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O'er green hills
Specialty shop brings Celtic culture to Colorado mountain town
By Adam Goldstein
goldstea@mscd.edu

Photo by Johanna Snow • snowj@mscd.edu A piece of brass marked with ancient Celtic symbol sits in front of a decorative piece of artwork in The Emporium.

The ancient face casts a steady stare from its nook in a small shop window. Frozen in stained glass, the visage is more plant than human. Its green eyes, triangular nose and rounded lips stand against a backdrop of curving leaves and verdant vines.

It’s an image that’s adorned structures all over Europe for thousands of years, a symbol that speaks of timeless ties to the earth and its mysteries.

For Mary Ann Dalpes, the owner of The Emporium, this timeless Celtic symbol, known as the Green Man, serves as both a fitting welcome for her customers and a personal reminder of the store’s beginnings.

“The stained glass is by my brother, who lives in Seattle,” she said. “Seven years ago he said, ‘If you open your store, I’ll let you hang my Green Man.’”

Tucked amid the souvenir shops and quirky eateries on Idaho Springs’ Miner Street, The Emporium specializes in all things Celtic, such as Irish recipe books, CDs of Scottish airs, and books of verse by William Butler Yeats and Jonathan Swift. Dalpes, a former elementary school teacher, opened The Emporium in 2000, after her youngest child enrolled as an English major at Metro.

“I taught right here at Carlson Elementary, about three blocks from here,” she said. “I’ve always been interested in doing an Irish shop, and I took a leave of absence. So I opened this store, and then I didn’t go back to teaching.”

Built in 1879, the building now brags a variety of items that, according to Dalpes, rivals its competition even in the emerald isle itself.

“We get people from Ireland, Scotland and Wales,” she said. “A lot of them say, ‘I see more here than I do at home.’”

In addition to its Celtic wares, the store’s backroom is filled with antiques and curios from the town’s status as one of Colorado’s first mining centers.

“It’s called ‘The Emporium’ because I have a lot more than Irish stuff,” Dalpes said. “For me, the name indicates lots of different things.”

Indeed, the small space melds its rustic location and European theme seamlessly – relics from Idaho Springs’ mining past mark the backroom, while a large Irish hearth stands as the centerpiece of the store’s front space.

For Dalpes, whose grandmother emmigrated from Ireland, the store serves as an ideal way to help her uncover her own Celtic heritage as she brings a piece of the Old World to her Colorado community.

“My grandmother came from Ireland in 1912, as a young girl – I mean, she was barely 21,” she said. “She came by herself into Canada.”

Debbie Arnold, who has two children attending Metro, has worked at the store since November. Though she was drawn in at first by the store’s selection of local antiques, Arnold has uncovered a personal passion for Celtic culture and history.

“I’ve really gotten into the music,” she said. “The Celts were a lot of places – all through Europe and even into Russia … People don’t usually think about that.”

Much of the store’s diverse merchandise and resources are designed to help its customers uncover their own Irish roots.

Russell Poley and Annmarie Marino, a couple visiting Idaho Springs from Denver, were able to trace the genealogy of Marino’s mothers’ name, Regan, from a poster hanging on the store’s wall.

“The Regans were noble chieftains,” Poley marveled as he traced the name on the faded map of Ireland. “O’Regan – they dropped the ‘O’ when they came to America … One was a king of a castle who was killed in battle in 854.”

“This is great,” Marino said as her boyfriend recited the epic history of her mother’s ancient forebears. “I’m adopted, so I know very little about my mom.”

The historic exploits of the O’Regan clan are just one of the fantastical stories that fill the shelves of this small shop on Miner Street. Though the epic battles, rugged heroes and storied myths spring from the other side of the world, Dalpes maintains that the distance from Dublin to Denver isn’t so great.

“Years ago, there were Irish and Cornish miners in all of these mines up here,” she explained.

Just as the image of the Green Man was supposed to serve as a connection between the secret world of nature and the world of humans, The Emporium helps maintain a link between this mountain community and its Old World antecedents.