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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Black Canyon of the Gunnison, The

Union Station in Denver

$16.99

Buffalo Soldiers on the Colorado Frontier

$16.99

Summit County's Narrow-Gauge Railroads

$16.99

Forgotten Colorado

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Lost Denver

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Poudre Canyon

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Colorado Artist Jack Roberts:

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Lakewood

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Colorado's Deadliest Floods

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Schriever Space Force Base Through Time

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Hello, Rockies!

$9.99 $6.99 Save 30%

The Fraser Valley

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Colorado's Mrs. Captain Ellen Jack

$23.99 $16.79 Save 30%

Tracking Rocky Mountain Railroad Club Excursions 1987–1990

$28.99 $20.29 Save 30%

Douglas County

$23.99 $16.79 Save 30%

Early Eagle

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Windsor

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Loveland

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Vail

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Frisco and the Ten Mile Canyon

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Berthoud Pass

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Fort Collins Beer

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Hayden

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Hidden History of Fort Collins

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

The Denver Dry Goods: Where Colorado Shopped with Confidence

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

Durango

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Evans

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Forgotten Colorado

9781634993975

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Northern Colorado is a unique area of the state, encompassing both the massive Rocky Mountains and the arid Great Plains regions. With its diverse landscapes and resources, Northern Colorado has provided a playground and a way of life for centuries.
This third installment of the Forgotten Colorado series will focus on historic, unique, abandoned, and must-see places throughout Northern Colorado. You will be exposed to twenty distinct areas, and more than forty-five different sites that provide a glimpse into what life was like back in the day, and in some cases, how life continues today.
Forgotten Colorado: Northern Region highlights the ghost town associated with James A. Michener's landmark novel Centennial; how to find the exact location where Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming meet; the DuPont Company's model town designed to attract dynamite workers; the "Masonville Monster"; historic sites within Rocky Mountain National Park; a town made famous for its Rocky Mountain Oysters; numerous gems along the international CanAm Highway; and so much more. Get ready to see a side of Colorado you've never seen before!

Lost Denver

9781467132916

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Newcomers to the "Mile-High City" of Denver, whether arriving during the 19th, 20th, or 21st centuries, have often remarked on how new the city seems, and how proud its citizens are of it. Heady boom times at various intervals have inspired successive waves of city builders eager to make their mark by building grand, new edifices. Often, these new wonders replaced older structures that earlier Denverites had once seen as great accomplishments. As Denver has grown to become the hub of a major American metropolis, remnants of its earlier heritage have vanished into history, leaving newcomers to ponder, "What makes Denver Denver?" and longtime residents to ask, "Where has my Denver gone?" Lost Denver celebrates what the city once built and has since lost, along with what has made it unique, exploring where and how Denverites once worked, shopped, and played.

Poudre Canyon

9781467133708

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Carved eons ago by the Cache la Poudre River, the Poudre Canyon, north and west of Fort Collins, Colorado, has long been a favored recreation place, for fishing, hiking, camping, and more, of area residents and tourists. The canyon has many colorful tales to tell; this book takes readers on a drive through that history, milepost by milepost, stopping at historic places and taking some side trips along the way. Beginning with trappers and mountain men, the canyon has been traveled since the early 1800s, and Native Americans roamed here for times unknown before that. Explorers came, as did seekers of gold and silver. The expanding railroads resulted in logging enterprises, and mining interests brought about better access to mining towns. Near the end of the 19th century, tourists began to enjoy the hunting and fishing of the area. In 1920, the road, which had been blocked from either direction by a place in the canyon called the Narrows, finally went through all the way, bringing resorts and tourists.

Colorado Artist Jack Roberts:

9781467118453

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Seeking adventure and inspiration in western Colorado, artist Jack Roberts masterfully captured frontier characters in secluded cow camps and boisterous saloons. His flamboyant personality and zest for life became topics of local stories. But sobriety and commitment offered new themes and goals. Indians, traders, pioneers and entrepreneurs--he captured them all on canvas with a blend of creativity and authenticity. His paintings, cartoons and personal observations reflect his convictions and his desire to create works of significance. With over seventy full-color paintings, author F. Darrell Munsell traces Roberts's career from early apprenticeship with Harvey Dunn through his many changes in lifestyle and subject to celebrate this respected artist of the American West.

