LOUISVILLE, Colo — Stories from the Marshall Fire are raw right now, but people at the Louisville Museum know all too well the stories of today become tomorrow's history.
"And I think about the people in the past who wrote down their thoughts or took a photo of their family," Kaylyn Flowers, who does outreach services at the Louisville Museum, said. "And they weren’t necessarily thinking about the future, but as a historian we’re always thinking about the future."
She sees Louisville's coal mining past, but the workers' stories often end at the photos.
"You have to guess, and you can make a really educated guess, but it’s still not the same as someone’s own words," Flowers said. "We’re missing that personal piece that humanizes the people of the past."
The history of the Marshall Fire will be different, as they collect firsthand accounts and photos from anyone impacted.
"And so trying to capture stories is more or less about trying to capture as many kinds of experiences as possible, because every one of those experiences is valid and matters to the historical record," she said.
Another project is for families who lost their own history. The museum created a Flickr where people can upload photos that might have shared memories with someone whose photos burned.
“People tend to align museums with the past because that’s what we are in the business of preserving and studying, but also the past is being made every single day," Flowers said. "You know, 'yesterday is history' kind of idea, which seems like a cliché, but it’s true."
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