Write Your Story

Please consider sharing your stories and photos from the Marshall Fire using this Marshall Fire Story Project form.

Our community has been through a lot. Whether you are grieving, looking for ways to understand, wanting to shed light on those who are helping, or simply needing to share, we invite you to add your story and/or photos to this collective of community stories from the Marshall Fire. This event has left us with varying layers of experiences and emotions. All experiences and emotions are valid and welcome.

Share Your Story In-Person

Louisville Historical Museum staff offer individual story sharing sessions held at the Louisville Public Library. Use the Marshall Fire Story Session Reservation form to schedule a session.  These sessions are free and open to the public. 

At the Louisville Historical Museum, our mission is to collect and preserve both the historical record and the stories and lives that make up the heart and character of Louisville. The stories you share from evacuation, during the fire, and after the fire will help future generations of Louisville and Colorado residents understand the gravity and emotional spectrum of this event. Please feel welcome to share in any format you want and feel free to share stories on behalf of others if you have their permission. 

The Louisville Historical Museum is collaborating with Assistant Professor Kate Goldfarb at the University of Colorado with a Community Engagement and Outreach Grant to collect and preserve stories about the Marshall Fire. Read about it in Collaborators Preserve Voices from the Fire.

 Watch 9News coverage of the Marshall Fire Story Project. 

Museum Workshops

Louisville Historical Museum offers workshops to help community members preserve their photos, mementos, and personal stories.

Dates and times:

• Story sharing only. Please register for a time slot.
• Conservation Workshops for care and cleaning of fire-damaged items
  • There are currently no Conservation Workshops scheduled.

Workshop Activities: 

Care & Cleaning of Fire-Damaged Items: Insight from professional conservators about how to clean, stabilize, and preserve items damaged in the Marshall Fire by ash, smoke, fire, wind, and snow. Presentations and Q&A sessions throughout the event.
Conservators have expertise with paper, photographs, ceramics, glass, metal, jewelry, textiles, and art. Participants are welcome to bring photos of items or actual items if they are wrapped or contained.

Tell Your Story: Share and record your story about the Marshall Fire so it can be documented for the future. This is a safe space to share. Individuals and groups welcome. 
Sign up for a story-sharing time slot to have your story recorded.

Care and Cleaning Resources 

Residents are advised to use caution when retrieving and handling sentimental items salvaged from burn areas that are damaged from ash, soot, smoke, or water/snow. For your personal safety, wear long-sleeves, gloves, face mask, and safety goggles to protect against burned and abrasive materials and inhalation of microparticles. Handle items carefully and support with both hands or a stable container. Items that have been through a fire and freezing temperatures can be fragile and structurally weakened even if they appear intact.

Museum Workshops

Louisville Historical Museum staff are offering a series of workshops with professional conservators who will help residents learn how to evaluate and care for items they have recovered from the Marshall Fire. These workshops are free and open to the public. For more details, please visit the City calendar for more details.

Dates and times:

• Saturday, April 15, 2023 from 2-4 PM at the Library

Download the Conservation Kit Info Sheet.

Soot & Ash Damage

• FEMA Fact Sheet: After the Fire: Advice for Salvaging Damaged Family Treasures for information for your own personal safety and to avoid further damage to salvaged items.

• The Fire and Smoke Damage information sheet from The Chicora Foundation includes guidelines for cleaning a variety of materials such as wood, textiles, glass, and metal.

• Emergency Response - Resource and Supply List for Fire Damaged Items from MS Art Conservation includes information on paper, photographs, and textiles and where to purchase supplies.

• This Soot and Ash video from the American Institute for Conservation provides an overview of the processes used for safely cleaning soot and ash with a HEPA vacuum and soot sponge. This video contains images of burned and fire-damaged buildings and materials. 

Snow & Water Damage

Fire-damaged items are also likely to be exposed to water and snow. The combination of ash and water can complicate treatment.

• FEMA Fact Sheet on Salvaging Water Damaged Family Valuables and Treasures;
  Spanish: Cómo salvar los objetos de valor y las reliquias familiares dañados por el agua

• FEMA Fact Sheet: Save Your Family Treasures - Photographs  for water damaged photos and photo albums

• Read this tip sheet on Drying Wet Collections and Buildings from National Heritage Responders for general guidelines.

• This video on Water Damage from the American Institute for Conservation provides an overview of the processes used for safe handling and treatment of water-damaged items:

Finding a Conservator

Museum staff can help connect you with a professional conservator if you would like specialized help with cleaning and preserving textiles, papers, photographs, or other objects.

Please send an email with a description of your item and damage to gyang@louisvilleco.gov for a list of local conservators who have offered their assistance to families impacted by the Marshall Fire.

Tell Your Story

Talking about your experience or sharing it with another person can be helpful for healing and reflection. We invite you to record and share your story of the Marshall Fire to make meaning of your lived experience and so that future generations can better understand how the fire impacted our lives and community.

Please feel free to record a story by yourself or as a conversation with a friend or family member.

Museum Workshops

Louisville Historical Museum staff are offering a series of workshops inviting anyone impacted by the Marshall Fires or involved in recovery efforts to share their stories. Museum staff and volunteers will be available to help record stories in video, audio, or written formats. You can choose which you are most comfortable with.

These workshops are free and open to the public. For more details, please visit the City calendar for more details.

Want to share your story in person? Add your voice to the historical record of this time. Sign up for a story-sharing time slot to have your story recorded.

