Name: Forgotten Tales of Colorado
Brand: Stephanie Waters Moding
SKU: 9781609498863
Price: 14.99 USD
Availability: InStock

Forgotten Tales of Colorado

9781609498863

$14.99

Wild characters, diverse cultures, spooky myths and slippery sales schemes color Colorado's past. In a place where shameless showdowns and dusty shootouts over money, drink and women were once standard procedure, storytelling around campfires became an integral part of a rich heritage. From the jackalope and vampires to Indian curses and snake oil salesmen, the Centennial State has it all. Weirder still are the strange but true stories like that of the first body buried in La Junta's Fairview Cemetery, a man who landed there for refusing alcohol to a kid, and that of the hotel in Telluride that once offered a promotion that included funeral costs with your stay. While history may have neglected these silly, seedy and salacious stories, author Stephanie Waters has rediscovered Colorado's best forgotten tales.

Ghosts of Colorado Springs and Pikes Peak

9781609494674

$21.99

Eerie tales have been part of the city's history from the beginning: Pikes Peak and Cheyenne Mountain are the subjects of several spooky Native American legends, and Anasazi spirits are still seen at the ancient cliff dwellings outside town. In the Old North End neighborhood, the howls of hellhounds ring through the night, and visitors at the Cheyenne Canon Inn have spotted the spirit of Alex Riddle on the grounds for over a century. Henry Harkin has haunted Dead Mans' Canyon since his gruesome murder in 1863, and Poor Bessie Bouton is said to linger on Cutler Mountain, hovering where her body was discovered more than a century ago. Ghost hunter and tour guide Stephanie Waters explores the stories behind Little London's" oldest and scariest tales."

Ghosts of Colorado Springs and Pikes Peak

Cañon City

9780738580371

$24.99

From its early days as a frontier town to now, Colorado’s Cañon City has a rich and unique history even in comparison to other former Gold Rush towns.

From the scenic and geological diversity to some of the initial oil discoveries in the United States, this Fremont County seat has been a hub of coal mining and archaeological discoveries, particularly of dinosaur remains. Here the Royal Gorge Bridge crosses the Arkansas River, 1,053 feet below, as the highest suspension span in the world. The temperate weather means long growing seasons, celebrated each May by the Blossom and Music Festival. Once a commerce center supplying food, lumber, and other goods to surrounding gold towns--from Cripple Creek to Leadville--Cañon City also once was a silent-film capital, the base for hundreds of motion pictures produced after the beginning of the 20th century. Like most of history, times weren’t always good in Cañon City, reflected in the first territorial prison founded here, many more still operating today. Learn about Cañon City’s history—the good, the bad, and the ugly—in this engaging title.

Telluride

9780738548500

$24.99

The tiny town of Telluride is a Rocky Mountain jewel. Wedged in a remote box canyon high in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado, it has a remarkable historic architectural landscape, staggering beauty, a past both haunting and enchanted, and an illustrious reputation for skiing and leisure. For centuries, the Ute Indians revered the region as a hunting ground but were banished in the 1880s by mineralhungry legions. This began an era of high-country camps and saloon-lined streets. Ever since, Telluride's unique story has been one of intrepid individualism, boom and bust, celebration and conundrum.

Pagosa Springs

9781467105262

$24.99

When the first government expeditions came through the southwest Colorado region, the Ute Indians were living in a wide area that included the hot springs that they had named Pah-gosa. The Army chose the hot springs as the first--though short-lived--location of Fort Lewis. After the Army left, forward-thinking speculators incorporated the town in 1891. These early settlers believed that the natural wonders nestled in the beauty of the San Juan Mountains could be developed into a world-class spa resort. Timber and ranching were the dominant industries and ways of life in the area throughout the 20th century. The images presented in this book feature these industries, as well as town businesses, churches, schools, surrounding forests, residents, events, and celebrations. Pagosa Springs has become the spa destination early settlers envisioned, yet it holds onto and celebrates its Western heritage.

Greeley

9781467133463

$24.99

In October 1869, Nathan Meeker, the New York Tribune's agricultural editor, visited the Colorado Territory. Impressed with the scenery, people, climate, and resources, he wrote an article, "A Western Colony," for the Tribune, inviting principled people with money to invest in a temperance and agricultural colony. Over 3,000 prospective colonists wrote to Meeker. On December 23, Meeker founded the Union Colony, a joint-stock colonization company, and chose 737 of the best applicants as members. In April 1870, the company established the town of Greeley, named for Tribune editor Horace Greeley. Founded on the principles of temperance, religion, education, agriculture, irrigation, cooperation, and family values, Greeley became the Weld County seat in 1877. Agriculture and water development ensured Greeley's reputation as the "Garden Spot of the State." Potatoes became its first commercially viable crop. From 1900 to 1950, agricultural expansion ushered in a succession of immigrants, including Germans from Russia, Japanese, Hispanics, and Mexican nationals, looking for work and new opportunities. Greeley's economy, growth, and diversity remain rooted in the land and its people.