Lakewood

9781467133982

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Although settled in the mid-1860s, Lakewood waited to incorporate until 1969, when its population was 90,000. It was instantly the third largest city in Colorado and had it all. Lakewood even had progressive ideas for government from a nonmilitarized police department to incorporation of the patchwork of existing sewer, water, fire protection, and park districts. And if it did not exist, Lakewood's community-minded citizens created organizations, committees, and associations, like the historical society and Lakewood on Parade, to fill the need. This can-do entrepreneurial spirit makes Lakewood a livable, small-town, "All-America" city.

Colorado's Deadliest Floods

9781467137102

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Ranked among the top ten states for both disasters and dry climate, Colorado has a long history of extreme weather. On May 19, 1864, residents of the fledgling gold rush town of Denver awoke to a wall of water slamming into the city with enough force to flatten buildings and rip clothing from its victims. The infamous Big Thompson Canyon flood of 1976 killed 144 residents, tourists and campers. Per the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Coloradoans experienced twenty-two floods with contemporary monetary losses of $2 million or more since the flood of 1864. And as the population continues to grow, the loss of lives, property, crops and livestock may increase. Local author Darla Sue Dollman, who witnessed and survived many of the contemporary disasters, examines the state's most catastrophic flash floods from 1864 to 2013.

Schriever Space Force Base Through Time

9781634994156

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Starting out as the Consolidated Space Operations Center at Falcon Air Force Station, the Air Force corollary to NASA's Johnson Space Center, Schriever Space Force Base has become the most important military installation in the entire world, with its command and control of all major U.S. military satellite systems. Named after the "Father of Air Force Space and Missiles,'? General Bernard "Bennie'? Schriever, the installation provides 24-hours-a-day/365-days-a-year command and control to the nation's vital satellite assets. Space systems under control by Schriever personnel include the Global Positioning System (GPS) constellation, which provides free, world-wide access to positioning, navigation, and timing signals; Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP), weather satellites poised to provide warfighters with accurate environmental data; Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) satellites, providing communications connectivity to U.S. and Allied forces around the world; and the Satellite Control Network (SCN), a network of world-wide locations providing connectivity to satellites in low, medium, and geosynchronous Earth orbit. Today, Schriever SFB personnel continue to exemplify the United States Space Force's motto of Semper Supra, "Always Above.'?

Hello, Rockies!

9781938700217

$9.99 $6.99 Save 30%

Welcome to the Rockies! Parent and child Black Bears tour the Rockies in best-selling author-illustrator Martha Day Zschock's Hello! board book series for children. In Hello, Rockies! join the pair as they visit four of America's most beautiful National Parks--Rocky Mountain, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, and Glacier. Along the way they meet park rangers, explore mountain trails, visit old mining towns, sleep under the stars, and even go white water rafting! For ages 2-5. Made in the USA.

The Fraser Valley

9781467132886

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The 1859 gold rush brought swift change to the Colorado region, but it had little impact on the Fraser Valley. Hemmed in by mountains, hammered by cold winters, and lacking in mineral wealth, the valley resisted all but the hardiest settlers. The railroad arrived in 1904 via a torturous crossing of the Continental Divide, ending the isolation and ushering in a ranching and logging boom. Towns sprang up overnight, and the forest filled with logging camps and sawmills. Hard times in the 1920s and 1930s were tempered by the construction of US Highway 40, a major coast-to-coast route that bisected the valley, as well as the completion of the Moffat Tunnel, a six-mile bore that eased the passage of trains and the diversion of precious valley water. During the 1950s and 1960s, tourism grew in popularity. Logging gave way to lodging, and log cabins morphed into condominiums. By 1970, outdoor recreation dominated the local economy.

