In spite of its relentless reputation as a "cow town," Denver has grown from a dusty prairie burg into a thriving metropolis nestled against the foothills of the great Rocky Mountains. Gold brought the area's first settlers in the 1850s, and mining camps sprouted up along the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte River. The first rudimentary structures of canvas, mud, and logs were soon replaced with sturdy buildings made of brick, stone, and wood, in what is now affectionately referred to as "Lodo" or the lower downtown district. City growth worked its way uptown and to the east from this neighborhood of houses, hotels, shops, and commercial buildings, eventually encompassing Capitol Hill. Many well-known people worked and lived in downtown Denver and Capitol Hill, including the infamous Margaret "Molly" Brown of Titanic fame, railroad man David Moffat, merchant prince Charles Boettcher, druggist-turned-entrepreneur Walter Scott Cheesman, and Denver's notorious lovers, Horace Tabor and his wife "Baby Doe."
Boulder
9780738558905
Regular price
$24.99
Sale price
$17.49
Save 30%
Born out of the 1859 Pikes Peak gold rush, Boulder sits along the Front Range where the Rocky Mountains meet the plains. Discoveries of gold, silver, telluride, and coal nearby put the little supply town on the map, and early miners, farmers, and businessmen prospered there. The railroad's arrival in 1873 brought more newcomers who cultivated a diverse community full of new businesses, social organizations, and schools, and the town flourished despite the social problems and economic fluctuations that were typical of early mining towns. By the 1890s, education, health, and tourism had become significant to Boulder's economic development, a pattern that continues to this day. Great change came about during the early 1900s in the form of a citywide alcohol prohibition, the influenza epidemic, and the closure of the "Switzerland Trail" railroad in 1919, but Boulder weathered these difficult times even as it witnessed the end of the great railroading era.
Colorado National Monument
9780738569796
Regular price
$24.99
Sale price
$17.49
Save 30%
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.
Five Points Neighborhood of Denver
9780738518701
Regular price
$24.99
Sale price
$17.49
Save 30%
By the 1870s, the word was out about Colorado. East coast and Midwest prospectors, European immigrants, and African Americans newly freed from slavery, rushed to Denver to find work and their fortune in silver and gold. Captured here in almost 200 vintage images is the story of the African Americans who escaped the oppression and racism of the post Civil War South, and created a city within a city: the Five Points neighborhood of Denver. Named in 1881 for a bustling five-way intersection, the Five Points area became the commercial and social sector for African American churches, businesses, clubs, and homes, and the heart of Denver's black community. Showcased here are the photographs of once thriving Five Points businesses in the Welton Street business district, such as Otha Rice's Tap Room and Oven and the Rossonian Hotel, as well as the familiar faces of the Cosmopolitan Club, Madame CJ Walker, and Dr. Justina Ford, Denver's first African-American female doctor.
Jewish Denver
9780738548296
Regular price
$24.99
Sale price
$17.49
Save 30%
In 1859, during the Pike's Peak gold rush, at least 12 Jews joined the great migration to Colorado in search of gold and a brighter future. The unpredictability of mining and a growing demand for supplies encouraged many of these Jewish settlers to establish small businesses in Denver and in towns and mining camps across the state. By the early 1870s, Jewish benevolent societies and a congregation were established. Denver's dry, mild climate attracted patients with tuberculosis, and two Jewish sanatoriums were opened in the city around the beginning of the 20th century. Many of the predominantly Eastern European Jews who came in search of better health made Denver their home, thus augmenting the early Jewish population significantly. Today Jewish life flourishes in Colorado, and Jewish citizens continue to play a vital role in its culture and development.
Baseball in Denver
9780738599595
Regular price
$24.99
Sale price
$17.49
Save 30%
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.
Greeley
9781467133463
Regular price
$24.99
Sale price
$17.49
Save 30%
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.
Southwest Denver
9781467124065
Regular price
$24.99
Sale price
$17.49
Save 30%
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.
Denver's Historic Homes
9781467130585
Regular price
$24.99
Sale price
$17.49
Save 30%
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.