Haunted Longmont

9781467117968

$21.99

Longmont is a city warm and friendly by day but overrun with restless spirits by night. With namesake Long's Peak looming over it, the town's chilling history casts a specter over its present. The gruesome 1864 Sand Creek Massacre may be connected to the murder of a successful local entrepreneur whose property is said to be haunted. Though retail empire JCPenney outgrew its hometown, its legacy lingers in the form of the Phantom Lady. An airliner exploded in the night skies and led to the execution of a desperate criminal. Join paranormal investigator Richard Estep on his fifteen-year journey to reveal and document the interwoven, ghoulish tales of this colorful Colorado city.

Pueblo

9781467124140

$24.99

At the confluence of the Arkansas River and Fountain Creek, Native Americans were the first to inhabit Pueblo and its surroundings. Pueblo means "village" in Spanish, appropriate for an area that was settled in the early 1800s by people from present-day New Mexico with Spanish and Native American roots. A trading post established in 1842 was named "El Pueblo." The gold rush of 1858 attracted the first influx of people who saw more opportunity in Pueblo than in the goldfields. With its vision to become a great city with railroads, a steel mill, and smelters, Pueblo was soon known as the "Pittsburgh of the West." Employment and business opportunities invited emigrants from all over the world, creating a diverse city populated with people of many ethnicities. Pueblo has persevered through natural disasters and economic turmoil, building a thriving and resilient community through each chapter of its history.

Around the Gunnison Country

9781467115186

$24.99

The Gunnison country, 4,000 square miles of high valleys, heavy snows, deep canyons, and 14,000-foot-high mountains, is one of Colorado's most beautiful regions. Located on the Western Slope of Colorado, the Gunnison country has a long history involving Native Americans, mining, narrow-gauge railroads, ranching, Western State Colorado University, and recreation. The region has also been influenced by nearby Lake City in the San Juan Mountains, Aspen in the Elk Mountains, and towns on the east side of the famed and historic Alpine Railroad Tunnel. Today, the Gunnison country still is beautiful and tranquil, hosting nearly 2,000,000 visitors yearly while remaining much the same as it was over 125 years ago.

Lost Ghost Towns of Teller County

9781467135122

$24.99

Throughout Teller County, history lovers can find abandoned towns and forgotten main streets that once bustled with life and commerce. Even before Teller was carved from surrounding counties, the scenic mountains and lucrative mines of the gold rush era brought thousands of settlers and attracted resort owners and tycoons eager to exploit the rich setting. Seemingly overnight, towns in the Cripple Creek District and other places popped up, flush with gold and people looking for opportunity. As the ore disappeared, the miners moved on in search of the next big lode. One by one, the towns were all but forgotten. Join Jan MacKell Collins and discover the booming history, lost towns and hardy settlers of Teller County.

Early Aspen

9781467133180

$24.99

Until 1879, the Roaring Fork Valley was home to a band of Colorado Ute Indians. All of that changed in the summer and fall of that year, when two prospecting teams came to the valley to stake their claims, some of which went on to produce millions of dollars of silver. Within five years, Aspen was home to over 20,000 individuals including miners, lawyers, families, businessmen, and even prostitutes. Aspen's fortune was tied to silver. More importantly, its fate was ultimately tied to the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890, which required the US government to buy 4.5 million ounces of silver per month. From 1890 to 1893, the Sherman Act kept Aspen alive and growing. With the repeal of the act, Aspen began a slow, painful decline. This book covers the years of Aspen's discovery, through the years of decline, and into what is known as the "Quiet Years."

Great Sand Dunes National Park

9780738596945

$24.99

Southern Colorado's unique Great Sand Dunes rise to a height of 750 feet above the San Luis Valley floor and are the nation's highest dunes not adjacent to an ocean or lake. The sweeping dunes were protected as a national monument in 1932 and as a national park in 2000. From prehistoric hunter-gatherers to the historic Ute Indian tribe, inhabitants have long used the resources of the land around the dunes. Zebulon Pike was the first American explorer to witness the dunes in 1807, followed by a long procession of other explorers, ranchers, and miners. Today, visitors from around the world come to climb up and slide down the dunes in Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.

