Name: Railroads of Placer County
Brand: Arthur Sommers
SKU: 9781467127646
Price: 24.99 USD
Availability: InStock

Railroads of Placer County

9781467127646

$24.99

Though small in geographic size, Placer County is large in its rich history of railroading in California. This book covers 14 different railroads that did or still do exist in some association with Placer County. There were narrow-gauge and standard-gauge, long transcontinental, and short point-to-point railroads. Some railroads were fully contained within the county, and others just touched the county. Some railroads were short-lived operations, while others operated for decades. One railroad still functions today, undiminished after 150 years in service. This book is more than just a collection of photographs of locomotives; it provides the reader with a visual history of various aspects of the many railroads operating in Placer County over the years.

Donner Summit

9780738574776

$24.99

The pass over Donner Peak in Northern California is known as Donner Summit and has been a critical route across the Sierra Nevada Mountains for centuries. First it was used by Native Americans, then early settlers, and then emigrant wagon trains such as those used by the ill-fated Donner Party, in whose honor the region is named. The first transcontinental railroad in the United States and the first transcontinental highway in America both made use of the Donner Summit route to gain access to California; even early aviators used a beacon at the Summit for guidance across the Sierras. Most of the communities and points of interest along the railroad and highway route up and over Donner Summit are covered in this book.

Los Angeles's La Brea Tar Pits and Hancock Park

9780738576114

$24.99

Ever since the first popular article on the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits was published in Sunset magazine in 1908, this amazing Ice Age fossil site has captivated the imaginations of countless people from all over the world. This "death trap of the ages" and its population of saber-toothed cats, dire wolves, and other extinct animals, now displayed in the stunning George C. Page Museum, continues to be one of the most popular tourist attractions in Los Angeles. George Allan Hancock donated the 26-acre site to the County of Los Angeles in 1924 to preserve this scientific treasure trove for research and the enjoyment of future generations.

Los Angeles's La Brea Tar Pits and Hancock Park

Around Granby

9781467130455

$24.99

The area around Granby was developed in the late 1800s and today remains true to the "Spirit of the West." It once was the Utes' summer hunting ground and was shared by fur trappers and mountain men in the winters. Later, prospectors came to Lulu City and mined for gold while loggers and homesteaders built schools and churches, forming the towns of Monarch, Selak, and Coulter. In 1905, the Moffat Railroad created a new town, putting Granby on the map. Dependable railroad access allowed ranches and businesses to thrive. The Victory Highway offered motorcars a route through the Arapaho National Forest and Rocky Mountain National Park, bringing tourism to dude ranches, where guests wanted to be cowboys. After World War II, the completion of the massive Colorado-Big Thompson Water Project changed the landscape when Lake Granby buried ranches and the Lindbergh airstrip. Soon, locals discovered "white gold" when skiing and winter sports expanded the four-season, mountain-resort community.

Hakone Estate and Gardens

9781467106306

$24.99

Hakone Estate and Gardens, the jewel of the Silicon Valley, is 17 acres of landscape architecture designed as a hill-and-pond garden of ancient Japan. Visitors have unforgettable experiences at Hakone, from strolling in a bamboo forest to feeding the magnificent koi. Yet to be appreciated is Hakone's rich history, beginning in 1915, the year of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, with the purchase by San Franciscans Oliver and Isabel Stine of a parcel of land in Saratoga, California. After Oliver's unexpected death in 1918, Isabel carried on with the creation of her Japanese garden, defying anti-Asian nativism. The next owner, Maj. Charles Tilden, protected Hakone during World War II when the Japanese gardener and his family were sent to an internment camp. The last private owners, six couples in partnership, sold Hakone to the City of Saratoga in 1966. The city established the Hakone Foundation in 2000 to conserve and enhance the gardens for the benefit of the public and to serve as a global forum for art, music, culture, and ideas.

Lake Arrowhead Architecture

9781467109659

$23.99

Located in the mountains above San Bernardino is a surprising enclave of significant architecture built by some of the region's most important architects. The Lake Arrowhead area was long a getaway for the rich and famous, who brought many of the architects they used down the mountain to design their hidden hideaways on their own private lake. Things have changed since the golden age of building, and the area, while still private, is enjoyed by a far broader sector of the population. Yet the legacy of that early architecture and the transformation into a modern resort community is still intact and enjoyed by new generations of mountain residents. This book explores the area's architecture from its early history as a logging and cattle ranching community to its flourishing as a secret hideaway for the Hollywood crowd to its current status as a mountain resort for Southern Californians.

