Nederland Mining Museum


Useful Information

Location: State Hwy 119 at Hwy 72, 30 km west of Boulder, 70 km north of I-70.
Open: MAY to SEP Sat, Sun 11-15:30.
[2010]
Fee:
Classification: MineGold Mine MineSilver Mine MineTungsten Mine
Light: LightIncandescent
Dimension:
Guided tours:
Photography:
Accessibility:
Bibliography:
Address: Nederland Mining Museum, Dan Martin, P.O. Box 1252, Nederland CO 80466, Tel: +1-303-258-7449. E-mail: contact
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then.
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History

MAY-2004 opened to the public.
2005 steam shovel moved to the museum.

Geology


Description

The Nederland Mining Museum is operated by the Nederland Area Historical Society, which collects, preserves and exhibits all kinds of records of the local history. It operates two museums, one of them is the Mining Museum located in the historic County Stone Garage. The museum is dedicated to the gold, silver and tungsten mining history of the Nederland area. It displays ores and mine trams, hand and pneumatic drills, steam shovels, and blacksmithing tools. There are documents, pictures, and maps from the 1860's to the present.

Probably the most impressive of all exhibits is the 1923 Panama Canal steam shovel Bucyrus Model 50-B. This huge steam shovel weighs 130,000 pounds and is rated at 75 tons. The Bucyrus and Bucyrus-Erie 50-B shovels were built between 1923 and 1939, all together 534. Most of them moved on railroad tracks, but some were equipped with crawler tracks, like this one. 25 such shovels were sent to the Panama Canal, all but this one were scrapped at Panama. It was shipped back to California and then brought to Denver. In the early 1950s it was purchased by Roy and Russell Durand. They operated it at the Lump Gulch Placer 10 km south of Nederland until 1978. It was donated to the museum and moved to the museum in 2005. The shovel is still working, and it is the largest still operating steam shovel in the United States.