to rentable studio space, Crouse had to shift as well. Then, in late summer of this year, it was announced that the studios would close for good in November. And just like that, Crouse had to shift again…and then one more time, when the fire broke out in October, as she and Bagtaz were still grieving the loss of Kaleidoscope.

Thanks to the friendly and giving arts community of Nederland, and to fellow painter Laurence Delaunay, Crouse’s work is now on display at Lolo's Atelier at 25 East 1st Street, where she’s getting used to a new studio space, working with new colleagues, and being a gallery host once again. 

The Mountain-Ear visited with Crouse as she sat and soaked in the new space. She had just finished up a new commission for a customer who requested a portrait of their beloved family pet.

Such a request requires the talent to express the love in that pet’s eyes that the owner sees, or used to see, every day, which is a concentration requiring the artist and the space to be as one. 

After so many transitions, Crouse is able to be comfortable in this one because she recognizes now the need to steel herself.

She expressed how, even before the fire, she had always lived small, and, as an artist, was used to working in a very nomadic style. This has allowed her to remain open to what may come, and though she feels more exposed and raw, she moves forward without fear, holding her creative gift closer to her chest. 

Kaleidoscope and the Nederland Art Studios were a part of a bright light that brought culture and color to the community, along with fellow artists in the shopping center collective, Spinning Silica and Kay O’Neil of O’Neil Rocky Mountain Art.

O’Neil was in her hybrid studio/gallery the night the Caribou Village Shopping Center caught fire, as she often worked day and night to produce the beautiful stained glass art pieces that she  displayed and sold.

Back when she first opened at the shopping center, over six years ago, no one knew O’Neil well enough for her to have a grand opening—they didn’t yet recognize her already well-established talent, nor had they yet to learn and love her truly independent spirit. 

Now, as the smoke clears for O’Neil, she finds herself in an exciting new location, which presents more opportunities than she had before, and she is starting to dream about what a grand reopening might look like. 

“I kind of feel like I need to carry around a bucket of sand to keep my feet on the ground,” O’Neil remarked. “I get all wound up and excited and I have to tell myself to calm down. To still use the energy, but not to fly off.”    

She excitedly gave The Mountain-Ear a tour of the space at 30 West Boulder Street, giving praise to property owner Ron Mitchell for getting the space cleared out for her, and assisting with other remodeling required to convert the space to Kay’s needs. 

“There’s nothing like a clean slate, and this is the cleanest slate I’ve ever been given in my life,” O’Neil remarked. 

The return of O’Neil Rocky Mountain Art is due to a revelation she had as she came through the shock and trauma of the Lakeview Fire. She wasn’t going to wallow, or focus on the negatives, on the nuisance of insurance, of GoFundMes, or spend any more of her time and energy on impatience and the anxiety of waiting for redemption. 

O’Neil decided she was going to save herself, and began manifesting what she needed and wanted for her life instead of waiting for it.

Such assertiveness helped to land her into her new space, as remaining open and forthright produced a signal to local residents, enlightening them as to how to think about their fellow neighbors, and about how they can help them. 

She explained about how, the days following the fire, she was juggling the decision of whether to look for a new storefront or to look into other pursuits, such as settling into a home, which became a difficult task.

“I was getting angry, I was tired of hearing no, and then one day I realized the doors are shut, and I’ve never been able to go in through the front door anyway,” O’Neil said. “So I got my foot off the gas, I stopped being angry, and I started to let things happen the way they’re supposed to happen. And then the Universe said, ‘hold my beer.’”

Though there will be some wait before O’Neil Rocky Mountain Art is ready to open again, the wait will surely be worth it, as beautiful art often is. Friends and community members have already donated equipment and materials so she can start producing new stained glass pieces as quickly as possible. 

O’Neil envisions that her space, coupled with the reopening of the Mountain Man Outdoor Store and of Blue Owl, hopefully will at some point down the road create a new flow of local and tourist foot traffic. 

Another shopping center business hoping that their new location will set a precedent for future foot traffic is Brightwood Music, which reopened on Sunday, November 9 at The Vault, formerly the Citywide Bank building, at 26 Peak to Peak Highway. 

Brightwood Music, in addition to being one of the first of the displaced shopping center businesses to reopen, is also the first business to open in The Vault, which will eventually house Inkhaus Tattoo, 8236 Gear, 8z Real Estate, Very Nice Brewing Company, and a new restaurant called The Kitchen. 

“We’re in a better space. The old store was 1,300 square feet and out of that over a third of it was lesson space or storage space,” Barbara Hardt explained to The Mountain-Ear. She is part owner of Brightwood Music with her husband, Doug Armitage. “So now we just have to be more creative about the space that we do have to display things properly.” 