Rim of the World Drive

9780738547701

$24.99

On July 18, 1915, the Rim of the World Drive was dedicated as politicians, businessmen, and local luminaries looked on. What followed is the incredible story of how a road changed the lives of San Bernardino Mountain visitors and residents alike. In a single generation, the slow 19th-century lifestyle that moved at the pace of horses was transformed into the streamlined and fast-paced 20th-century age of the automobile. By the 1930s, a realigned high-gear route led up the hill from San Bernardino to Crestline, then along the crest to Lake Arrowhead, Running Springs, and Big Bear, and finally down the hill to Redlands. This fascinating evolution of Southern California's landmark Rim of the World Drive--from Native American trail to state highway--is showcased here in a meticulously researched presentation of rare photographs, many never before published.

Pikes Peak

9780738520629

$24.99

Before being "discovered" by U.S. explorer Zebulon Pike in 1806, the Pikes Peak region was home to a variety of different cultures, including Native Americans, Mexicans, and French and Spanish explorers. Captured here in almost 200 vintage images are the lives, trials, adventures, and leisures of some of the Peak's early pioneers and visitors, covering a span of almost 60 years. Along with rare images of the Pikes Peak area from the late 1800s, this collection contains a number of previously unpublished photographs. These include pictures of female pioneers traversing mountains in Cheyenne canons and other vicinities in the 1920s; Colorado Mountain Club members on their hiking trips in the area; pre-World War I memoirs and poems from local residents; and pictures of local prospectors, like Frank Nelson, who remained long after the large gold deposits were discovered. Also featured is the development of the surrounding communities and attractions of the Peak, including Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs, Cripple Creek, Cheyenne Mountain and Canons, Garden of the Gods, Canon City, Royal Gorge, the Broadmoor Hotel, and the Cliff House.

Fort Yellowstone

9780738593142

$24.99 $12.50 Save 50%

On August 17, 1886, Capt. Moses Harris and the troops of Company M rode into Yellowstone to take over guardianship of America's first national park. Receiving orders thereupon that the company was staying indefinitely, Captain Harris ordered the construction of Camp Sheridan. Seeing no end in sight for this "temporary" duty, the US War Department established Fort Yellowstone in 1891. For 32 years, ceremonial splendor of the US Army filled this era of Yellowstone with booming cannons at sunrise and sunset, crackling rifle-range practices, flashing saber drills, exacting military maneuvers, and dashing dress parades led by the regimental band. With the creation of the National Park Service in 1916, the Army began a two-year administrative transition and formally abandoned Fort Yellowstone in October 1918.

Depression-Era Murals of the Bay Area

9781467131445

$24.99

The San Francisco Bay Area's art community was thriving until the Great Depression strangled commerce in the 1930s. Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal art programs brought relief to many talented but financially strapped artists. Their legacy, and that of the New Deal, adorns the walls and halls of many public spaces throughout the region. Murals cover the lobbies of the Coit Memorial Tower, the Beach Chalet, and the Aquatic Park Bathhouse (today's San Francisco Maritime Museum) and decorate many public schools and post offices. Today, almost all of this wonderful art can be viewed by the public, free of charge.

Lakewood

9780738599908

$24.99

Lakewood, California--once the largest planned community in America--grew almost overnight. From lima bean and sugar beet fields, it became a model of postwar suburban development. Everything about the young Lakewood was new: constructing 17,500 homes in just 33 months, opening California's first regional shopping center in 1951, and achieving cityhood under an innovative plan for local government in 1954. Those early years tell an inspiring story of pioneering developers, enthusiastic residents, and the dedicated leaders of community institutions whose legacy continues to sustain Lakewood. Above all, the Lakewood story is about the ability of ordinary men and women to shape their future--and Lakewood's--as their city begins its seventh decade. Today, Lakewood residents continue to see--in their history, traditions, and values--a reflection of the quality of life they seek to pass to future generations, aided always by a community of caring neighbors.

King City

9781467108041

$23.99 $12.00 Save 50%

The town of King City came into existence in 1886, when the railroad arrived north of San Lorenzo Creek in the Salinas Valley of Central California. Named after Charles H. King, owner of this portion of the San Lorenzo Land Grant, King City has grown into a hub for the magnificent agricultural fields that surround it and support its economy. US Highway 101 and the Salinas River are unique features of the town, and Mesa Del Rey Airport was instrumental in the training of pilots during World War II. Author John Steinbeck's novel East of Eden is set near King City.

