Following are short profiles of area workers encountered doing their jobs around Clear Creek.
Fred Nelson, snowplow driver for the Clear Creek County Road and Bridge Department
If the road is clear of snow and ice the morning after a storm, thank Fred Nelson and the other snowplow drivers at the Clear Creek County Road and Bridge Department.
Nelson starts work at 4 a.m. on snowy days to clear the roads and continues to work until all the pavement is plowed — often around the clock. One time in 2003, a storage shed caved in at Nelson’s house after a snowstorm because he didn’t have time to go home and shovel the snow off it. Luckily, his insurance covered the damage.
In the summer, Nelson grades the dirt roads around the Floyd Hill neighborhood — usually about 2 miles per day. The same dirt road might get smoothed of its washboard ruts four or five times per summer under Nelson’s meticulous eye.
In the winter, Nelson might clear 90 miles of roads at a time — the equivalent of clearing each road twice that he’s responsible for in and around the Floyd Hill neighborhood.
Summer or winter, it’s painstaking work, he says.
“They call it the Rocky Mountains for a reason. We have rocks in the mountains,” Nelson said.
Nelson has worked in construction all his life, first as a combat engineer in the military after growing up in Empire, and later hauling explosives for a construction company.
For the last 15 years, Nelson has been working for the Clear Creek County Road and Bridge Department. On Mother’s Day 2013, he was one of the workers called to Beaver Brook Canyon to deal with the retaining wall that broke and fell onto the road. Another time, Nelson was in a road grader that started to slide off the side of the road — he had to call for help to get back on solid ground.
Nelson knows residents well enough to wave but said he doesn’t want to know them too well — because then someone might ask for a favor, and he wants to do a good job serving everybody.
“I like that I’m outdoors all that time, in a different area every day,” Nelson said.
Wendy Anderson, owner and proprietor of Kneisel & Anderson in Georgetown
If you need to buy a hammer and nails or any other hardware, the Kneisel & Anderson store in Georgetown is a treasure trove.
Don’t let the “closed” sign over the inside door between the hardware and the grocery sides of the operation fool you. Just ask owner and proprietor Wendy Anderson for permission to go inside from the grocery store. (The two stores are at 511 6th St. on Georgetown’s main drag.) The hardware store isn’t often open to the public, but its graceful antiques and old sign reflected in the two-story plate-glass windows catch the eyes of passers-by, Anderson said.
In the old days, Swedish miners and others needed tools for mining, and Anderson’s family provided them. The miners also missed the European foods they loved — Swedish, Scandinavian and German jams, pancake mixes and other products, including imported cheeses and chocolates.
These days, Anderson or her sister Coralue will ring up the fresh-picked Palisade peaches you might find outside, or the Colorado treats inside the front door. Open bins and shelves behind the cash register show off more wares.
When she was a young girl, Anderson said she never worked at the store, and never thought she would become its proprietor. She came home to help her father about 35 years ago, however, and she’s been behind the cash register ever since.
The building was built in 1883 by Henry Kneisel; the Anderson family bought it in 1893, when they installed the wooden bins and shelving behind the original marble counter, Anderson said. Around the turn of the century, the store competed with another grocery, differentiating itself with the specialty items, Anderson said.
One more little-known piece of history: Kneisel & Anderson is one of the few stores that offered credit accounts to local customers when it opened — and it still does.
Steve Indrehus, operations manager at Tommyknocker Brewery in Idaho Springs
At 7,500 feet above sea level, Steve Indrehus oversees every single Tommyknocker brew — one batch at a time.
While Indrehus doesn’t personally stir the vats, he is in charge of the brewers and the bottlers, all beer distribution, and even the kitchen, as the Tommyknocker Brewery & Pub operations manager in Idaho Springs. He calls himself “camp counselor” to the more than 100 employees who work at the brewery and restaurant.
What Indrehus does best, though, is give tours around the historic building to show off the brewpub’s innovations. He likes to tell folks that the water in the beer flows straight from the Continental Divide over the waterfall they see from Interstate 70. (It’s not exactly true, but a it’s a great visual, he says.) He’ll tell you all about the 20-barrel brew house, the 20 fermenters, the casks in the basement, the bottling equipment and fresh Colorado ingredients, from pumpkin and peaches to lemongrass.
Tommyknocker beer is sold in 18 states and Norway, and its soda line includes flavorful root beer and orange cream.
Indrehus also is the star of a video about Tommyknocker’s spent brewing grain that’s used to make “Nachos Borrachos” (Drunk Nachos) in collaboration with Raquelitas Tortillas in Denver. The hardy, multigrain tortilla chip is sold in restaurants in Colorado and other states, as well as the prepared-foods areas of Whole Foods stores.
Grain from the brewery’s most popular Maple Nut Brown Ale is used to make the chips. Tommyknocker Beer brats are made from the brewery’s Butthead Bock at Continental Sausage in Denver. The brats also sell at Whole Foods stores.
With all the innovation, Indrehus is humble. He likes to say that his job is 90 percent “janitorial.” He’s also a “yeast farmer” who keeps exacting tabs on the fermenter vats used in the beer-making process.
“I make a mess and clean it up, make a mess and clean it up,” Indrehus says, smiling.