Historic Tales from Park County:

9781626191617

$21.99

The geographic center of Colorado, Park County has long served as a recreational area for Denver and Colorado Springs residents looking to get away. The scene has not always been so idyllic. Marshal Cook was shot while investigating a loud party in Como in 1894, and rumors spread by the Michigan Creek School Board sent Benjamin Ratcliff on a killing spree in 1895. But the county's hardscrabble heritage includes triumphs as well as tragedies. In 1873, county seat Fairplay lost every business on Front Street to a horrific fire. But by 1878, they had rebuilt it all. It still stands today, a true testament to the strength of this old mining town. Journalist Laura Van Dusen shares these stories, outlining the many trials and successes of Park County's earliest settlers.

Golden, Colorado

9780738520742

$24.99

Where The West Lives! Golden's motto sums up the colorful history of the small town set at the entrance to the storied gold fields of Colorado. The scenic valley that shelters Golden caught the notice of some of the most famed pioneers of the West: explorer Major Stephen Long, world traveler Isabella Bird, showman Buffalo Bill Cody, and brewer Adolph Coors. Chronicled here in over 200 vintage images is the history of this quintessential "rough-and-ready" Western town. Serving as the territorial capital from 1862-1867, Golden was primed as the perfect business opportunity due to its proximity to the mining districts. Entrepreneurs with a vision of Manifest Destiny worked diligently to civilize the frontier town, and it soon became a major player in the state's mineral extraction, education, and railroad industries. Boasting more saloons than any other structure in town, Golden also had its share of coal mines, gold smelters, a paper mill, and several railroad lines. Featuring many historic images of the town's past, including original panoramic views by William Henry Jackson and images of Buffalo Bill Cody's Masonic funeral, this book captures the heart of a town where the spirit of the West never died.

La Plata County

9781467161091

$24.99

Established in 1874 as an agricultural lifeline, La Plata County, Colorado, has played many roles. /

European Americans were drawn to the region by the promise of mineral wealth and the mining industry. Agriculture, smelting, transportation, and commerce grew to offer support. As the county matured, its Old West features were discovered, and it was dubbed “Hollywood of the Rockies” when movies were filmed there from the 1940s to the 1960s with notable stars such as Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, Marilyn Monroe, Paul Newman, and Robert Redford. The 20th century brought energy extraction and commercial growth, but as the recreational opportunities in the region started to be discovered, La Plata County became a destination for outdoor pursuits. The county has 14,000-foot peaks, rivers, and hundreds of miles of hiking, biking, and ski trails. Today, tourism and recreation drive the economy much as the mining industry once did. /Within these pages, historical photographs from the archives of the La Plata County Historical Society illustrate the many facets of this Colorado county. Edward Anthony Horvat is a third-generation La Plata County native; his grandparents all came to the county between 1905 and 1911. A retired nurse-paramedic, Horvat volunteers at the historical society’s Animas Museum and writes the weekly And the West Is History feature in the Durango Herald newspaper.

Cover image for La Plata County, isbn: 9781467161091

Black Canyon of the Gunnison, The

9780738570310

$7.99

The Black Canyon of the Gunnison boasts a rich history.

Early Eagle

9780738580869

$24.99

Nestled into a scenic mountain valley at the junction of the Eagle River and Brush Creek, Eagle is a small mountain town that is often overshadowed by its famous ski resort neighbor, Vail. However, this thriving little mountain community claims a rich history of more than 100 years of spunk and fortitude. Eagle's robust character started with the miners who came to the valley in the 1880s seeking gold and silver. Then came the farmers and ranchers, who recognized another type of wealth in the fertile soils and abundant water of the valley. As for that spunk, the townspeople of Eagle were tenacious enough to wage a 20-year war seeking county seat status and progressive enough to keep a small town growing and thriving for over a century.

Windsor

9780738576152

$24.99

Tucked alongside the meandering Cache la Poudre River, the community of Windsor sprouted as the ideal location connecting irrigation and railroads between two county seats. With easy access to water and transportation, eager settlers saw opportunities for commercial development while others sought a leisurely lakeside resort. Through slow and steady growth, Windsor has been a town in transition. Early on, it was an agricultural boomtown with one of the busiest factories of the Great Western Sugar Company and home to bustling downtown businesses and generations of immigrants. Later, it welcomed new industry with one of Eastman Kodak's largest manufacturing facilities in America. But through the ebb and flow of history, Windsor has stood as a steady and vibrant community.