A collection of acoustic guitars lines the wall, and just behind Armitage’s freshly built work table is a wall of guitar strings. There’s a shelf of brand new hoodies next to a box of the kazoos they handed out for Halloween, inspiring kazoo parades all across downtown. 

The space is coming together, with donations of inventory pouring in, and more orders still to be delivered. The couple’s dogs wander the new space, as well as the adjacent room—which is eventually to be converted into a space for private lessons—and sniff around, becoming acquainted. 

Armitage and Hardt themselves expressed feeling scattered, as they work to ease into new fittings, to embrace the chaotic environment, and to catalogue what it was that they lost, and what it is that’s still missing.

“The worst part about losing everything is that a lot of the stuff you don’t realize you’ve lost until you reach for that tool,” Doug said, adding that losing all of the customer records of special orders and commissions and repairs also is making for a difficult transition. 

Just out front, the only sign signaling that a familiar favorite resides now within The Vault, is the very first Brightwood Music sign that was ever made: “the only part of Brightwood Music that survived the fire,” Armitage said. 

For some, the paths they found themselves on once the smoke cleared were bumpier than predicted. Though Armitage and Hardt had their new place established, there were impediments that kept them from progressing on a preferred timeline.

However, with those impediments being cleared off the path one by one, the owners of Brightwood Music are excited for the next chapter.

The love of art and of music is what really drives the town of Nederland—it fuels it and pumps creativity and beauty as the lifeblood of the community. It’s the reason for why many residents choose to live here, and it’s what will bring tourists back again and again. 

But, as important as art and music are for the soul of every NedHead, their health and wellbeing are integral to a long and happy life up here in the mountains. And that’s why we’re lucky to have Columbine Family Care and Nederland Chiropractic and Wellness. 

Dr. Mike Camarata and Dr. Catherine Valen perhaps saw the most “repeat business” of all during their tenure at the Caribou Village Shopping Center, and now they’ve brought that decade-plus of service to a serendipitous new home, at the Poppy Plaza at 268 West 3rd Street. 

“It took a little over two weeks from the time we committed to when we actually got this open to see patients,” Camarata said about the residential space actively being converted.

He mentioned the graciousness of the doctors at Clinica for helping him get stocked up and ready to serve the community once more. 

“A lot of our patients have been so generous. It’s been stressful, but we landed on our feet.”

The space is actively under construction, with remodeling happening inside and out, painting happening here and there, furniture shifting from space to space so rooms can be converted, walls can be removed, and ramps can be built for full ADA compliance. 

Lisa McCarley sat on a small baby-blue chair pulled up to a kids’ table, where she posted up and handled patients as they came in, all while a friendly computer tech worked at Lisa’s new receptionist’s desk, properly preparing the office computer 

“It’s been a lot of noise and turmoil, but for the best of reasons,” McCarley said about the status of the new location. “We’re finding our rhythm, but we’re still looking for the time signature right now.”

The state of the Poppy Plaza was certainly “in flux,” having been owned by the Calvary Chapel since 2003, and uninhabited for much of the time since then. There was lots of work being done and still to be done; the commotion wasn’t purely chaos, it was a productive flurry of ambitious activity and excited energy. 

“The fact that I’ve been able to find so many things has made it to where, even though I was under-covered, it’s adequate,” Valen explained, telling us how her insurance only covered a fraction of her expensive chiropractic equipment, and how she’s been met with generosity at every turn. Even on Facebook Marketplace, where she’s been sourcing equipment replacements, or driving four hours into Wyoming to claim a used roller table. 

“Of course the fundraisers make a huge difference too,” Valen continued, “because we’ve obviously had to put a lot of changes into this building, and still are, and construction doesn’t come for free.”   

With shoutouts to Calvary Chapel and to Mark Stringfellow, Camarata, and Valen are all smiles through the construction. They know that the cacophony is only temporary, but the feeling of being re-established, of being anchored somewhere close, somewhere familiar, will endure. 

In time, the Poppy Plaza will prove to be somewhere that feels like home for all those patients that rely on not only Camarata’s and Valen’s services, but on the comfort of a truly local doctor’s office.

“Different people will call it different things—manifesting or whatever—but I just had a confidence that the town needs us and that we’re not quitting,” Valen said. “I knew it was going to come together somehow, that there’s going to be a place where we can work.”

Across all of these disparate stories coming out of the Lakeview Fire, there are through lines that connect them. There’s a refusal to give up in the face of adversity, and that resilient mountain spirit, that “Ned Strong” attitude, coupled with the care, love, and generosity of the community, is the recipe for not just one business’ or one person’s survival, but for their perseverance. 

“It’s a real liminal time, with this tragedy,” Lisa McCarley mused. “There’s so much turmoil that it’s as important as ever to remind those who lost their jobs, their hopes and dreams, those who are struggling to reopen, that we care for them, we hear their pain, and we see that they’re doing amazing work.”