Mining Towns of Southern Colorado
9780738599533
Regular price
$24.99
Sale price
$17.49
Save 30%
Lesser known than the gold and silver mines of Western lore, Southern Colorado's extensive coal mines fueled the engines for Western industrialization in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Of the numerous companies operating the mines, the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I) was king. With a total of 62 mines, the majority of them in Colorado's Las Animas, Huerfano, and Fremont Counties, CF&I ruled the lives of countless miners in company towns scattered throughout Southern Colorado. Working long hours, often in cramped underground caverns, the workers emerged to families living in lonely mountain landscapes completely provisioned with company homes, stores, schools, and churches. Images of America: Mining Towns of Southern Colorado gives an intimate glimpse into the lives of these pioneer mining families.
Steamboat Springs
9780738570174
Regular price
$24.99
Sale price
$17.49
Save 30%
Known as Ski Town, U.S.A., for its deep powder and its growing crop of winter Olympians, Steamboat Springs was named nearly two centuries ago by French trappers. Hearing the "chug, chug" of one of many hot springs, they supposed they had reached navigable waters. For centuries, the area's abundant fish, game, and mineral springs drew the Yampatika, a Ute subtribe. In the 1870s, a rush of settlers came, first for precious metals, followed by more renewable riches--the lush summer pastures--and next the extraction of carbonized forests (coal) millions of years old. Ironically, real wealth ultimately fell free from leaden winter skies, and this Routt County community experienced a boom like few places on earth. Winter sports, including ski jumping, with some world records, made Steamboat Springs famous worldwide.
Morgan County
9781467115650
Regular price
$24.99
Sale price
$17.49
Save 30%
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
Regular price
$24.99
Sale price
$17.49
Save 30%
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
Regular price
$24.99
Sale price
$17.49
Save 30%
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.
Lake City
9781467102742
Regular price
$24.99
Sale price
$17.49
Save 30%
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."
Meeker
9781467132022
Regular price
$24.99
Sale price
$17.49
Save 30%
The free-roaming Ute Indians were the first modern-day people to live in the White River valley. After mounting tensions erupted into violence and the Indian agency near present-day Meeker was attacked, the Ute were soon evicted from northwestern Colorado in 1881. By that time, adventurous people were pressing in at all sides to settle the area. Settlers drawn by land speculation and ranching populated this rural area. Ranching, hunting, guiding, and coal, oil shale, oil, and gas extraction were the ways people made their livings, or hoped to, in this region. Meeker had it all with a touch of Wild West and a promise of the American dream--and all in a setting that would lure Teddy Roosevelt himself. Inside this book are glimpses of the people, traditions, celebrations, and ways of life of those who lived here before us.
Fort Logan
9780738575827
Regular price
$24.99
Sale price
$17.49
Save 30%
For most Colorado citizens, Fort Logan usually brings to mind the large national cemetery of the same name. Often unrealized is that nearby, there are fine, substantial brick buildings that mark the remains of a once-bustling military post. Fort Logan began in 1887 and became a part of the US Army's new network of urban-type forts with strategic rail links. Located in the beginning about eight miles southwest of Denver, it variously housed important infantry, cavalry, and engineer units and later served as a key recruit and discharge center. It also once attracted Denverites to elaborate parade ceremonies, stirring band concerts, and competitive athletic events. After World War II, it became property of the State of Colorado and today is the site of the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Fort Logan.
Aurora
9780738548241
Regular price
$24.99
Sale price
$17.49
Save 30%
Aurora began as the town of Fletcher, named after the Denver businessman who had staked out the original four square miles for resale along with associates Samuel and Francis Perry. In 1907, burdened with debt from their founder and seeking a fresh start, the inhabitants of Fletcher petitioned to have the town renamed, and in April, it was officially dubbed the Town of Aurora. These first settlers overcame many obstacles on the bare, dry land that Maj. Stephen Long, an early explorer, called "the Great American Desert." The outbreak of World War I brought revenue to the area's farmers as food prices soared, and Fitzsimons Army Hospital was established in 1918. Over the years, the scarcity of water has been a persistent problem, but Aurora has nonetheless grown from a quiet farming community to a sprawling city covering over 144 square miles.