California Lighthouse Life in the 1920s and 1930s

9780738508832

$24.99

Like giant sentinels standing guard, California's lighthouses keep silent vigils over the turbulent waters of the Pacific. In 1850, Congress appropriated funds to build eight lighthouses on the West Coast, and three years later, construction began on the project. The first lighthouse to become operational on the West Coast was that on Alcatraz Island on June 1, 1854. While the other seven were being completed, Congress authorized funds to construct a second set of eight lighthouses, and by 1930, California boasted 40 light stations. This new photographic history contains over 200 rare and beautiful images featuring lighthouses of the South Coast, San Francisco Bay, and the North Coast, as well as lightships and support facilities.

California Lighthouse Life in the 1920s and 1930s

Breweries of the Gold Country

9780738576213

$24.99

California's Gold Country, known historically as the Mother Lode, is located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It was here that the famous goldfields of the Gold Rush were located. From 1849 onward, thousands of miners flooded into the area. These men brought with them a powerful thirst, which they sought to slake with their beverage of choice--beer. As quickly as rudimentary towns were established, breweries were erected to supply miners with their desired drink. These breweries produced regionally crafted beers for surrounding populations, and some gained national and international recognition. Many also housed saloons, which became an integral part of these foothill communities. A number of these establishments remained in operation until Prohibition, which ended most local brewing. This volume seeks to document the Gold Country breweries and the brewers who operated them.

Los Angeles's Central Avenue Jazz

9781467131308

$24.99

From the late 1910s until the early 1950s, a series of aggressive segregation policies toward Los Angeles's rapidly expanding African American community inadvertently led to one of the most culturally rich avenues in the United States. From Downtown Los Angeles to the largely undeveloped city of Watts to the south, Central Avenue became the center of the West Coast jazz scene, nurturing homegrown talents like Charles Mingus, Dexter Gordon, and Buddy Collette while also hosting countless touring jazz legends such as Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Billie Holiday. Twenty-four hours a day, the sound of live jazz wafted out of nightclubs, restaurants, hotel lobbies, music schools, and anywhere else a jazz combo could squeeze in its instruments for nearly 50 years, helping to advance and define the sound of America's greatest musical contribution.

Missoula

9780738596440

$24.99

Situated in a broad valley with three rivers--the Clark Fork, the Blackfoot, and the Bitterroot--is Missoula, the second largest city in Montana. The city is the hub of commercial, governmental, educational, recreational, cultural, and health resources in the western Montana region. Missoula was originally founded in 1860 as Hellgate Village, four miles west of present-day Missoula on the current Mullan Road. The original founders moved to the present site, what is now downtown Missoula on the Clark Fork River, built a mill (1864-1865), and called the site Missoula Mills. This mill, along with the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1883, the establishment of the state university in 1893, and the growth of the timber industry, enabled the town to grow on both sides of the Clark Fork River. Through photographs, Images of America: Missoula follows the growth of Missoula into the city it is today, with a population of over 60,000.

San Francisco's Ocean Beach

9780738528571

$24.99

Where the waves of the Pacific Ocean wash up against the quiet neighborhoods of San Francisco, Ocean Beach has endured as a popular destination for tourists and San Francisco residents alike. At water's edge is the Cliff House restaurant where visitors can look down upon the remains of the Sutro Baths, a 19th-century indoor pool complex. Just south is the famous Golden Gate Park with its two stately windmills, followed by the well-loved San Francisco Zoo. But a century of change has altered the landscape and the attractions of Ocean Beach, making way for new developments and reflecting the evolution of the city of San Francisco itself.

Dodger Stadium

9780738528687

$24.99

Since 1962, the inspiring architecture and sweeping vistas of Dodger Stadium have inspired millions of Los Angeles Dodgers baseball fans. What team president Walter O Malley envisioned nearly half a century ago endures as one of professional baseball s most striking pieces of architecture, standing in the shadow of the dramatic San Gabriel Mountains. Dodger Stadium is also one of only two such parks built during the 20th century constructed entirely with private funds. Most people think of the stadium as a world-class baseball park, and Dodger Stadium has certainly earned such a reputation, hosting eight World Series, an All-Star contest, and hundreds of action-filled games through the years, during which the Dodgers won eight National League championships and four World Series. But the stadium has been much more than a sporting ground, hosting Olympic ceremonies and events, a papal visit from John Paul II in 1987, and world-renowned musical events, ranging from Elton John to KISS to The Three Tenors. Other events have included ski-jumping competitions, boxing, and a Harlem Globetrotters basketball exhibition. For four years in the 1960s the stadium was also used by the Los Angeles Angels baseball team.