Dates and times:

All workshops will be from 2-4 PM at the Louisville Public Library.

• Saturday, October 29 -please register for a time slot

Record on Your Own: 

Below are instructions for recording on your own using an iPhone. To share your story with the Louisville Historical Museum, please email the audio file to gyang@louisvilleco.gov. 

Your recording will become part of the Louisville Historical Museum archive and may be reproduced or shared as historical documents in relation to future Museum activities, events, and publications. Your submission may also be shared with relevant regional museums and historical institutions to add to their historical collections, enabling them to better know and represent how the fire affected their communities.

Instructions:

Please start your recording by saying the following information and permissions statement:

1. Today is _______. (Include Month, date, and year)
2. My name is ____________. (Please also spell your name if it helps to clarify pronunciation)
3. I live in ________________. (Include your city - Louisville, Superior, etc.)
4. By submitting this recording, I agree that I am donating my responses to the Louisville Historical Museum.
5. Start telling your story! 

Using Voice Memo on an iPhone

1. Open the Voice Memo app
2. Press the large red button to start recording
3. Begin by stating the date, personal information, and permissions statement (see Instructions above)
4. Tell Your Story
5. Press the square, red button to stop recording
6. Tap on the "new recording" title to edit and change the title to your first and last name
7. Tap on the "three dots" icon to share your audio file
8. Select "email" to send your file to the Louisville Historical Museum: gyang@louisvilleco.gov. Please include in the subject line your first and last name, and "Marshall Fire Audio".

Preserving Family Photos and Documents

Family photographs are one of the first things people choose to save in an emergency. Scanning and digitizing your photographs can ensure that your photos are stored and preserved in more than one place and can be retrieved if the original prints are lost or destroyed.

Museum Workshops

Louisville Historical Museum staff are offering a series of workshops inviting anyone impacted by the Marshall Fires to bring their photographs, family documents, and recipes for scanning and saving in a digital format.  Museum staff and volunteers will walk you through how to scan and save your photographs. 

These workshops are free and open to the public. For more details, please visit the City calendar for more details.

Dates and times:

All workshops will be from 2-4 PM at the Louisville Public Library.

• There are no scanning workshops currently scheduled.

Download the Scanning Station Info Sheet.

A scanner is available to the public at the Library Makerspace. Make an appointment for one-on-one assistance with scanning or to reserve use of the scanner. Call the Reference Desk at 303-335-4820 or email the Reference Desk.

Best Practice for Scanning Photos and Documents

• File formats
  • JPG or PNG are the most common and easily read file formats for photographs. PNG will compress into smaller file sizes without losing data. JPGs work well for sharing and posting images online.
  • PDF is best for text based documents
• Resolution 
  • 300 dpi (dots per inch) will provide a high quality image with quick scanning speed
  • 600 dpi is better for long-term preservation but scanning speed is slow
• Color
  • Use grayscale for scanning black and white images
  • Use color for color images
• Scans
  • When using a flatbed scanner, you can scan multiple photos at once and then crop and edit into individual images later with a photo editor.
  • Remember to scan the backs of photos that may contain names or other identifying information or dates.
• Organization
  • Start with an organization system that works for you and create folders for your photos as you scan.
    • By Date - Year/Month/Date 
    • By Name - be consistent by using the person's full name, including maiden names. Avoid using titles i.e. Grandma or Uncle which can change depending on relationship to other family members
    • By Location
    • By Event

Saving and Storing Digitized Images

Once you have scanned your photos and documents, choose one or several methods for storing them to preserve your photos for the future.

• USBs and External Hard Drives
  • PROS
    • Easy to use and easy to load photos on and off
    • Portable
  • CONS
    • Can be lost or destroyed
    • Technology is changing and computer/PC ports are changing, meaning an adapter may be needed to use a USB or external hard drive.

• Digital Back Ups, such as the Cloud, Google Drive, etc.
  • PROS
    • Photos can be stored, removed, and accessed from digital back-ups from any web browser anywhere in the world
  • CONS
    • Digital storage may come at a price or have limited free storage

Commonly Used Sites for Cloud Storage

• Amazon Photos
• Apple iCloud
• Dropbox
• Google Photos
• Microsoft OneDrive
• Shutterfly
• Flickr

Replacing Photo Memories after the Marshall Fire - Flickr Group 

The Museum has teamed up with community members to try to replace some of the photographed memories that residents lost in the Marshall Fire. This includes photos of homes, neighborhoods, neighborhood activities, public groups, public performances, school activities, etc. that were taken before the fire.

If you have a photo that could bring comfort to someone who lost their photo memories in the Marshall Fire, please upload it to the Louisville Historical Museum’s Flickr Group, “Replacing Photo Memories after the Marshall Fire.”

Please do not include the names of people in the photographs for privacy reasons. Street names, neighborhood names, and group names are welcome. Also, providing addresses of houses that are pictured is not necessary, but would be appreciated as an aid for people looking for photos of specific houses.

You will need to create or log in to a Flickr account to upload photos. If you have questions or would prefer to email your photos, please reach out to the Louisville Historical Museum at museum@louisvilleco.gov. Your photos will be sorted into galleries by geographic region so that residents from different areas of Louisville, Superior, and unincorporated Boulder County can locate and download photos that relate to them and their neighborhood.

 Watch Fox 31 coverage of this project.