Loveland

9780738595078

$24.99

The town of Loveland arose on the northern Front Range along the Big Thompson River, although it is often mistakenly associated with the mountain pass and ski resort that share the same name. Located where the beauty of the mountains meets the bounty of the plains, Loveland became an agricultural and transportation hub when platted by the Colorado Central Railroad in 1877. The area boomed as the site of the Great Western Sugar Company's first factory in 1901. A natural gateway to the scenery and recreation of the Rockies, Loveland was also the headquarters for major water diversion projects. The romantic-sounding name inevitably led the "Sweetheart City" to promote its postmark in a Valentine re-mailing campaign that began in 1953. Since then, the community has evolved into a high-tech manufacturing center and public art showplace.

Fort Collins:

9780738569871

$24.99

Photographer Mark Miller opened his studio in Fort Collins, Colorado, in 1914. The town he chose to live and work in sits in a river valley in northern Colorado, nestled between the Rocky Mountain foothills and the semiarid high plains, with Denver to the south and Cheyenne, Wyoming, to the north. Established as a Civil War-era army post, the town was a Wild West frontier outpost until it was tamed in the 1870s by the arrival of a land-grant college and the railroad. By the turn of the century, Fort Collins had become a quietly respectable college town with a thriving economy and steadily increasing population. Over almost six decades, as the small town evolved into a city, Miller photographed people, businesses, and landscapes. Fort Collins: The Miller Photographs offers a representative sampling of the over 70,000 Miller images, a collection housed at the Fort Collins Museum's Local History Archive.

Hayden

9780738580210

$24.99

The Hayden area's first settlers, who arrived around 1875, were certain that their hamlet would become the hub of Northwest Colorado. The first regional trading post, Routt County Courthouse, and U.S. post office were established here on the banks of the Yampa River. Nestled in the Yampa's wide, verdant, high-country valley at 6,300 vertical feet, the energetic little town's future was peopled by an assortment of penniless yet hopeful dreamers as well as enterprising ranchers and other businessmen. Ezekiel Shelton brought his family and a myriad of skills. Jim Norvell drifted in on foot and with a few dollars established a mercantile and saloon and later, after "finding religion," a church. While the towns of Craig to the west and Steamboat Springs to the east grew, Hayden retained its familial descendants--"stayers"--enamored of their corner of the beautiful Rocky Mountains and sheltered from most severe weather in the Yampa Valley.

Lost Ski Areas of Colorado's Central and Southern Mountains

9781626197138

$24.99

Colorado's central and southern mountains still draw droves of skiers to the slopes. However, many of the historic runs and areas that were popular over the past century--some near the current resorts of Aspen, Breckenridge, Crested Butte, Purgatory, Telluride and Vail--no longer exist. Local hills like Whittaker Ranch near Eagle featured little more than a rope tow and warming hut. Now underneath Lake Dillon, Prestrud Jump hosted tournaments where Olympian Anders Haugen broke ski-jumping world records. From Lands End near Grand Junction to Sugarite near Trinidad, from swanky Hoosier Pass in Summit County to Stoner in Montezuma County, authors Caryn and Peter Boddie take readers on a tour of the lost ski areas of central and southern Colorado.

Lost Ski Areas of Colorado's Central and Southern Mountains

Colorado National Monument

9780738569796

$24.99

Amid the rock spires and red-rock canyons west of Grand Junction near the Utah state line, a young man with a checkered past single-handedly built trails at a salary of $1 a month. John Otto brought the beauty of the canyons to the attention of the local chambers of commerce and eventually the National Park Service. With the stroke of a pen, Pres. William Taft added the Colorado National Monument to the park system in 1911. Otto's eccentricities toward bureaucrats and businessmen caused him to abandon a quarter-century of trail building in the mid-1930s. His legacy was then picked up by hundreds of young men from the Civilian Conservation Corps prior to World War II. Today their combined efforts bring thousands of hikers, bicyclists, and motorists to the same trails Otto first used to introduce people to the canyon lands a century ago and the odd rock monoliths that seem to rise hundreds of feet out of the canyon floor. Scenic vistas of the Little Bookcliffs mountain range and the great Grand Mesa complete the beautiful panorama.