Grand County

9781467109079

$7.99 $5.59 Save 30%

Established in 1874, before Colorado became a state, Grand County is nestled in the north-central Rocky Mountains. Named for the Grand River (renamed the Colorado River), Grand County encompasses 1,868 square miles, which is larger than Rhode Island. For thousands of years, Indigenous, nomadic tribes enjoyed natural hot springs and summer hunting. Spanish explorers, French fur trappers, and mountain men followed. In 1858, the gold rush brought rugged prospectors, creating towns named Coulter, Gaskill, Lulu City, and Teller. Later, homesteaders, loggers, merchants, and the Moffat Railroad built Arrow, Hideaway Park, Winter Park, Fraser, Tabernash, Granby, Grand Lake, Hot Sulphur Springs, Parshall, Kremmling, and Radium. Today, tourists flock to Rocky Mountain National Park, Arapaho National Forest, and award-winning dude ranches and resorts to enjoy some of the world's most beautiful lakes, mountain ranges, and abundant wildlife.

Colorado's Mrs. Captain Ellen Jack

9781467153638

$23.99 $16.79 Save 30%

"You get off this property." - Capt. Ellen Jack, 1887 Ellen E. Jack backed up her orders with a shotgun as she stood at the entrance to her Black Queen Mine. To profit from the mine, located near Aspen, Colorado, she engaged in many other battles with lawyers and capitalists who tried to wrest her ore away. Mrs. Captain Jack contributed to the myth of the West by crowning herself as the "Mining Queen of the Rockies" as she entertained tourists at her roadhouse near Colorado Springs. Author Jane Bardal offers a captivating biography of a pioneering woman who fashioned a legacy through true tenacity and maybe even a few tall tales.

Tracking Rocky Mountain Railroad Club Excursions 1987–1990

9781634994507

$28.99 $20.29 Save 30%

The Rocky Mountain Railroad Club is one of the nation's premier rail fan clubs. Since its founding in Denver in 1938, the Club has hosted countless excursions, published books, and printed a monthly newsletter. The Club celebrated its golden anniversary in 1988 and is still going strong today with members across the nation and from around the world. This book commemorates excursions of the Club from 1987 to 1990, centered around the anniversary year of 1988. With photographs, maps, and historic Club brochures, the author recalls trips on rail lines that no longer exist such as the Cadillac and Lake City Railroad and the Wyoming-Colorado Railroad, as well as glorious trips on Amtrak to Glenwood Springs and the Grand Canyon. A brief history of each rail line is included with the excursions. As the Club journeys onward to its 100th birthday in 2038, rail fans can enjoy this glimpse of past excursions and dream of ones to come.

Douglas County

9781467109208

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Douglas County, established in 1861, is one of Colorado's original counties. Mining, agriculture, sawmills, and railroads contributed to the growth of this territory, which includes two state parks and dozens of landmarked properties. Over 46 percent of the county's land is public or protected. While retail is now the largest industry in the area, this book will highlight some of the working ranches, original structures, and open spaces that remain thanks to cultural and historical stewardship.

Early Eagle

9780738580869

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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

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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

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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.

Vail

9780738595320

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Prior to 1962, sheep ranchers and homesteaders occupied Gore Creek Valley. A sleepy place studded with aspen and pine groves, the valley lay ripe for discovery. Two men, Pete Seibert and Earl Eaton, had a dream to build the perfect ski area. Earl knew of a mountain, and they climbed No-Name Mountain in 1957. Although the mountain seemed unpretentious, when Pete reached the top and saw the treeless back bowls, he smiled at Earl. The men had found their mountain. That day, Vail was born. With the spirit of adventure, the dream shaped the mountain, the mountain shaped the village, and the village prospered. As American skiing grew, it became a sport and then a lifestyle, and Vail is now the largest ski resort in America. Winter is why people come and summer is why they stay. How this all happened in 50 years is a story of dreams, perseverance, creativity, and unforgettable people.

