2024 marks a very special year for the little mountain town of Nederland, Colorado I have grown to love and call home for the last 27 years of my life, the sesquicentennial, or 150th birthday! This past weekend was chosen for the celebration, and while I was unable to attend the opening ceremonies on Friday evening, I greatly enjoyed the events right outside my door on Saturday!
The morning began with a pancake breakfast at the community center hosted by our Nederland seniors, then folks headed downtown for the 150th parade. Those of you who have followed along on my social media pages for some time know that while typically small, we do enjoy a good parade (that usually goes around twice!), and this one was no exception. The Grand Marshall heading up the parade was our very own long-time local Jeanette Smith, followed by many other long-timers, children, costumed friends from the Wild Bear Nature Center, and of course, firetrucks (though not as many as usual with our department either out fighting wildfires in the region or on standby at our own station with very dry conditions)! In great parade tradition, there was fun and candy for all!
Once the parade wrapped up there were several events and booths around town for participants to enjoy. Bucyrus, our massive “monument” of a steam shovel was operating in full swing, with its shrill whistle resounding through town every so often, beckoning visitors to come and enjoy some of the town’s history. Emmit Hoyle, local hard rock miner and blacksmith was on hand to demonstrate mining blacksmith work and the crafting and sharpening of star bits for hard rock drilling. The Nederland Historical Society was also set up for information and town souvenirs, and the Nederland Mining Museum and Gillespie House Museum were open all day for free tours. A few local artists also joined in the festivities with a handful of booths around town displaying and selling their fine work.
With a portion of the main street in town closed off for the festivities, a stage was erected by local music production crew, Time Served Productions, hosting the new music addition to town, the Nederland Summer Concert Series. With the birthday celebration scheduled on the same Saturday as the organization’s previously scheduled show for the day, town decided to move the music, usually located at Chipeta Park, up onto First Street for a good old street dance, the likes of which town hasn’t enjoyed since the Miners and Old Timers weekend festival of 2000.
Denver’s own Guerilla Fanfare Brass Band kicked off the late afternoon show with a full line-up of horns and drums to entertain the hot summer crowd. With many of the early attendees of the street dance keeping to the shade or setting up chairs a good bit away from the stage to allow room for dancing, the band eventually left the stage themselves for a bit of a 2nd Line jam, meandering through the crowd in New Orleans style to close out their set. Diggin Dirt from Humboldt California then made their way to the stage to close out the evening with a spectacular set of funk to really get the crowd movin’ and groovin’. I hold hopes that we’ll be seeing them again at our very special Caribou Room venue on the outskirts of town!
All-in-all, the day made for a great celebration of a wonderful mountain town steeped in history new and old. From the mining days of yore to the musical days that grew out of the ‘70’s, Nederland’s past was brought to the present for a great weekend of festivities and fun for everyone!
