Located 8,671 feet in the clouds, Lake City sits on the edge of the beautiful San Juan Mountains on Colorado's Western Slope. Between Lake City and Silverton, 28 miles away, are towering 14,000-foot mountains with three nearly 13,000-foot-high passes and scenery that takes one's breath away. Lake City began as a booming gold and silver camp, complete with a narrow-gauge railroad, 4,000 residents, a smelter, and rich investors looking for their "El Dorado." Today, the beautiful little town, tucked away in the Rocky Mountains, is a haven for the many tourists who come to hike, ski, fish, climb, and relax in the quaint "Shangri-La of Colorado."
Duane Vandenbusche has been a professor of history at Western State Colorado University in Gunnison since 1962 and is the longest-serving university faculty member in Colorado history. He is the author of 11 books on the Gunnison country and Western Colorado. A lifelong Lake City resident, author Grant Houston cofounded Hinsdale County Historical Society in 1973 and was among loyal history buffs who established Lake City’s first museum, Hinsdale County Museum, in 1975. He has owned and edited the weekly Lake City Silver World newspaper since its founding in 1978. He is the author of a number of books on various aspects of Lake City history, the first of which, Lake City Reflections, was published in 1976.