Colorado

There is decidedly less pickaxe toting in contemporary Creede than when wild frontiersmen first flooded the gold mines in Colorado. But the pioneering exploits of Colorado history didn’t cease when modern comforts lined the shelves at Denver Dry Goods and luxury hotels opened shop in Durango. Just visit Fort Collins to observe the work of Temple Grandin or watch the laws of physics flex at Lowry Airforce Base. From pristine Rocky Mountain peaks to the deepest incursions of a coal cart, push the limits with our Colorado history books. [View all Colorado books]
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The History of City Market: The Brothers Four and the Colorado Back Slope Empire
The History of City Market: The Brothers Four and the Colorado Back Slope Empire
$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
Wicked Western Slope
Wicked Western Slope
$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
Hidden History of Denver
Hidden History of Denver
$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
A Brief History of South Denver & University Park
A Brief History of South Denver & University Park
$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
The University of Denver
The University of Denver
$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
Ghosts & Legends of Colorado’s Front Range
Ghosts & Legends of Colorado’s Front Range
$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
A Brief History of Fairplay
A Brief History of Fairplay
$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
The Denver Beat Scene: The Mile-High Legacy of Kerouac, Cassady & Ginsberg
The Denver Beat Scene: The Mile-High Legacy of Kerouac, Cassady & Ginsberg
$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
Brief History of Erie, Colorado, A
Brief History of Erie, Colorado, A
$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
Forgotten Heroes & Villains of Sand Creek
Forgotten Heroes & Villains of Sand Creek
$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
Wicked Denver
Wicked Denver
$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
Hammond's Candies
Hammond's Candies
$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
Lost Ski Areas of Colorado's Front Range and Northern Mountains
Lost Ski Areas of Colorado's Front Range and Northern Mountains
$23.99 $16.79 Save 30%
Early Ascents on Pikes Peak
Early Ascents on Pikes Peak
$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
Colorado Forts
Colorado Forts
$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
Colorado's Historic Hotels
Colorado's Historic Hotels
$23.99 $16.79 Save 30%
Colorado's Iceman and the Story of the Frozen Dead Guy
Colorado's Iceman and the Story of the Frozen Dead Guy
$14.99 $10.49 Save 30%
Haunted Hotels of Northern Colorado
Haunted Hotels of Northern Colorado
$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
The Denver Folk Music Tradition
The Denver Folk Music Tradition
$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
Notorious San Juans:
Notorious San Juans:
$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
Notorious Jefferson County
Notorious Jefferson County
$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
Eagle County Characters:
Eagle County Characters:
$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
Forgotten Cuchareños of the Lower Valley
Forgotten Cuchareños of the Lower Valley
$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

The History of City Market: The Brothers Four and the Colorado Back Slope Empire

9781626192867

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
City Market's story begins with a penniless eighteen-year-old immigrant and closes with the business becoming part of the largest supermarket chain in the United States. In 1924, brothers Paul, Frank, Leo and Clarence Prinster bought a meat market in Grand Junction, Colorado, a business venture that would allow them to ride out the stock market crash and the Great Depression. It also allowed them to open the state's first supermarket in 1939, the beginning of an empire that remained in the family for over a century and helped shape the heritage of western Colorado. Tony Prinster shares how the City Market founders and its dedicated employees transformed a family business into the retail brand that touched the lives of so many people.
The History of City Market: The Brothers Four and the Colorado Back Slope Empire

Wicked Western Slope

9781609495701

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
Early promoters of Colorado's Western Slope would have had settlers believe the area was one of proper behavior and upstanding morality. But this was not the case. Hot tempers led to quick trigger fingers and Main Street shootouts. Drinking, gambling and thieving were popular pursuits, and law breaking of all kinds thrived in this wild land. From Charles Graham, whose jealous rampage in Grand Junction is still talked about today, and the mysterious Friday the thirteenth murder of Jeanette Morris to Abe C. Ong, the mischievous pioneer bootlegger of De Beque, and Riverside's Mrs. Barnes and her foul crime, "History Sleuth" D.A. Brockett reveals some of the most outrageous and remarkable crimes in Western Slope history.
Wicked Western Slope

Hidden History of Denver

9781609493509

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
When prospectors set up camp on Cherry Creek in 1858, Denver emerged as a lightning rod for the extraordinary. Time has washed away so many unusual stories--from the dark days of nineteenth century Law and Order League lynchings and the KKK's later rise and fall to the heroism of suffragettes and the touching plight of the gypsies. Elizabeth Wallace knocks the dust off these details and introduces readers to characters like world heavyweight boxing champion Charles L. "Sonny" Liston, hit-man turned rodeo promoter Leland Varain, aka "Diamond Jack," and the city's daring wall dogs, whose hand-painted building advertisements are fading reminders of a bygone Denver.
Hidden History of Denver

