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Some personal favorites

Review by Martha Quillen

Books – December 1995 – Colorado Central Magazine

Bear Attacks by Stephen Herrero. Better than watching videos of Klondike and Snow, and you get a real understand of how bruins view us.

Tomboy Bride by Harriet Fish Backus. A woman in the mining camps and a great personal narrative.

Trails, Tales and Tommyknockers. Our copy died, so I can’t provide particulars. But it’s a wonderful collection of Colorado lore presented as children’s stories, good for reading aloud as well as young readers.

Leadville, A Miner’s Epic by Steve Voynick. Every other history of the Cloud City focuses on opera houses or bawdy houses. This one is solid blue-collar history from the vantage of the working stiff who didn’t necessarily see the widow-maker drill as progress.

Roadside Geology of Colorado by Halka Chronic. Easy to understand, and it improves every car trip by explaining how all our spectacular terrain came to be.

Guide to the Colorado Ghost Towns and Mining Camps by Perry Eberhart. Yes, it’s dated, and for all I know, it’s out of print. But it’s also thorough with better research than most such guides, and fun to read.

— Martha Quillen