Fourth in a series of posts about traveling in Colorado & Wyoming.
Finding Nederland Colorado – Home of the Strange
One of the guidebooks that we obtained from the Colorado Tourism Bureau had a small blurb about Nederland. It said that Nederland is one of the strangest towns you will ever visit.
With that kind of billing, how could we not go? It’s conveniently located along the Peak to Peak Scenic Byway and not all that far from Boulder.
How Nederland got it’s name
The mountains surrounding it are big and high. Nederland itself, and it’s houses and buildings are small and low. According to a walking tour handout, it was once a “wild montane meadow and trading post between the Ute and Arapaho People, mountain trappers, and explorers.”
Gradually cabins were built and a town evolved named Middle Boulder, after the creek that flows through it. In the 1870’s silver and gold were found in the area, at much higher elevations, around 10,000 feet. A company from the Netherlands owned one of the mines. The miners brought their ore down to Middle Boulder for milling as the weather was much milder. It came to be known as “Nederland”, which means low land in the Dutch language.
Get Guidance at the Visitors Center
There’s a free parking lot a block or two behind the main street through town. The downtown is very walkable with most highlights within a few blocks of each other. We found a lovely lady in the Visitors Center in the heart of town dispensing guides and advice. Nearby, a huge vintage steam shovel, a la Mike Mulligan, overshadows the Mining Museum.
It’s the only existing 1923 Bucyrus Model 50-B steam shovel. It was used on the Panama Canal.
Mining Museum chock full of artifacts
The Mining Museum is free and it’s barn-like building is full of mining artifacts, large and small. There’s someone to answer questions and plenty of signage explaining the exhibits. The miners must have been very strong and hardy men to handle all the heavy equipment used in the mining process.
Ore cars and wagons and other pieces of heavy equipment are on display outside of the museum and in the town.
Exhibits at the Nederland, Colorado Mining Museum
Dead Guy on Ice!?
A little down a side street is a locked shed. We first assumed, from the signs, that it contained the body of a Norwegian nicknamed Grampa Bredo. He was cryogenically frozen after his death in the late 1980s . His grandson arranged to have him brought from Norway to Nederland.
Grampa Bredo is actually up in a shed looking down over Nederland. Grampa rests in a steel coffin packed tightly in dry ice in an insulated wooden box stored in the shed.
Every few weeks a local, dubbed “The Ice Man”, drives to Denver and brings back about a ton of dry ice to the shed. Family members pay about $700 a month for this delivery service. In addition, they take care of the upkeep of the shed and property.
Frozen Dead Guy shed in Downtown Nederland, Colorado
Due to this strange “resident,” Nederland celebrates Frozen Dead Guy Days every March. The activities include a coffin race, a costumed polar plunge and other chilly entertainment. The grandson of Grampa Bredo calls it “Cryonics’ first Mardi Gras”.
Quirky Colorado Festival
Looking around this small town, it’s hard to imagine, 25,000 people descending upon it for three days of the quirky event. Some consider it the “Best Dead Man’s Party” in the world. Large heated tents with live music and Bourbon and beer help keep the revelers warm as there aren’t large halls to accommodate them.
USA Today ranked Frozen dead Guy Days among the top five of “Best Cultural Festivals in 2017.” Periodically, the festival is mentioned on national and international TV, radio, and in newspapers.
More than Grampa Bredo is on ice during the festival
2019’s event featured a parade of coffin racers and hearses, a frozen t-shirt contest, icy bowling, and ice carving. Perennially popular activities include the Grampa Look-Alike Contest and Grampa’s Blue Ball.
If there’s a way to have fun centered around cold and dead Grampa, the organizers seem to have run with it.
Brews for Bredo
Local breweries commemorate Grampa with special brews such as “Dead Guy Ale” by Rogue Brewing and “Bredo’s Brew” by Grossen Bart. And why not, as Colorado is known for its breweries. We saw a brewery in Nederland, but it wasn’t open so we didn’t get to sample any local beers or raise a glass to Grampa.
It’s also strange finding a carousel in Nederland, Colorado
Down along the main street lies The Carousel of Happiness, a true vintage and running example. It’s said to have been a “mental health project” lovingly restored over several decades by a resident. The 1910 carousel features 56 hand-carved animals that waltz to the tunes of a 1913 Wurlitzer band organ.
How unexpected to find a carousel in a small former mining town in the Rockies, rather than seaside or amusement park area setting. Nearby is a old railroad caboose and train car turned into a small cafe. We bought a couple of frozen yogurt cones at the cafe and sat near an open door to the carousel to watch the animals and people whirl by.
A lot more in this little town
Although small, the town boasts several restaurants, gift shops, and places to stay. There are picnic areas, one with a playground, and hiking trails. There’s the brewery and even an EV charging station. The older part has several cosy shops and there’s a newer shopping plaza and hardware store near the carousel. If you venture to some of the side streets, you will see older and quaint housing. There’s fishing in the nearby Barker Reservoir on Rt. 119. Nederland isn’t too far from the Eldora Ski Resort.
We stopped into the post office to buy postcard stamps, which they were out of. Maybe sending postcards from the “strangest town you’ll ever visit” is a big deal.
But wait, there’s more…
Something that our grandparents weren’t able to do after trips that Baby Boomers can is research online about places that raised their curiosity. The Frozen Dead Guy Days piqued my interest and the Internet had more details about the festival. YouTube videos show the actual shed, the “Ice Man”, and the wooden box with Grampa Bredo covered in dry ice.
And still more…
A 60 minute documentary, Grampa’s Still in the Tuff Shed, tells the story of Grampa Bredo. Award winning filmmakers created it with help from Michael Moore. It’s shown during Frozen Dead Guy Days. File this under “you can’t make this stuff up.”
The festival looks like a real hoot, or should I say gobble. One video shows a clip of the frozen turkey bowling. If you like winter sports and are looking for a different life experience, plan a trip to Colorado centered around the Frozen Dead Guy Days.