A Brief History of South Denver & University Park

9781609492335

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
University Park was founded in the 1880s when the University of Denver (Colorado Seminary) moved from downtown Denver to land donated by potato farmer Rufus Clark. The University, founded by Methodists, wanted to escape the urban blight of the city and build an oasis for education. Liquor production or consumption was not allowed, and though today the area has many pubs a number of home mortgages to this day contain old covenants forbidding the making or selling of spirits. Around University Park grew the town of South Denver, which was annexed to the city of Denver in the early twentieth century. For many years in the late 1800s the primary employer was the University of Denver, but over time others moved into the area for its attractive homes and well respected schools. The area has traditionally been upper middle class and has enjoyed one of the lowest crime rates in the city. At the geographic center of University Park is Observatory Park, named for the famous Chamberlain Observatory, built in the 1890s and still fully operational with popular public viewing nights. In the early part of the century Colorado Governor Henry Buchtel lived in the park, as did a number of famed early DU faculty such as Ammi Hyde, who beat the freshman boys in an annual foot race well into his 90's. The area boomed after World War II as many from other parts of the country who were stationed in Colorado chose to remain and make it their home. The area has remained prosperous and continues to grow, sharing in the overall success that the Denver metro area has experienced.
A Brief History of South Denver & University Park

The University of Denver

9781626193185

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
Founded in 1864, the University of Denver is among the oldest institutions in Colorado. The school was founded by Dr. John Evans, who wanted to bring education to the citizens of the territory and did so by creating Colorado Seminary. While the school had close ties to the Methodist Church, students of all denominations were welcome. After relocating to the newly established University Park, the school was officially renamed the University of Denver, and it has become a highly ranked private university, attracting students from around the globe. University historian Steve Fisher traces the school's illustrious history from its founding through to today, celebrating the school's 150-year story. .
The University of Denver

Ghosts & Legends of Colorado’s Front Range

9781467140096

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
Stunning natural wonders and bustling cities make Colorado's Front Range one of the country's best places to live, but its rowdy past left some residents unable to quit the state--even in death. Outside Fort Collins, many a startled visitor spies grisly shadows hanging from the notorious Hell Tree. A reputed murderer stalks the Greeley Courthouse near where he was lynched for his alleged crimes. The disembodied heads of two vengeful banditos float through the basement of the Capitol Building in Denver. And the Broadmoor Hotel of Colorado Springs plays nightly host to a mysterious phantom lady. Author Cindy Brick reveals these and more gripping tales of the Front Range's spectral history.
Ghosts & Legends of Colorado’s Front Range

A Brief History of Fairplay

9781609499556

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
Explore Fairplay from the beginning with local historian Linda Bjorklund as she traces the town's story through Spanish settlers, early American government, Union-Confederate tensions and modern development. Even though Fairplay's remarkable gold and silver boom was reduced to ash overnight in 1873, a strong community overcame history's challenges and preserved its treasures. From the popular annual Burro Days to the Way of Life Museum, Fairplay gives folks a chance to celebrate and relive its rich mining history through festivities and time-capsule buildings such as the general store, drugstore, bank, Summer Brewery and Summer Saloon.
A Brief History of Fairplay

The Denver Beat Scene: The Mile-High Legacy of Kerouac, Cassady & Ginsberg

9781626197794

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
The Beat Generation descended on Denver with the same feverish intensity that rattled the caf's and art galleries of New York and San Francisco. Home to Neal Cassady and favorite stomping ground for both Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, the Mile-High City still pulses with the energy that made it a nerve center for cultural change and a sanctuary for the spoken word community. Author and Beat historian Zack Kopp pairs a narrative history of the movement with a stop-by-stop guide to its Denver landmarks and hot spots.
The Denver Beat Scene: The Mile-High Legacy of Kerouac, Cassady & Ginsberg

Brief History of Erie, Colorado, A

9781467118118

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
From 1866 until 1979, Erie was one of the largest coal-producing towns in the nation. Numerous settlers contributed to building Old Town and making it one of the liveliest communities in northern Colorado. The Columbine Mine massacre in 1927 incited major changes to coal mining practices, inspiring unionization efforts nationally. The improved rights and working conditions that miners struggled to win benefit employees across America today. Emeritus Professor James B. Stull illuminates Erie's earliest pioneers, houses, schools and churches and the town's enduring evolution.
Brief History of Erie, Colorado, A

