City: Boulder, CO

Category: Relocation

Address: 16 miles from Boulder

Description: Nineteen miles up Canyon Boulevard, just past the big blue lake formed by Barker Dam, is Nederland, the largest mountain town near Boulder. Here, the aspen trees shimmer next to pretty plots of colorful mountain flowers during the summer, with mountainsides of pine trees and aspen in every direction. Nederland has a good mix of shopping, tourist-oriented businesses, and basic services. This is a friendly, easygoing community that includes mountain people who wanted to be close to high alpine fields, hippies who came here decades ago to found communes, New Age yuppies, and Boulder intellectuals who retreated from the city below. All this makes for an eclectic, worldly, remote but close-enough-to-it-all mountain town. If you want some fun reading about Nederland history, find a copy of local author Marlys Millhiser’s The Mirror. This fantasy novel describes a Boulder woman who trades places in time with her Nederland grandmother, then discovers the rigors of being a miner’s wife, the challenges of driving a wagon team up a treacherous dirt canyon road, and the red light district that even tiny Nederland supported.Near Nederland are the Indian Peaks Wilderness and the Eldora Mountain Resort, with its downhill and cross-country skiing. The shops are comfortably close together, picturesque, and easy to amble through. Annie’s Cafe is a good neighborhood restaurant (see Restaurants). All this means that Nederland has settled, by fits and bounds, into the intriguing community its beginnings hinted at. Originally a gold-, silver-, and tungsten-mining area, Nederland had more than 3,500 residents at the height of the mining boom in 1874. Today, gambling in Black Hawk and Central City, south on Peak to Peak Highway, plus Boulder’s spillover prosperity, have fueled Nederland’s latest boom. Many residents work in Boulder or elsewhere in the “lowlands” to the east.Summer events usually include a Kinetic Wind Festival, a Native American Pow Wow, and a replay of the pioneer days. Check in at the visitor center on West First Street, where the RTD bus stops. Across from the visitor center is Town Hall (303-258-3266).