Richmond

9780738528588

$24.99

Spanning from the shores of San Francisco Bay to the rolling hills of the San Pablo Ridge, Richmond is a city with a history as diverse as its citizens. From its beginnings as a part of Rancho San Pablo, Richmond has evolved through the years into a vibrant, modern city with many types of industries and communities. However, many people have never seen the Richmond of yesterday, with its massive shipbuilding operations that employed thousands of steelworkers, both men and women, during World War II. At one point in the 1940s the city's shipyards had nearly 100,000 workers turning out Liberty ships and other vessels by the score for the war effort. Richmond also boasted a Ford assembly plant, rail yards, and myriad small industries to support them.

The Historic Core of Los Angeles

9780738529240

$24.99

In the early 20th century, there was no better example of a classic American downtown than Los Angeles. Since World War II, Los Angeles's Historic Core has been "passively preserved," with most of its historic buildings left intact. Recent renovations of the area for residential use and the construction of Disney Hall and the Staples Center are shining a new spotlight on its many pre-1930s Beaux Arts, Art Deco, and Spanish Baroque buildings.

Cover image for The Historic Core of Los Angeles, isbn: 9780738529240

Oxnard

9780738529301

$24.99

Stretching out along the beautiful Pacific shoreline, Oxnard is the largest city in Ventura County. The flat plain area lay fallow for nearly a century after the original population, the Chumash Indians, concentrated around the mission of San Buenaventura. The first crops were planted by German and Irish immigrants in 1867, and by 1898, Henry T. Oxnard and his investors saw the potential to build the largest sugar factory in the world. These days, the annual strawberry festival attracts thousands of visitors who come to celebrate the city's deep agricultural roots.

Cover image for Oxnard, isbn: 9780738529301

Newhall’s Walk of Western Stars

9781467106214

$24.99

Since 1981, the Walk of Western Stars in Newhall, California, has commemorated beloved performers from Western film, television, radio, and music. Over the years, nearly 100 honorees have been memorialized in the sidewalks of Old Town Newhall with bronze saddles and terrazzo tiles. Each April, new inductees are added to the walk during the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival. Santa Clarita, which includes Newhall, has a century-long history of Western film and television production that continues to this day. Newhall is the site of William S. Hart Park, where silent cowboy superstar William S. "Two Gun Bill" Hart, the first Walk of Western Stars inductee, had his retirement home. It is also the home of such Western gems as Melody Ranch, a film ranch once owned by Gene Autry that is still in operation. Melody is where Matt Dillon first stared down the bad guys in Gunsmoke, where Al Swearengen ruled over Deadwood, and where the hosts first became sentient in television's Westworld.

Rails around Denver

9780738548029

$24.99

At the height of America's post-Civil War expansion, Colorado Territory was a land of great hope and opportunity. Forged at the confluence of commerce and geography, Colorado became a state in 1876, and Denver, the Queen City of the Plains. To address the growing need for efficient transportation throughout the state, early railroads such as the Kansas Pacific and the Denver and Rio Grande were built in
the 1870s. Serving all of these routes was the Denver Union Depot with its commodious dual-gauged tracks. These "steel roads" would become the region's economic lifeblood, hauling freight and passengers to the booming mountain mining towns, returning with ores for processing, and serving as the direct link for passengers and freight between the Rocky Mountains and the industrialized East.

San Luis Obispo County Architecture

9781467160049

$24.99

California is rare among states and nations in having two cultural capitals--Los Angeles and San Francisco--and San Luis Obispo is smack in the middle. In the middle of nowhere or equidistant from everywhere, its architecture is a riot of variety: samples of practically every 19th- and 20th-century form; experiments by local builders; and one-offs by nationally known architects like Frank Lloyd Wright, Julia Morgan, Richard Neutra, Edla Muir, and Warren Leopold ("Not A Licensed Architect" engraved on his tombstone), all without anxiety of influence from the outside. Where Santa Barbara, rebuilt after an earthquake during the City Beautiful movement, celebrates Spanish, Mission, and Moorish Revival, and Palm Springs embodies Mid-Century Modern, San Luis Obispo is California's capital of the eclectic. Wright's one Usonian office; Morgan's biggest and smallest commissions: Hearst Castle and her cab driver's daughters' playhouse; the world's only Greek Revival Streamline Moderne movie theater across from the Roman Revival PWA Moderne County Courthouse, like Ginger and Fred; the world's first industrial desalinization plant in a power plant modeled after an Egyptian Temple and sheathed in aluminum; Art Beal's bricolage Nitt Witt Ridge: all have an extraordinary story. Author James Papp is an architectural historian and writer of walking tours as well as a principal with Historicities, a cultural resources consultancy in San Luis Obispo. He is a member of the Oceano Economic Development Council Advisory Board, the Education Committee of the California Preservation Foundation, and the City of San Luis Obispo Cultural Heritage Committee.