Baseball in Denver

9780738599595

$24.99

Images of Baseball: Baseball in Denver shares the city's prominent role in America's great game. The lore of baseball's first pioneers plays out in a real-life soap opera for this Western city. From the early Hall-of-Fame players to the storied baseball-talent barons of Denver's primitive days, baseball has always been on the forefront of the Denver sports horizon. From Tinker to Satchel Paige to "The Babe" himself, the Mile High City has been a barnstormer's oasis in a town that was nothing short of the Wild West. The Denver Post Tournament and the rich history of the Denver Bears are highlighted, as well as the many fields and landmarks throughout the city. With the inception of the Colorado Rockies, Denver once again set the stage for big-league baseball, which many of Denver's local baseball legends have been no stranger to.

San Luis

9781467132473

$24.99

Established on April 5, 1851, Colorado's oldest town, San Luis de la Culebra, remains remarkably true to its heritage. Nestled below the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant in the San Luis Valley, San Luis and its descendants sustain a way of life and preserve a culture in this high, isolated desert region. Eighteen men migrated north from New Mexico into the northernmost area of Spanish exploration in the mid-1800s to settle San Luis along the Culebra River. These pioneering families brought their use of communal land and water and a language dating back to 16th-century Castilian Spain. They carried on a deep faith from the Old World into the New. The traditions of San Luis and the surrounding villages--Chama, San Pablo, San Pedro, San Francisco, and San Acacio--continue today among the young and old who remain the keepers of culture.

Compendium of Curious Colorado Place Names, A

9781467137324

$21.99

The origins of Colorado place names offer insightful glimpses into the state's formative years. Emanuel Saltiel named his new community along the Arkansas River Cotopaxi, after a volcano in Ecuador. Rifle Creek and the town of Rifle earned their names thanks to a rifle left behind along the banks of the creek. Optimistic miners mistakenly believed Tarryall had an abundance of gold and thus named it as a place where prospectors could mine and tarry. And despite attempts by government officials to rename a small community along the I-70 corridor in western Colorado, locals refused to call it anything other than No Name. Learn these stories and more as author Jim Flynn unravels the intriguing origins of Centennial State place names.

Compendium of Curious Colorado Place Names, A

Southwest Denver

9781467124065

$24.99

In 1900, the bucolic landscape that stretched for miles southwest of Denver was made up of truck farms, dairies, and ranches. While the separate town of Valverde would be absorbed by Denver in 1902, the countryside beyond was the domain of Arapahoe and Jefferson Counties. Isolated sentinels such as Loretto Heights and Fort Logan stood tall on the prairie. As happened in countless American cities, however, the abandonment of urban cores for new suburbs would radically change a rural way of life that had lasted for decades. With an aggressive annexation policy after World War II that helped to double Denver's land area in 30 years, the city set forth gobbling up these new subdivisions and former rural county lands. Some clamored to join Denver; others railed against the giant next door. A new sense of place was created in the process, not quite urban and not quite suburban. A proud heritage remains in the hearts of residents fortunate enough to have been brought into Southwest Denver before the annexation floodgates were permanently closed.

Lost Department Stores of Denver

9781467138406

$24.99

Denverites once enjoyed a retail landscape rich with personal touches. Revisit May-D&F's animated holiday windows or the ice skating rink in front of the store. Reminisce about the Christmas chandeliers that stretched for four hundred feet on the main floor of the Denver Dry Goods or the elegance of Neusteters, with its fashion shows and exclusive merchandise. Recall finding that perfect outfit at Fashion Bar and going back-to-school shopping at Joslins. Celebrate salespeople who remembered your name and the comforting feeling of shopping locally where your parents and grandparents shopped. Through decades of research and interviews with former staff, Denver's unofficial "department store historian" Mark Barnhouse assembles the ultimate mosaic of the Mile High City's fabulous retail past.

Denver's Historic Homes

9781467130585

$24.99

Images of America: Denver's Historic Homes provides a mere introduction into the myriad of architectural styles and the unique blending of cultures that have made the Rocky Mountain region so remarkable, from the city's inception as a mining claim to what it has become today. From itinerantly used sod and log homes to mansions that rivaled the grandest of their period, Denver's eclectic gathering of early residents produced a landscape of architectural monuments that attest to the people's needs, desires, values, and occasional eccentricities.

