Nederland, Colorado
is beautiful!
It's close to 9,000 feet in elevation.
I heard about it on a flight from San Jose to Denver.
This man was on the same row as me...with an empty middle seat...and he talked the entire flight.
He told me the story of this carousel...
The Carousel of Happiness
The Carousel of Happiness is a restored 1910 carousel and organ.
Scott Harrison, a native of Nederland, bought the empty frame of the carousel in Utah...
and had it trucked to Nederland.
Scott was a Marine in the Vietnam War. He had a tiny music box he used to hold up to his ear to distract him from all the horror of the war.
Once home and having the frame of the carousel, he started hand-carving animals for it.
He carved for 26 years, never having carved before. He carved 50 animals, 35 of them which can be ridden.
As he was finishing the project, Nederland's population raised $700,000 to build the
building the carousel is housed in.
It's called The Carousel of Happiness because of the happiness it brought him and
the hope of bringing happiness to others.
All the bearings, gears, and metal work were restored and used.
This is what it looked like before Scott started rebuilding.
The Carousel opened in 2010 on Memorial Day.
The cost to ride...$1.
I was fascinated with the story...and was looking forward to going out to see and ride it.
I ate lunch out on this deck...
The Smokehouse & Brewery
It was delicious...and I discovered one of my new favorite beers:
Son of a Baptist!
It's a coffee stout beer...and delicious. You can't get it in California, unfortunately.
Utah is as far west as it comes.
I loved this little treasure of a town!
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