Santa Paula

9780738531243

$24.99 $12.50 Save 50%

Santa Paula was built on the foundations of citrus cultivation
and oil production. Ventura County's first irrigated 100-acre
orange and lemon orchard was planted at Santa Paula in 1874, and the original 1888 harvest was so plentiful and delicious that the Limoneira Ranch Company was incorporated in 1893 and continues to thrive. Oil seeps brought wildcatters, and California's first gusher came in at Santa Paula in 1888. The town's twin notorieties through the 20th century were its designation as the "citrus capital of the world" and as the birthplace of the Union Oil Company of California (UNOCAL). Lemons and avocados remain the primary tree crops, the oil fields still produce, and the small-town character of bygone days has been preserved--Santa Paula has the largest concentration of vintage structures in the county.

Laramie

9780738548975

$24.99

While it was still part of Dakota Territory, the town of Laramie was founded in 1868 with the arrival of the Union Pacific Railroad. Laramie's placement on the high plains at an elevation of 7,200 feet has
not made for an easy existence, but the hardy ranching families and cowboys, with their cattle hunkered down against the winds and snow, survived in spite of their harsh surroundings and even thrived in this unique eastern Wyoming town. This is the place where the infamous Jack McCall hid from the authorities, where Teddy Roosevelt rode the range, and where Butch Cassidy was held at the Wyoming Territorial Prison. From its early, rowdy days as an end-of-the-tracks tent town on the railroad, with gambling halls and an active nightlife, through the growing-up years of mills, quarries, and local wartime heroes, to the establishment of Wyoming's only state university, Laramie's remarkable story is told here through historic photographs.

San Jose Gambling

9781467104685

$24.99

From the time San Jose was founded by the Spanish in 1777 as California's first civilian settlement, the city has had its share of risk-taking in one way or another. San Jose began as a small settlement of farmers who produced food for the presidios in San Francisco and Monterey. In their free time, the farmers enjoyed a few games of cards despite the strict rules of the Spanish military. Present-day San Jose has become filled with high-tech engineers risking everything to develop the next successful start-up company. San Jose had a lot of gambling between these times-from the illegal speakeasy-type clubs that featured games such as dice, fan-tan, roulette, Chinese lotteries, and, of course, slot machines to the small legal card clubs consisting of one to ten tables filled with people playing games such as pan, lowball, and poker, that would eventually become two of Northern California's largest cardrooms, which generate millions of dollars every year.

Cover image for San Jose Gambling, isbn: 9781467104685

Lake Tahoe's Railroads

9781467117371

$24.99

Lake Tahoe is the majestic mountain lake that spans the boundary line of California and Nevada. The lake's clarity and scenic beauty are legendary. In the 1870s, the Nevada Comstock Lode created an insatiable appetite for Lake Tahoe's virgin pine forests. The timbers would shore up underground mining and build communities approaching 40,000 inhabitants. Railroads on three shores delivered the logs lakeside, where they were towed by steam-powered tugs to sawmills, to lumber flumes, and again by rail to their final destinations. As the mines and giant lake pines subsided, railroads pushed farther north after 1898 into new timber stands in the Lake Tahoe and Truckee River basins. Other rail lines were sold, barged across the lake, and repurposed for the burgeoning new industry of tourism. For the next 40 years, railroads marketed Lake Tahoe as their unique scenic destination.

Lavender Los Angeles

9780738574905

$24.99

Los Angeles has always been a city of possibilities and reinvention. A youthful and independent spirit permeates the culture and gives a sense of freedom found in few other places. This environment provided fertile ground for the growth of a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community that had a major influence on LGBT life in the United States. For most of American history, queer identities were only visible in forms of entertainment, with most of the culture existing underground and in fear. By the 1950s, however, a few brave gay people living in Los Angeles dared to challenge society's negative views on homosexuality. For the next two decades, L.A. produced the nation's first LGBT leaders, organizations, and publications, and gave birth to the national movement for LGBT equality.