Early Craig

9780738599694

$24.99

Dreams of what the West could offer brought the earliest settlers into the Yampa Valley. After the Homestead Act of 1862 and the westward expansion of the railroad, the first trickle of land seekers arrived in this remote area in the mid-1870s. Interest in the vast coal lands was a main driver for investors seeking to develop the region. But the smaller yet more inherently valuable interests of family, farming, and agriculture were the real deciding factors in the settling of this vastly beautiful and challenging corner of Colorado. During those early years, the homesteaders in Craig managed to capture images of the area they had come to claim as their own. They photographed immense stretches of solitary land, quiet scenes of the family living room, and the optimism of the developing business districts. They left a photographic legacy that proves a picture is indeed worth a thousand words.

Morgan County

9781467115650

$24.99

Pioneers came by the thousands, drawn by the promise of wealth in the Rocky Mountains. The dry, arid plains were a pass-through to most, but a few hardy souls saw potential in the region. They faced the harshest conditions; howling winds, little rainfall, intense heat followed by bone-chilling cold, isolation, and hostile Native American tribes were constant threats to survival. The pioneers of Morgan County were men and women of vision, perseverance, and inner strength. They were problem solvers who dug reservoirs and irrigation canals, built roads and railroads, and created an economy out of what others refused to see. Today, Morgan County is a place of an active agricultural lifestyle, supported by the businesses in the area. Its rich cultural diversity encompasses residents whose countries of origin span the world.

Grand Lake

9781467133401

$24.99

The village of Grand Lake, Colorado, located at 8,367 feet above sea level, is the western gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park amid the Never Summer Wilderness Area. Nestled along the shores of the largest, deepest, and--many suspect--coldest natural lake in Colorado, the village presents a charming portrait of snow-capped peaks, moose hollows, and glacier-fed waters that surround a town with wooded boardwalks and historic hewn-log hotels. Only a few generations ago, the area was the hunting and fishing grounds of both the Ute and the Arapaho Indian tribes, who each called the clear body of water "Spirit Lake" based on their own legends about this mystical place. The village's hardy mountain residents, many of whom are descendants of the area's original permanent settlers, help to shape, but never conquer, the subalpine terrain, with its annual unforgiving winter environments and perfect summer evenings. Times are still simpler in this mountain village but also accurately reflect an octogenarian resident's words: "life might be easier now, but it was simpler in the days of kerosene lamps and wood burning stove, when each man's sleigh bells had their distinctive ring." We present mostly the "then" and some of the "now" of Grand Lake, which are both unusually similar and equally admired by residents and visitors alike.

Chimney Rock National Monument

9781467131612

$24.99

The appreciation of the Chimney Rock region goes back more than 1,000 years. Here in southwestern Colorado, the Ancestral Puebloans inhabited the northern San Juan River Basin as an outlier community of Chaco Canyon. Its function and use has created much conjecture. The site was abandoned by the early 1100s for reasons that some speculate were related to drought, resource depletion, warfare, migration, or a combination of these factors. Over the course of its recorded history, archaeologists, astronomers, regional historians, and visitors have celebrated the rocks, ruins, and landscape that make up this important feature in the Four Corners region. It has been called La Piedra Parada by Spanish explorers, Fire Mountain by Tewa-speaking pueblos, and Tupiwiniri by the Utes. Today, we know it as Chimney Rock National Monument due to a proclamation made in 2012 by Pres. Barack Obama.

Historic Colorado Mansions & Castles

9781626197480

$24.99

The discovery of gold and silver in Colorado's Rocky Mountains minted millionaires by the ton. The rough settlements of miners and ranchers quickly transformed into habitations more suitable for the newly wealthy class. William Newton Byers founded the Centennial State's first newspaper and built an Italianate-style palace with the proceeds, while Walter Scott Cheesman's Capitol Hill home later became the governor's residence. Stroll into the parlors and drawing rooms of oligarchs like August A. Meyer, Lyman Robison and James Joseph Brown. Visit Romanesque castles cut from native lava and country retreats designed by the country's foremost architects. Linda Wommack offers a tour of the finest mansions in Colorado, all proudly bearing the mark of the State and National Registers of Historic Preservation.

Forgotten Colorado Silver

9781467135252

$21.99

At the turn of the last century, miner Joseph Lesher attempted to raise the price of silver by privately minting octagonal "Referendum souvenir medal" coins with values of $1.25 or $1. They were common in Victor, Cripple Creek, Denver and other places in Colorado in the days after William Jennings Bryan fought unsuccessfully for free silver. Surviving an initial dust-up with the Secret Service, Lesher found a loophole to place them in circulation in 1900 and 1901. Today, coin collectors pay more than $1,000 for one. This is the story of Joseph Lesher and his audacious private mint, along with the merchants in the mining towns and elsewhere who supported him.