Announcements

We enjoyed a great turnout at the September lecture with Patty Limerick! Momentum continues to build, and we appreciate your support. If you have neighbors or friends who might like to join or attend our events, please forward this page to them.

Events

Niwot, Now & Then: Lecture Series

NEW! Niwot Historical Society has organized an exciting series of lectures. Admission is FREE with your membership, so join today. Special thanks to Meri Gibb for coordinating this series, and to Patty Limerick, who gave the opening lecture as a very generous "birthday present" to Laura Skaggs.

Donlyn Arbuthnot, Historical Storyteller

Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Haystack Mountain: Facts and Fables

Doors open at 6:30 and the lecture begins at 7:00 p.m. A short Annual Meeting will be conducted from 7:00 - 7:10. Copies of the Annual President's Letter and our Financial Report will be available for member review.

Donlyn Arbuthnot is the descendent of the first white pioneer to acquire Haystack Mountain from the U.S. Government. She grew up listening to her father, aunts and uncles, who were all born in a farm house along Niwot Road, share stories of what pioneer life was once like at Haystack Mountain. Her ancestors first arrived at Haystack in 1859 when they came looking for gold. They then settled, married and farmed at the base of Haystack, making their home there until her parents moved into Boulder in 1944. These historical stories of the Niwot area motivated Arbuthnot to earn a degree in History from Colorado State University where she learned the value of original research.

From documents that she acquired from the local library to our nation's National Archives, Arbuthnot was able to piece together the rich history of Haystack Mountain and the families (not just her own) who lived around the mountain. Arbuthnot learned which family stories were fact and which were fiction and some that the family never shared with her. As Arbuthnot has been doing this research, she began to share her family's rich history in first-person storytelling events dressed as one of her ancestors, most often as Mary Elizabeth Bader Arbuthnot, the first pioneer to own Haystack Mountain. For this Niwot Historical Society lecture, Donlyn is stepping out of costume to share with us the research that she has accomplished. The facts and the fiction - from the earliest days to the present day - all illustrating a rich local history of Niwot's local landmark mountain.

Learn more at homesteadorigins.com

Wednesday, April 25, 2012
A Native American View of Local History

All lectures are located at:
The Left Hand Grange (2nd & Franklin - Google Map)
6:30 pm - Doors open for coffee and snacks
7:00 pm - Lecture starts

$5 general admission tickets - Reserve tickets by emailing info@niwothistoricalsociety.org, or RSVP on Facebook.
FREE to Niwot Historical Society Members - Join Now

More about Niwot, Colorado

Previous Events

Patty Limerick with David & Laura Skaggs

Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Twenty-Five Years of Living with the Legacy of Conquest: The Transformation of the West since 1986

Opening lecture with vibrant Patty Limerick, former New York Times columnist and co-founder of the Center of the American West.

Coming soon: videos from this lecture on YouTube!

Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Niwot on the Right Track: Colorado Railroads Now and Then

Take a trip through Colorado History by rail as Larry Dorsey of the Colorado Railroad Museum presents a program on the history of railroads in the Centennial State. His presentation will include slides, many from the archives of the Niwot Historical Society and Colorado Railroad Museum, illustrating Colorado’s rail history, showing significant scenes then and now, and informing the audience about some rides available in the state today.

Larry Dorsey is a retired history teacher from the Boulder Valley School District. He is a long-time volunteer at the Colorado Railroad Museum, coordinated the Host Program there for many years, and is now a member of its Board of Trustees. He also serves as the Chair of the Superior Historical Commission which has just opened an old miner's house as a museum in that town. He also writes a history quarterly called The Superior Historian, focusing on local and regional history. He and his wife, Cheryl, are long-time Boulder County residents.

Niwot Gazette

Below are links to past issues of the Niwot Historical Society's newsletter, the Niwot Gazette.

Annual Report

Annual Report 2010-2011