Denver's Sixteenth Street

9780738581026

$24.99

The beloved thoroughfare at the heart of Denver, Sixteenth Street has always been the Mile-High City's "Main Street." Sixteenth Street got its jump start in 1879 when Leadville's Silver King and Colorado's richest man, Horace Austin Warner Tabor, came to town and built the city's first five-story skyscraper at the corner of Sixteenth and Larimer Streets. In coming years, Sixteenth Street became Denver's main retail center as shopkeepers and department store owners constructed ever-more impressive palaces, culminating in the Daniels and Fisher Tower--the city's tallest building for five decades and the symbol of the city. In the second half of the 20th century, Sixteenth Street saw major changes, including the creation of one of the most successful pedestrian malls in the country, an archetype of the power of great urban places and an inspiration to other cities, large and small.

Lake San Marcos

9781467132411

$24.99

In 1962, the Frazar brothers purchased 1,648 acres of land, which included a 40-acre lake, in San Diego's North County with the goal of building a lakeside community of homes and two golf courses. By 1964, the lake was enlarged to 80 acres and the land was reshaped to accommodate 1,500 homes (eventually growing to over 2,500 homes); two golf courses, one a private country club and the other a public course; and a bridge across the lake. A motel, restaurant, shopping center, and residents' recreation center were later added. In 1967, the National Home Builders Association Convention in Chicago awarded the Lake San Marcos design the title of "Best Planned Lakeside Community in the Nation."

Baseball in San Diego

9780738532615

$24.99

The first color action photo of Ted Williams (as shown on the front cover) was taken at Lane Field in San Diego on October 5, 1941 by an amateur photographer. Nobody knew of its existence until an old wooden cigar box was found in a basement in 1999. This book is a treasure chest of such old San Diego baseball pictures and memories. From the Padres to Petco focuses on San Diego's love affair with the Padres from the Pacific Coast League years at Lane Field (1936-57), Westgate Park (1958-67), San Diego Stadium (1968) and through 35 more exciting and often exasperating National League summers in Mission Valley (1969-2003). Through it all, Padre fans have been faithful and forgiving. With a new ballpark, San Diego looks to build a winning tradition.

Pasadena:

9780738569079

$24.99

Since 1940, Pasadena has experienced seismic shifts, both literally and figuratively. The postwar suburban explosion touched the city, with new homes, new jobs, and new worldviews shaping the coming of age of a municipality known for its hospitality, science, culture, and good weather. This companion volume to Arcadia Publishing's Early Pasadena continues the city's remarkable story as it draws on seldom-seen photographs from the Pasadena Museum of History, along with images from private collections, to trace the story of the past 70 years. The result is a compendium that chronicles the struggles and triumphs of this beloved city. Longtime residents, new arrivals, first-time visitors, and anyone lucky enough to have experienced the "Crown City" firsthand will find something of interest in this engaging illustrated history.

Magic Mountain

9781467134750

$24.99

Nestled in the foothills of Golden, Colorado, construction began on Magic Mountain just two years after Disneyland's opening season. Through never-before-seen photographs, Magic Mountain tells the exciting story of the first attempt in America to spread the Disneyland model. The dream of a theme park in Colorado was conceived by Walter F. Cobb and designed by Marco Engineering of Los Angeles. The park saw tens of thousands of visitors, even during the construction period. They witnessed live gunfights and playhouse melodramas and took a ride on the Magic Mountain railroad. Unfortunately, the park closed at the end of its premier season in 1960, but it would eventually evolve into Heritage Square. For over 40 years, this venue brought fun and entertainment to the young and young at heart, following Cobb's vision of a clean, entertaining, and educational park for the whole family.

Crested Butte

9780738574431

$24.99

Crested Butte rises 8,885 feet above sea level on the edge of the beautiful Elk Mountains in the Gunnison Country of Colorado's Western Slope. Between Crested Butte and Aspen, 25 miles to the north, are six 14,000-foot-high peaks with 12,000-foot-high passes and scenery that takes the breath away. Crested Butte began as a silver camp but soon turned into one of the great coal towns of the West, with a rich ethnic heritage evolved from the mining camps. In the 21st century, Crested Butte is a tourist town of 1,500 residents highlighted by the Mount Crested Butte Ski Area, the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame, and its wonderful wildflower and music festivals. The town today is what it always has been, "the queen jewel of the Elk Mountains."