It’s unlikely that Fort Lewis College’s public history students will focus on “barology.” Not officially, at least. But that’s what “Dr. Colorado” did many years ago.
Tom Noel, known as Dr. Colorado and also for his ubiquitous bowties, will travel from Denver to speak about bars and cemeteries next week at the Fort. The occasion is the celebration of FLC’s new major.
Noel is director of public history, preservation and Colorado studies at the University of Colorado at Denver and helped to create a public history program there in 1986. Noel spent a lot of time in taverns in the ’70s – in the name of history, he emphasizes, but you have to believe there was some fun involved, too.
“I went to every bar in Denver,” Noel, whose doctorate came in studying bars, said in a phone interview from Denver last week. “Every last gay bar. Every black bar. Every Hispanic bar. And then I also researched the old-time bars.”
He truly did it for scholastic reasons, and his dissertation, “The City and the Saloon,” is still in print 35 years later.
“I did it because others were doing dry topics like water rights, legal issues. I figured that liquid history would be a way to get people interested.”
Some of his professors at the University of Colorado at Boulder looked askance. “You’re going to be branded an alcoholic,” they told him. “But some of them got excited and were real helpful,” he said.
He found it was a great way to look at ethnic history. Starting from Denver’s founding in 1858, drinking establishments were of utmost social importance to groups of Germans, Italians and others. People would get their mail there, cash their paycheck, find a job, find a spouse.
The realization hit on “how central the bar was to the life of a lot of poor immigrants.”
Fort Lewis history professor Andrew Gulliford is happy to have his longtime friend visiting, but just as happy to be announcing the new public history major that he has been pushing for.
It’s one of the fastest-growing areas of study, Gulliford said, especially at the graduate level. Parents like it because it’s a “very specific pathway” to a job. Public historians don’t teach.
Gulliford spouts off the myriad opportunities for them, include designing Hollywood sets, writing historical novels and working as interpretive rangers. They also support lawyers in litigation; work as military historians; and get jobs in journalism, preservation, museums, government agencies and even private businesses.
Says Noel, “It’s a creative new look at what you can use history for.” It’s a chance for history students to do something besides getting a doctorate and trying to find a history job and ending up instead driving a taxicab.
Gulliford said one hope for the FLC program is to create a pipeline to UC-Denver’s graduate program. And he’s hoping that community colleges will filter students into FLC’s program.
“It’s a really exciting program because it’s history outside the classroom,” Gulliford said.
“It just helps decision-makers to understand maybe some of the pitfalls in the past, but also why they’re at a crossroads in making a modern decision.”
Already there are seven declared public history majors at FLC, ranging from freshmen to seniors.
Noel has several Durango connections and has traveled here many times but has never spoken in a public forum. Although his focus is on Denver, he promises to delve into Southwest Colorado history, whether it’s bars or railroads.
Duane Smith, who retired last spring after 49 years of teaching history at Fort Lewis, is well-acquainted with Noel. They’ve led fundraising tours of railroads and mines in the San Juan Mountains, and they co-wrote Colorado: The Highest State, a history book for middle school-aged kids.
“Tom and I had a great time,” said Smith, who couldn’t resist adding that he’ll only go to Noel’s talk “if he pays me.”
Gulliford says anyone who gets a chance should join one of Noel’s Denver bar tours, which Gulliford refers to as pub crawls. Noel said they started as walking tours. Then one day it rained.
“We ducked into a bar and had a drink. All of a sudden, everybody livened up,” Noel said. “We had a few affairs and one marriage out of the class, and I said, why don’t we do bar tours?”
Like any dedicated historian, Noel believes in his work. History is important for myriad reasons – giving people a sense of place, for one.
“To have some roots, where it’s not just another generic community in a generic neighborhood,” Noel said. He said those with a sense of history are more likely to vote and to take interest in local issues.
“I like to think that makes people better citizens.”
johnp@durangoherald.com. John Peel writes a weekly human-interest column.
If you go
Professor Tom Noel, also known as “Dr. Colorado,” will give a talk on “Confessions of a Public Historian: Bars and Boneyards,” at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 12 at Room 130, Noble Hall, Fort Lewis College.
Noel founded the state’s first public history and preservation program in 1986 at the University of Colorado-Denver. He is speaking in conjunction with the announcement that FLC is starting a new major in public history.
He appears on the show “Colorado & Company” (KUSA-TV, Ch. 9 in Denver) and writes a regular column for The Denver Post.