Frisco and the Ten Mile Canyon

9780738575490

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Frisco and the Ten Mile Canyon tells the story of the once-thriving railroad town that served as the gateway to the towns and mines of the Ten Mile Canyon. Beginning in 1879, mines produced silver, gold, and other minerals while experiencing the usual boom and bust cycles. With the slow, painful death of mining and the curtailing of rail service, Frisco and nearby towns suffered. While the towns in the canyon became memories, Frisco experienced a rebirth and revitalization when the recreational landscape and economy replaced that of the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Berthoud Pass

9780738575292

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Since its official discovery in 1861 by Ed Berthoud and mountain man Jim Bridger, Berthoud Pass has been an important transportation route over the Continental Divide. At more than 11,000 feet in the Rocky Mountains, and coupled with its large number of switchbacks, it has become one of the most beautiful and widely used mountain passes in the West. Henry Ford's inexpensive Model T opened up America to the masses and in the 1920s, following early struggles in road development, a successful construction project gave way to the Golden Age of Automobile Touring. A solid road, US Highway 40, was paved in 1938 that opened the West to a wave of tourists during the 1940s and 1950s. Berthoud Pass's steep terrain and abundant snow provides access to some of Colorado's best skiing and snowboarding activities.

Fort Collins Beer

9781467137706

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Although alcohol arrived with the first settlers in Fort Collins, Prohibition lingered until 1969. But the city was one of the first to latch onto the burgeoning craft beer movement. In 1989, Old Colorado Brewing Company paved the way as the city's first microbrewery. And with the inception of breweries like Odell and New Belgium, local beer soon saw a strong resurgence followed by popularity nationwide. By 2010, a new generation of breweries, like Funkwerks and Equinox Brewing, emerged. Brea D. Hoffman divulges the history of Fort Collins's evolving beer scene.

Hayden

9780738580210

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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.

Hidden History of Fort Collins

9781625858948

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From its Wild West days to the early twentieth century, Fort Collins boasted its share of colorful characters. British import Edith Boothroyd saved a mare from meeting a tragic fate after the bridge she and the horse were traveling across unexpectedly collapsed. In 1915, barnstormer Billy Parker built his first biplane in a local field. Happy Jack slipped away from prison after slyly convincing the jailer to loosen his restraints. And Francis Carter-Cotton left investors holding the bag when he fled to Canada after racking up $300,000 in debt. Barbara Fleming divulges these entertaining stories and more.

The Denver Dry Goods: Where Colorado Shopped with Confidence

9781467135368

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Over the course of eleven decades, The Denver Dry Goods and its predecessor, McNamara Dry Goods, proudly served Coloradoans, who knew they could "shop with confidence" for the best quality at the fairest prices. Much more than the goods it sold, the store was a major institution that touched the lives of nearly every Denverite. Comforting culinary traditions like Chicken ala King in the vast fifth-floor tearoom and breakfast with Santa delighted locals. Festive chandeliers adorned the four-hundred-foot-long main aisle during the holidays, and longtime salesclerks knew customers by name. Devoted patrons dearly missed all that charm after the doors closed in 1987. Mark Barnhouse explores the fascinating history and cherished memories of Denver's most beloved department store.

Durango

9780738569758

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The storied town of Durango is situated on the farmlands of the Ancestral Puebloans, which later became the hunting grounds for the Southern Utes, in the Animas River Valley of southwestern Colorado. Founded in 1880 as the headquarters of the Silverton branch of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, Durango became the supply depot for gold and silver mines up and down the Western Slope. One of the few old-time cowboy towns in Colorado that retains the vibrancy of a self-supporting downtown of hotels, restaurants, and retail businesses, Durango has worked actively to restore and remodel historic buildings. Enhanced by stories of Spanish explorers, miners, settlers, early entrepreneurs, and the desperadoes of Western lore as well as Hollywood myth, Durango has earned a reputation as one of the Rocky Mountains' favorite travel destinations.

Evans

9781467131216

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In the winter of 1869, the little town of Evans, Colorado, was abuzz with excitement. The Denver Pacific Railroad completed the track that connected Denver to the Union Pacific line in Cheyenne, making Evans a major hub for travelers and home to the railroad superintendent's office. In its early years, Evans welcomed new settlers almost every day. Veterans, innkeepers, businessmen, educators, farmers, and many others chose to make their home in "the Queen City of the Platte." While Evans experienced a few setbacks over the years, it continued to grow and thrive. Now home to nearly 19,000 people, Evans has the distinction of being the oldest town in Weld County, with a rich history full of exciting characters who had a vision for this little town on the plains.