New leadership, exhibits, plans at Gilpin Historical Society
Upcoming 40 Year Anniversary
Maybe you can’t change history, but it’s taken a turn in Gilpin County with a new president of the Gilpin Historical Society and a new executive director. Martie Fast and Dave Forsyth will build on the considerable work of their predecessors, Linda Jones and Jim Prochaska, to continue current popular events and add more.
Linda Jones said when she became president of GHS she told herself she could see doing it for, oh, twenty years-but no more. As it worked out, her self-imposed term limit expired at the end of 2009. When Jones began with GHS (first as vice president) they owned two properties. Many Gilpinites know of the Gilpin Historical Museum in the old high school building in Central City (228 High Street). Some will remember their big train which, at one time, was parked by the old Register-Call building on Spring Street. Folks could ride down and back up Packard Gulch, propelled by the steam locomotive; its whistle could be heard for several miles. Later, when GHS learned the Opera Association, who then owned the train, had plans to sell it to out-of-towners, they stepped in, bought the train, and moved it to property they acquired in 1987 – the Couer d’Alene mine. Still owned by GHS, the rust-colored structure overlooks Central City from Academy Hill and is a prominent landmark. Visitors can explore the Couer d’Alene via a free outdoor self-guided tour created by GHS, and the spot remains one of the best bird’s eye views of the city and beyond. The train is no longer there, but it is still in Central – right next to Fortune Valley Casino. In 1990, GHS acquired the Thomas House on Eureka Street. Furnished in the style of days gone by, visitors can now tour this “house frozen in time.” GHS received a donation in 2008, the historic Stroehle family home on Chase Street in Black Hawk. It is used for special presentations and the summertime “Teas” that have become so popular they sell out weeks in advance. The organization has expanded its properties over the past twenty years, Jones pointed out, and they’ve expanded their events from one end of the county to the other. They’ve done all kinds of tours and several festivals (jazz, mountain man, film). Her favorite event is the annual Cemetery Crawl. Volunteers dressed in period costume, portray the characters of people now at rest in Gilpin cemeteries. They research public records and work with descendents so they can tell their subject’s authentic life story and what it was like to live in that time. The one-day event, now in its 22nd year, rotates through the different cemeteries, drawing hundreds of visitors each time.
The Cemetery Crawl is also a favorite of the new GHS president, Martie Fast. She’s been with GHS for six years and comes into the leadership position just in time for their 40th Anniversary season. She supports Central City’s goal to increase visitor traffic to the area and recently attended their City Council’s open meeting. There were fabulous suggestions from casino managers and others, she said, for expanding the streetscape and getting people to wander about town more. GHS will do their part by developing new brochures to distribute at the Visitor Center and at local hotels. Fast will continue to work with the Black Hawk/Central City Visitor and Convention Bureau to promote the area and publicize GHS events. In addition to the teas and the Cemetery Crawl, GHS also conducts weekend Creepy Crawls in October. Actors portraying characters of local ghost stories are stationed at various locations around Central City. As guides bring groups of visitors through town on a sidewalk tour of historical buildings, the ghosts “materialize” and tell their tales. This event is also popular, drawing folks up from the metro area and down from the hills. Last year, as part of the Sesquicentennial Celebration commemorating the anniversary of the discovery of gold in Gilpin County, the GHS coordinated a film festival with the Central City Opera House Association. Old-time movies were shown in the historic Williams Livery and the Opera House. Many Gilpinites were unaware of the part Gilpin’s American City played in silent movies. Of course the more recent films like “The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox” were more familiar. GHS plans to do another movie event this summer. Fast hopes to recruit more volunteers to GHS. Even if someone has only one day a month to help out, Fast said, that’d be great. Some of the tasks: working at the Thomas House, data processing, updating the website, yard work and helping staff the museum or working on the exhibits. These last two tasks fall directly to the new museum director, Dave Forsyth.
Forsyth, now working on his doctorate degree in history, publishes historical articles in “Colorado Heritage” magazine. He started his GHS experience as a part-time curator under the direction of former museum director, Jim Prochaska, who Jones said brought in exhibits and professionalism. It will now fall to Forsyth to keep the exhibits interesting and fresh. Last year, Forsyth partnered with local youths to turn the museum into a haunt for the “Ghosts of Gilpin” Halloween event. They enjoyed portraying the main characters from spooky local history and the museum gained some new young fans. Forsyth already has ideas for next year’s “Ghosts” event. For the museum’s day-to-day business, his plans include several new exhibits with a focus on local history and industry. That means a cohesive mining exhibit that visitors can incorporate with a tour of the Couer d’Alene – hopefully with a former miner on hand to answer questions. He’s given the working name of “Sins of Central City” to another exhibit. It looks into the barroom and old-time gambling scenes of Gilpin and the shady lady activities of Pine Street. His goal is to have the new exhibits ready for Memorial Day. (The museum opens April 29th.) Once the museum is open, Forsyth said he’d move on to 40th Anniversary events.
The GHS Annual (Dinner) Meeting is scheduled for April 17th at Crooks Palace. The speaker for that event will be Dick Kreck, whose new book, “Smaldone: The Untold Story of an American Crime Family” tells the Smaldone link to Central City – and Al Capone. GHS plans to expand on that presentation with a roundtable discussion with some folks who were residents when the Smaldones were operating in Central. This is also the place for updates on GHS activities and plans for the future. For tickets, call Neal Standard at 303-582-1537.
For reservations to the “Star-Crossed Lovers” event, a GHS partnership with SPOOKS (the paranormal investigation group) to raise money for historical structures, call 303-582-5182. That event is this Sunday, February 14th. After the ghost hunting, Jones will be telling ghostly love stories over appetizers at Crooks.
Visit www.gilpinhistory.org to learn more about GHS (a Denver Posse of Westerners award winner for Outstanding Contributions to Colorado History).