Around Gunnison and Crested Butte
9780738548289
Regular price
$24.99
Sale price
$17.49
Save 30%
The Western Slope towns of Gunnison and Crested Butte are defined by their placement in the Colorado Rockies. Both are located in alpine valleys surrounded by 14,000-foot-high peaks with sparkling mountain-fed streams, and both dominate the Gunnison country, a unique wilderness covering over 4,000 square miles. Beginning over 400 years ago, Native Americans, fur traders, explorers, miners, railroaders, and cattlemen all made a place for themselves in the area. Today Gunnison, Crested Butte, and the Gunnison country remain isolated and tranquil. Recreation, tourism, and cattle ranching now reign supreme as Gunnison and Crested Butte attempt to preserve their distinctly Western heritage.
The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company
9781467127080
Regular price
$24.99
Sale price
$17.49
Save 30%
With roots dating to 1872, the Colorado Fuel and Iron (CF&I) Company at Pueblo served as the principal heavy industry leader in the Rocky Mountain region, producing steel rails, spikes, and track accessories for the burgeoning railroad industry. Over the next 121 years, the company grew to manufacture dozens of other products used in the agriculture, mining, commercial, and residential industries, driving Pueblo to become the "Pittsburgh of the West." As the region's largest private employer, CF&I also played a significant role in the history of American labor relations. A vertically integrated company maintaining its own mining, transportation, land and water resources, and medical, recreational, and steelmaking facilities, CF&I played a critical role in the history and development of the products that connected the Centennial State and, ultimately, the West.
Early Denver
9780738588858
Regular price
$24.99
Sale price
$17.49
Save 30%
The city of Denver was born out of a small mining camp established in the late 1850s. The lure of gold brought countless men and their families to the foot of the great Rocky Mountains, where the Platte River and Cherry Creek flow together. Along with the miners came the merchants--wagon makers, horse traders, blacksmiths, and clothiers. By 1900, Denver was a thriving community and had greatly expanded with the establishment of hardware stores, saloons, liveries, theaters, restaurants, and residential neighborhoods. Postcards did not come into general use until well after Denver was settled. The images herein range from about 1900 to 1925.
American Indians of the Pikes Peak Region
9780738548470
Regular price
$23.99
Sale price
$16.79
Save 30%
Thousands of years before Zebulon Pike's name became attached to this famous mountain, Pikes Peak was home to indigenous people. These First Nations left no written record of their sojourn here, but what they did leave were stone circles, carefully crafted arrowheads and stone tools, enigmatic petroglyphs, and culturally scarred trees. In the 1500s, Spanish explorers documented their locations, language, and numbers. In the 1800s, mountain men and official explorers such as Pike, Fremont, and Long also wrote about these First Nations. Comanche, Apache, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Lakota made incursions into the region. These nations contested Ute land possession, harvested the abundant wildlife, and paid homage to the powerful spirits at Garden of the Gods and Manitou Springs. Today Ute Indians return to Garden of the Gods and to Pikes Peak each year to perform their sacred Sundance Ceremony.
University of Denver
9781467128537
Regular price
$23.99
Sale price
$16.79
Save 30%
The University of Denver (DU) was founded as the Colorado Seminary, in 1864, twelve years before Colorado became a state. For over 150 years, DU has been a part of the Denver community, providing educational opportunities for men, women, professionals, and the working community. The original campus in frontier Denver eventually moved to a treeless prairie donated by Rufus "Potato" Clark. The move was partially motivated by the fear that the saloons and other distractions of Denver were not conducive to study. In 1982, the institution incorporated Colorado Women's College, and the site became the Park Hill Campus with the law and music schools. DU's concerted efforts to provide its students, and the wider region, with a first-class education are made evident by the tales of resiliency told by faculty, staff, and students as the school overcame brushes with bankruptcy and countless other internal and external threats.