Forgotten Heroes & Villains of Sand Creek

9781596299436

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
On November 29, 1864, Colonel John Chivington led a bloody and terrible raid on an encampment of Arapahos and Cheyennes who had come to the area believing they were on a path to peace. Before it was over, between 130 and 180 Native Americans had been massacred. This attack, known as the Sand Creek Massacre, is one of the most well-known and notorious events in Colorado's history. In Forgotten Heroes and Villains of Sand Creek, author Carol Turner turns an eye to the central characters, their histories and how they came to be part of this bloody episode. This fascinating look at such a pivotal event, its instigators and its martyrs includes the stories of John Chivington, an ambitious preacher with a streak of cruelty; Captain Silas Soule, a man who is still honored today by the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes for his efforts in saving their ancestors; Ned Wynkoop, one of Soule's compatriots who had a change of heart regarding the tribes; Chief One Eye, a persuasive and charismatic medicine man; and many, many more.
Forgotten Heroes & Villains of Sand Creek

Wicked Denver

9781609491536

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
The Mile-High City was never above fatal bar brawls, poison plots or any of the other transgressions history would like to ignore. From the moment it sprang from the frontier, Denver was a hotbed of violent money disputes, acts of criminal insanity and every manner of wickedness associated with street and saloon life. Men posed as women while committing crimes, and murderous madams left trails of scarred girls and ruined lives. Some sordid tales are common Mile-High lore, like the case of the Denver Strangler, while others, like the Capitol Hill Slugger, who plagued the well-to-do neighborhood at the turn of the century, have disappeared from note...until now. Follow Sheila O'Hare and Alphild Dick through the tantalizing and wicked tales that undeniably sculpted the city.
Wicked Denver

Hammond's Candies

9781626197169

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
In 1920, Carl T. Hammond founded his company with a commitment to quality. He single-handedly developed recipes, sold candy and handled everything else required to run the small operation. Nearly a century after that humble beginning, Hammond's Candies still clings to that original vision, creating prized confections by hand. The Mitchell Sweet, first introduced in the 1930s, is still a top seller, and visitors touring the factory can view the original machinery being used in production. Author Corky Thompson traces the history and growth of this family-owned company from 1920 until its sale at the end of the twentieth century and follows its transition under new ownership to the present time.
Hammond's Candies

Lost Ski Areas of Colorado's Front Range and Northern Mountains

9781626197121

$23.99 $16.79 Save 30%
Avid skiers have flocked to the northern reaches of the Centennial State for over a century. While the prized powder remains the same, the top skiing destinations bear only a faint resemblance to the resorts of previous generations. Neighborhood slopes, such as Tabernash Hill, featured little more than a rope tow and a storage shed. Other spots like Estes Park's Old Man Mountain held tournaments and contests with Olympic participants. From the Cathy Cisar Winter Playground in Craig to Cheyenne Mountain's Ski Broadmoor and everywhere in between, join authors Caryn and Peter Boddie on a tour through the lost ski areas of northern Colorado and the Front Range.
Lost Ski Areas of Colorado's Front Range and Northern Mountains

Early Ascents on Pikes Peak

9781467118392

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
Magnificent Pikes Peak rises dramatically from the Colorado prairie to a height of 14,114 feet above sea level. Visible for one hundred miles around, the granite giant's magnetic appeal compelled rugged mountaineers more than a century ago to risk loose saddles, electrical storms and even murder on treacherous expeditions to the summit. First known as Long Mountain by the Native Americans who sojourned at its hot springs, Pikes Peak was a full-fledged tourist destination by the 1870s. Eager men and women ventured up and down by foot, horse, burro, stagecoach, rail and bicycle. Colorado Mountain Club historian Woody Smith captures the news of the era to recount the thrill of pioneer days on America's most famous mountain.
Early Ascents on Pikes Peak

Colorado Forts

9781609496609

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
Throughout the 1800s, explorers braved brutal weather and hostile enemies, trekking through the towering mountains and fertile valleys on the ragged edge of civilization. These early pioneers built stockades, trading posts, military camps and miniature citadels that would shape the state of Colorado for generations to come. As the settlers struggled to survive desperate times, economic depressions and bloody wars, some of these historic outposts would become Colorado's cities, schools, hospitals and museums, while others would sink back into the mud from which they came. Join author Jolie Anderson Gallagher as she chronicles the stories of the forts and the early explorers, fur trappers, soldiers and wives who constructed and occupied them.
Colorado Forts

Colorado's Historic Hotels

9781609493011

$23.99 $16.79 Save 30%
Lured by the promise of land and opportunity, miners, cowhands, laborers, settlers and fortune-seekers poured into Colorado during the mid-to-late 19th Century and into the 20th. To accommodate the population boom, industrious Coloradoans built scores of hotels some elaborate, some modest, all a touchstone to this critical era in Centennial State history. Join Alexandra Walker Clark on this tour through Colorado's historic hotels. Discover how the Oxford and Brown Palace Hotels have managed to maintain their elegance, while others such as the Timberline Hotel of Holy Cross City and the California Hotel of Independence have vanished. With timeless recipes from hotel kitchens, learn how hotels have adapted to eras like the Native American desertion and the Roaring Twenties.
Colorado's Historic Hotels

