Superior Historical Museum rebuilt after building destroyed in Marshall Fire

SUPERIOR, Colo. (KDVR) — The Marshall Fire in 2021 destroyed hundreds of buildings, including many historic mining structures in Superior.

On Saturday, one of those buildings celebrated the completion of its rebuild. The Superior Historical Museum is ready to open its doors to the public once again.

“Superior didn’t just lose 400 homes and businesses, we lost a lot of our history,” Mayor Mark Lacis said

While many of those structures are still being rebuilt more than two years later, the Superior Historical Museum is back up and running.

“After the fire, there was nothing left here but the basement, the basement full of ash,” Larry Dorsey, a member of the Superior Historical Commission said.

A historic building itself, the museum was in an old mining cottage more than 100 years old. Jim Lastoka from Louisville wore a mining outfit to the ceremony, one similar to his grandfather’s back in the 1890s.

“His job was to weigh the coal that the miners dug,” Lastoka said.

His grandfather bought a home similar in style to the museum in 1906. It still stands today.

“My daughter and granddaughter live there and my granddaughter is now the fifth generation to live in that house,” Lastoka said.

He has donated several items to the museum, which currently sit at a different location waiting to move into the new building. He said it’s been a pleasure to share the area’s past with new generations.

“Coming from a mining tradition, mining history, I like to keep it alive,” Lastoka said.

Alive like the museum is once again, in the exact same spot it stood before, rising from the ashes to share Superior’s past with the present.

“To see it come back from that to this has been really, really rewarding,” Dorsey said.

The Superior Historical Museum is located in Asti Park at 110 W. Maple Street.