Bo Shaffer - Colorados Iceman and the Story of the Frozen Dead Guy

Published by The History Press
Charleston, SC 29403
www.historypress.net

Copyright 2011 by Bo Shaffer
All rights reserved

Front cover art by Brent Warren, Imagelust Arts, www.imagelust.com.
All images are courtesy of the author.

First published 2011; e-book edition 2012
Manufactured in the United States

ISBN 978.1.61423.314.5

Shaffer, Bo.
Colorados ice man and the story of the frozen dead guy / Bo Shaffer.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
print edition ISBN 978-1-60949-248-9
1. Shaffer, Bo. 2. Nederland (Colo.)--Biography. 3. Bauge, Trygve. 4. Morstoel, Bredo, 1900-1989. 5. Dead--Social aspects--Colorado--Nederland. 6. Cryonics--Colorado--Nederland--Case studies. 7. Ecologists--Colorado--Nederland--Biography. 8. Norwegians--Colorado--Nederland--Biography. 9. Nederland(Colo.)--Social life and customs. 10. Festivals--Colorado--Nederland. I. Title.
F784.N4S42 2011
978.863--dc22
2011001416

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

BREDO MORSTOEL
minor bureaucrat, father of Aud,
grandfather of Trygve,
Frozen Dead Guy.

To my soul mate, Elizabeth, who put up with all of this.
To Morgan and Brenna, for being understanding children.

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

Nederland is situated seventeen miles west and three thousand vertical feet up from Boulder, Colorado. By all measures, it is a small town with fewer than two thousand residents, but in no way is it an ordinary town.

Nederland is halfway between Idaho Springs and Rocky Mountain National Park on the Peak to Peak Highway, one of the most scenic drives in Colorado. On a busy summer afternoon, traffic gets jammed up around the traffic circle (we dont have a stoplight) with carloads of tourists. Nederland is known as the Gateway to the Indian Peaks and attracts people from all over who are looking for adventures in hiking, camping, fishing and birding. With more than fifteen feet of annual snowfall and the Eldora ski area five miles away, there is plenty to do in the winter, as well.

Nederland has endured more than its share of boom and bust cycles. In the late 1800s, gold and silver miners flocked to the area and then abruptly left when the ore from the nearby mines dried up. There was another mining boom during World War I, this time for tungsten, which was used to build battleships. Nederlands population has swelled from as many as three thousand people to as few as just a handful of hardy families able to endure the long, cold, windy winters.

Nederland has a rich musical history. There was a recording studio located at Caribou Ranch that attracted Elton John, Chicago, Michael Jackson, Tom Petty, Stephen Stills and Amy Grant to record there in the 70s and 80s. It was not uncommon to run into Dan Fogelberg or Robert Plant grabbing a beer or a burger at the Pioneer Inn. Now, Yonder Mountain String Band, Great American Taxi and Elephant Revival are among the successful bands that claim Nederland as home and still play at the annual NedFest and local bars.

The 60s brought the counterculture of young hippies seeking a place to drop out. In the 2010 election, voters decriminalized marijuana, and now there is a thriving medical marijuana business, bringing much-needed sales tax revenue, as well as marijuana-inspired tourism.

Today, Nederland has everything you need to lead a comfortable life: a grocery store, a hardware store, a bank, two gas stations, excellent restaurants, live music every night of the week, a movie theater, good schools and more. Still, at 8,240 feet in elevation, with breathtaking views of the Continental Divide, living here is not for the faint of heart. As some locals are fond of saying, In Nederland, view is spelled w-i-n-d.

Currently, Nederland is undergoing a bit of a renaissance; its not exactly another boom, but there is a progressive town board in place and more development than Ned has seen in a while. Amenities that make it a nice place to raise a family include a new Carousel of Happiness, an ice rink complete with curling team, a teen center, a new library, sidewalks and a skate park.

The push-pull of old-timers who would rather see things stay the same versus the newcomers who commute to Boulder for work is still present, of course, but thats another dynamic that makes our town special. A common thread that unites us all is our rugged individualism and an accepting attitude regarding our differences. There is something for everyone in Nederland.

My husband and I moved to Nederland in 2006, followed closely by our best friends and my in-laws. One thing thats great about living in a small town is how easy it is to get involved with your community. Soon after moving here, I joined the library board and then went to work for the chamber of commerce, running the Visitors Center, and for a year now I have served on the town board.

I wonder what exactly drew Trygve Bauge to Nederland in the early 90s. He was a young man from Norway with a personal interest in cryogenics. He founded the Boulder Polar Bear Club and was known for submerging himself in freezing-cold water, all a part of his belief that ice was a means of life extension.

Trygve and his mother, Aud, began building a house on the shady side of Nederland with the intent of opening a cryogenics facility there. Auds father, Bredo Morstoel, who died of natural causes in Norway, was already cryogenically preserved with liquid nitrogen (LN) at a facility in California. Once ready, they had Bredo transferred to Nederland, where they kept him frozen in a more low-tech manner, using dry ice in a shed behind their house. They also found one paying customer, Al Campbell, formerly of Chicago, for the freezing business.

Trygve was deported to Norway due to an expired visa in 1995. When Trygve was deported, Aud tipped off a reporter from the Mountain Ear, Nederlands local newspaper, that her dead father, along with one paying customer, was being kept frozen on their Nederland property. Soon, Aud returned to Norway also, but not before igniting an uproar.

The Nederland Police, along with the Boulder County Sherriffs Department, conducted a thorough investigation to ensure that there was no foul play. Then, the town had to figure out how to handle this bizarre discovery. At first people were outraged and even afraid that the frozen dead bodies could somehow contaminate the groundwater. Ultimately, the town board passed an ordinance making it illegal to store dead bodies within town limits, and Al Campbell was returned to his family, mostly because they were upset at the controversy. However, since Bredo had taken up residence prior to this ordinance hitting the books, he was grandfathered in and allowed to stay, thus becoming Nederlands most famous, albeit dead, resident.

It took a while for the town to settle down after the shock of learning about Grandpa. Several years later, the chamber of commerce made a bold move and hosted the first-ever Frozen Dead Guy Days in 2001. The festival, held in early March, includes a Grandpa Look-alike Contest, a parade, a Polar Plunge and Coffin Races. The festival has grown into the largest, highest-grossing event of the year in our town, bringing in more than ten thousand spectators from all over the world.