We've read most of the books mentioned in the Tattered Cover list. But here are some that we'd suggest for Central Colorado (along with a few outsiders).
For clear, interesting local history, we recommend:
Leadville, a Miner's Epic, by Stephen M. Voynick.
Climax, by Stephen M. Voynick.
Across the Northern Frontier: Spanish Exploratons in Colorado, by Phil Carson.
Rebel of the Rockies: The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, by Robert Athern.
History of Leadville and Lake County, Colorado, by Don and Jean Griswold.
The San Luis Valley: Land of the Six-Armed Cross, by Virginia McConnell Simmons.
Bayou Salado, the Story of South Park, by Virginia McConnell Simmons.
Upper Arkansas, A Mountain River Valley, by Virginia McConnell Simmons.
The Ute Indians of Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico, by Virginia McConnell Simmons.
Massacre: Tragedy at White River, by Marshall Sprague.
100 Years in the Heart of the Rockies, by Cynthia Pasquale and others.
For a little cultural diversity, we recommend:
Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West, by William Cronon.
The Great Plains, by Walter Prescott Webb.
For local humor and color:
More Damn Tourists, by Steve Frazee.
For local depictions spiced with adventure, drama and personal experience:
Tomboy Bride: A Women's Personal Account of Life in Mining Camps of the West by Harriet Fish Backus.
The Life of an Ordinary Woman by Anne Ellis.
Plain Anne Ellis: More About the Life of an Ordinary Woman by Anne Ellis.
The Last Ranch by Sam Bingham.
Leaning Into the Wind: Women Write From the Heart of the West, edited by Hasselstrom, Collier and Curtis.
And to take along for fun:
Ghost Towns, Colorado Style, by Kenneth Jessen (especially the Central and Southern portions of the trilogy).
A Field Guide to Animal Tracks by Olaus J Murie.
Rocky Mountain Tree Finder by Tom Watts.
--Martha & Ed Quillen
Subscribe to Colorado Central | Return to December 2002 table of contents.