Thomas Price, 19, spent a year portraying a 19th century miner turned naturalist and taxidermist named Edwin Carter.

And he struck gold.

The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs freshman received the Breckenridge Heritage Alliance’s inaugural “Theobald Award” for his contribution to the history of that city.

Price also recently won a second prestigious history award, the World War II Museum’s Salute to Freedom contest for his essay on how Coloradoans helped that war’s effort. He and 50 other state winners will attend the January opening of the museum’s new U.S. Freedom Pavilion in New Orleans.

His work on both projects was done under history teacher Jason Kohn while Price was a senior at Palmer High School, from which he graduated in May. He was one of The Gazette’s Best and Brightest 2012 winners.

He said of the history wins, “I was surprised. I didn’t expect to get either one. I just like looking into the past because there are so many great figures that shaped our lives.” Price is majoring in history, and minoring in film studies and museum studies.

“He put his heart and soul into his work and studied it for a year,” said Larissa O’Neal, Alliance executive director. She said Price unearthed information in his research that no other historians knew about the miner. “And that wasn’t easy to find because Carter was a mysterious man.”

Price got the idea for his research in 2010 when he ran into the Edwin Carter Museum in Breckenridge during a rainstorm and became fascinated with the miner who went on to preserve more than 3,000 of Colorado’s animals. Carter’s work forms the nucleus of the present day Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

Price turned his research into dramatic performances in one-man educational shows across the state. He has also portrayed 19th century paleontologists Othneil Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope, whose work changed acceptance of that science.

Price explains he learned to act in a children’s theater called Alleycat Theatrics in Colorado Springs.

“The person I’d like to study next is Jim Henson. It’s amazing how he created the Muppets.”

After college, he would like to become a museum educator or a historian of film, he said.

His mother, Michele Price, notes that while her son appreciates his awards, it goes beyond that. “For him it’s a labor of love.”

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