A Brief History of Nederland
The valley around Nederland was used by Ute and Arapaho people for seasonal hunting and gathering. In 1871, when the settlement was known as Middle Boulder, Abel Breed bought the Caribou silver mine and brought ore down from Caribou Hill for milling. He sold the mine in 1873 to a Dutch company, whose name helped give Nederland its own. Tungsten later brought renewed mining activity, including during World War II. The Nederland Mining Museum preserves machinery, photographs and claim maps from the area’s mining years.