At 10,000 feet, winter doesn’t just arrive; it settles into your bones. 

Snow swallows rooftops. Oxygen thins. In the mines, darkness is constant; above ground, the cold is merciless. If a cough lingers too long or the sun doesn’t shine for one too many days, it could mean the difference between life and death.

This was life for Irish immigrants in Leadville in the 1800s. Brutal, overworked and often short, with immigrants in Leadville’s Evergreen Cemetery averaging a lifespan of 22 years. 

For those who came to North America chasing the American dream, reality for an immigrant revealed itself to be a little more like a nightmare.

This was the life of many men and women whose stories are now being told in “Unearthed: Voices of Leadville’s Shanty Irish,” a new exhibit opening Wednesday, Feb. 18, at Denver’s Molly Brown House Museum.

The exhibit was built from decades of research by University of Colorado Denver professor James Walsh, along with a team of current and former students. 

“Life was very hard and very difficult,” Walsh said. “It was an existence they didn’t expect when they came to North America for a better life.”

In 2023, Walsh unveiled a decade-long project memorializing the lives of forgotten immigrants buried in Evergreen Cemetery, funded by the Irish government. Now, the stories of those lives will be put on display in a house that holds a similar history. 

Margaret “Molly” Brown, best known for surviving the sinking of the Titanic, married her husband, J.J. Brown, in Leadville. During the mining boom, she and her husband achieved wealth after a successful gold strike, leading them to purchase their Denver home.

Today, the house has been turned into a museum, operated by Historic Denver, which preserves her home and highlights her story alongside the lives of the people who worked for the Browns, including domestic staff and laborers.

“When guests come to the house, learn that whole story and then wind up in the unearthed exhibit space, it’s that same labor and immigration that’s so present already in the Browns’ story,” Director of the Molly Brown House Museum and Historic Denver Vice President Andrea Malcomb said. “It does a really good job of just sort of humanizing these amazing, determined people who crossed oceans and continents to get to Leadville.” 

For a moment, it feels less like history and more like déjà vu. 

“The exhibit was really built around the idea that when you go to that memorial and learn about the lives of this immigrant community, it’s impossible not to reflect on the immigrant communities today,” Walsh said.

As conversations about immigration, equity and citizenship unfold nationwide, the exhibit draws a direct line from past struggles to the present.

“19th-century immigrant workers faced these conditions, and 21st-century immigrant workers face these conditions,” Walsh said. “They also face a tremendous amount of discrimination and are treated as second-class citizens. This is a moment where the villification of immigrant communities has really gotten out of control.”

On display through the summer, the exhibit is on the third floor of the museum, immersing visitors in Leadville’s immigrant past while raising questions about today’s promise of the American dream.

“What sort of dreams or hopes are we promising as a nation, and how are we living up to that?” Malcomb asked. “It’s the same dream these Irish immigrants had. How will we learn from what happened 100 or so years ago?” 

If you go

What: “Unearthed: Voices of Leadville’s Shanty Irish”

When: Wednesday, Feb. 18

Where: Molly Brown House Museum, 1340 Pennsylvania St.

Price: $12-$20, 303-832-4092, mollybrown.org