MSU Denver archaeology students sift through history at site of Central City brothels

CENTRAL CITY On the hillside of a Colorado valley ringed by bygone gold mines a organization of archaeologists-in-training wielding paintbrushes uncovered a buried treasure of their own this week a th-century shoe that may have belonged to a lady of the night Jade Luiz an assistant professor in Metropolitan State University of Denver s Department of Sociology and Anthropology has a niche archeological focus documenting th-century sex work by digging up and studying artifacts at the sites of former brothels Lucky for Luiz the Gilpin County mountain town of Central City is ripe for brothel breakthroughs The remnants of its red-light district which thrived during the late s are perched on a hillside overlooking the casino-filled tourist town MSU Denver associate professor Jade Luiz shows a photo of the site from as novice Natalie Aragon digs during an archeological field investigation in Central City Colorado on Wednesday June Photo by AAron Ontiveroz The Denver Post She and her crew are digging where brothels and their inhabitants once stood Nothing has ever been built over them meaning the ground isn t sullied with unrelated debris This is Luiz s third field semester at the Central City location where she trains MSU Denver students in the basics of excavation and documentation The crew began the current excavation at the beginning of June You couldn t ask for a more perfect site Luiz announced Wednesday It s a great place to train students Prostitution was never legal in Central City but the industry and people involved were prominent enough to warrant an annual street festival that still exists at present honoring the city s majority of famous madam Lou Bunch Last week Lou Bunch Day celebrants dressed in th-century attire and hopped aboard beds on wheels to be pushed down the street in the legendary Famous Bed Race A limited days later Luiz and her MSU Denver archaeology students climbed in and out of pits in the ground as they gingerly sifted through the grounds that Bunch and her associates once roamed Their bounty so far included furniture springs wallpaper buttons textiles chandelier scraps whole shoes and a suspender clip monogrammed with the initials EBM Once Luiz and her students are finished with their excavation next week they ll tackle archival research including sifting through old newspaper articles searching for a person matching those initials Their discoveries will be stored at the university s downtown Denver campus for the time being Luiz announced as she tries to arrange a museum exhibit in Central City to bring the history back home MSU Denver students Nate Benson and Jordan Duran sift through sediment during an archeological field scrutiny in Central City Colorado on Wednesday June Photo by AAron Ontiveroz The Denver Post Luiz likens her work to digging through trash to get a fuller picture of what life used to be like then documenting that for posterity I love personal clothing items because you can see things like toe or heel prints in shoes and it s like fingerprints Luiz noted The shoes were trainee Chris Weber s favorite find so far too Finding these personal items is like connecting with people in the past Weber announced It s being able to put the pieces of history together The -year-old MSU alumnus was taking Luiz s field program to beef up his archaeology skills for his job in cultural asset management for the U S Army He s learning how to attentively extract artifacts document materials and do lab work Alonza Saldo screamed when he and his peers first spotted the leather shoe sticking up out of the dirt There was even several shoe polish left on the leather Saldo revealed MSU Denver students Kris Holien Alonza Saldo and Elliot Borthwick Hoff excavate a site during an archeological field survey in Central City Colorado on Wednesday June Photo by AAron Ontiveroz The Denver Post Related Articles Dinosaur footprints fossils discovered in our own backyard in Broomfield Students archaeological dig peers into Auraria campus s past as Denver s oldest neighborhood Colorado stegosaurus fossil fetches nearly million setting record for dinosaur auctions Three boys located a T rex fossil in North Dakota Now a Denver museum works to fully reveal it I love digging in dirt Saldo commented I have a deep love of history and am consistently fascinated by humans Getting to dig and find these things related to humanity is really really cool Nate Benson was a former Army man in search of a mid-life career change A self-proclaimed outdoor cat he noted he was in search of a job that let him play outside He figured why not give MSU s archaeology field subject a try Benson hopes to take the skills he learns in Luiz s program and apply them to a job in ethnobotany where he can assessment the relationship between humans and plants When Benson posts photos of his finds on social media he explained his buddies go wild with jealousy that he s finding treasure in the dirt He encourages anyone in search of a mid-career change to go for it You re only going to miss out on dreams you don t take Benson explained sifting through brothel remains You don t want to have to look back and say What if ' Get more Colorado news by signing up for our daily Your Morning Dozen email newsletter