Black Canyon of the Gunnison, The
9780738569192
Regular price
$24.99
Sale price
$17.49
Save 30%
The Black Canyon of the Gunnison River is one of the deepest, narrowest, and most inaccessible canyons in the United States. Very few explorers have ever traversed the 53-mile gorge in Gunnison and Montrose Counties. The canyon, one of the nation's wonders, has been the precipitous stage for an exciting history featuring Ute Indians, a narrow-gauge railroad, sensational explorations, and the construction of the Gunnison Tunnel--the first major Bureau of Reclamation project in history. The Black Canyon became a national monument in 1932 and a national park in 1999. Today it remains a crown jewel of Colorado's Western Slope.
NORAD and Cheyenne Mountain AFS
9781467133302
Regular price
$24.99
Sale price
$17.49
Save 30%
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) was established as a result of an agreement between Canada and the United States to defend against increasing Soviet military capabilities. In the early years of World War II, the leaders of the United States and Canada agreed to military cooperation, thus beginning strong defense relations still evident today. Military and civilian personnel from both countries work together for the defense of North America. Established as a formal military command in 1958, NORAD has been headquartered in Colorado Springs since its inception. In the late 1950s, a decision was made to move the Continental Air Defense Command combat operations center to an underground facility to provide a secure and hardened location for air defense operations. After several locations were evaluated, Cheyenne Mountain, south of Colorado Springs, Colorado, was chosen for the new command center. In operation since 1966, Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station continues to be America's fortress.
Pikes Peak
9780738520629
Regular price
$24.99
Sale price
$17.49
Save 30%
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.
Rails around Denver
9780738548029
Regular price
$24.99
Sale price
$17.49
Save 30%
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.
Denver's Sixteenth Street
9780738581026
Regular price
$24.99
Sale price
$17.49
Save 30%
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.
Denver
9781467109055
Regular price
$23.99
Sale price
$16.79
Save 30%
Denver has evolved continuously since its 1858 founding, experiencing boom-and-bust cycles that have each left a mark on the cityscape. During the area's 21st-century growth spurt, impressive new buildings have arisen, but it is the charming old Denver remembered by long-term residents that gives the Mile High City its character.
Conifer
9781467103008
Regular price
$24.99
Sale price
$17.49
Save 30%
Gold! The lure of the precious metal brought 1860s prospectors along the toll roads that met to form the nucleus of today's Conifer. That era also brought Confederate guerrillas who buried a fortune in treasure and new settlers who were greeted by the Ute, Arapaho, and Cheyenne people. Successful ranches grew, worked by families whose descendants still remain in the area and harvest the land's bounty. In later years, the area's natural beauty inspired the creation of both the Denver Mountain Parks and Jefferson County Open Space parks systems, as well as the magnificent Staunton State Park. That same beauty led to housing developments with amazing views south to Pike's Peak and north to Mount Evans. Today, Conifer offers a glimpse of the past with its Yellow Barn and Little White Schoolhouse, as well as exciting new attractions such as the Venue and Stage Door Theaters, the annual Elevation Celebration and Christmas parade, and vibrant retail centers.
Telluride
9780738548500
Regular price
$24.99
Sale price
$17.49
Save 30%
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
Regular price
$24.99
Sale price
$17.49
Save 30%
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.
Garden of the Gods Trading Post
9781467102988
Regular price
$24.99
Sale price
$17.49
Save 30%
The story of Garden of the Gods Trading Post is not only a profile of founder Charles Strausenback but also a chronicle of Garden of the Gods, where he spent his life. Strausenback is a thread that runs through much of the park's history. Beginning in 1900, when he was just 10 years old, he carved and sold gypsum figures from a tripod stand near Gateway Rocks. As an adult, he operated various curio stores in and around the park, partnering with Carl Balcomb at Hidden Inn, then with Curt Goerke at Balanced Rock and The Indian trading post. In 1929, Strausenback realized his dream of owning a curio store with the construction of the Trading Post, where he employed Navajo and Pueblo Indians as silversmiths and entertainers. His legacy and the rich history of the trading post remain intact at the southwest edge of the park, now the oldest continuously operated trading post in Colorado.