Colorado's Iceman and the Story of the Frozen Dead Guy

9781609492489

$14.99 $10.49 Save 30%
The Frozen Dead Guy was once just a regular Norwegian named Bredo Morstoel. When he died in 1983, his family cryogenically preserved his body and placed it in a permanent holding facility in Nederland, Colorado, to wait until technology might allow it to be defrosted and resurrected. His caretaker is Bo Iceman" Shaffer, who has transported ice to the facility and represented the Frozen Dead Guy for seventeen years and counting. Here he chronicles one of Colorado's strangest and most colorful attractions, one that draws travelers from around the globe to tour the site, attend the annual Frozen Dead Guy Days festival and have a drink."
Colorado's Iceman and the Story of the Frozen Dead Guy

Haunted Hotels of Northern Colorado

9781626199330

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
The haunted hotels of northern Colorado offer chance encounters with wispy apparitions from a fabulous century gone by. The Earl of Dunraven prowls in the night at the Stanley Hotel. Melancholy Carl haunts the halls of the Brook Forest Inn, and Eleanor James tosses pots and pans about at the Elkhorn Lodge. A little boy, tragically drowned, leaves watery footprints in the Hotel Jerome. Book a stay with author Nancy Williams as she explores Colorado's iconic hotels where spirits aren't confined to the bar.
Haunted Hotels of Northern Colorado

The Denver Folk Music Tradition

9781609495329

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
In 1962, Harry Tuft founded the Denver Folklore Center to bring together contemporary folk music fans and performers such as Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Judy Collins and so many more. In the following decade, a core of folk enthusiasts established the Swallow Hill Music Association. These two organizations have persevered to sustain a lasting folk legacy in the Mile High City. This is the story of how the music and the people who love and live it shaped a unique, influential tradition. Join local historian and musician Paul Malkoski on a tour through more than fifty years of Denver's proud folk music scene.
The Denver Folk Music Tradition

Notorious San Juans:

9781609492601

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
From the shooting of a Secret Service agent in the wilds near Hesperus to the grave misfortune"? of Kid Adams, a not-so-successful highwayman, these tales from the lofty heights of the San Juans are packed with mystery, pathos and fascinating historical details. Mined from the frontier newspapers of Ouray, San Juan and La Plata Counties, these stories tell of range wars, desperadoes and cattle rustlers, lynchings, ill-tempered ranchers with trigger fingers and women fed up with their husbands. There are famous and infamous newsmen, wild stagecoach rides, scapegoats and stolen lands. Carol Turner's Notorious San Juansoffers a rowdy ride through the region's not-so-quiet history."
Notorious San Juans:

Notorious Jefferson County

9781596299542

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
Before the Colorado Territory, this land was Jefferson Territory. Made up mostly of ranching and farming communities, early Jefferson County was the kind of place where only the stouthearted and downright crazy could survive. And with any settlement comes violence. It's true that Hollywood has embellished the history of the Wild West, but that doesn't mean it wasn't truly wild. From the "psychic" Italian mother who lured an elderly woman to her death to the violent end of the McQueary-Shaffer feud in the upper Platte region, local historian Carol Turner's Notorious Jefferson County offers readers a peek into some of the area's most famous and infamous murder cases of the frontier era.
Notorious Jefferson County

Eagle County Characters:

9781609496975

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
Long before the first ski runs were ever carved into the mountains of Vail and Beaver Creek, Eagle County drew adventurous settlers and pioneers who brought life to the mines and the Eagle River Valley. Allow local journalist and historian Kathy Heicher to introduce you to the Doll brothers as they establish their ranching and business legacy. Ride a stagecoach with Sarah Doherty, Cattle Queen of the Badlands. Follow Jake Borah through bear country with President Theodore Roosevelt and his hunting cabinet." Trail cattle alongside Ellis "Bearcat" Bearden and his ranching family. Meet a cast of characters whose stories arc across decades and reach the very roots of this beautiful mountain valley."
Eagle County Characters:

Forgotten Cuchareños of the Lower Valley

9781609491345

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
During the late 1860s, Hispanos from Colorado's San Luis Valley moved their families east over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains into Huerfano County. Their story is an important and almost forgotten part of Colorado's history as a whole, though their contributions are still felt throughout the area today and their descendants still call this land home. In Forgotten Cucharenos of the Lower Valley, historian Virginia Sanchez brings this fascinating account of Native American, Hispano and Anglo cultures to life, presenting new information about Cucharas and the people who settled there.
Forgotten Cuchareños of the Lower Valley