spine ends yellowed. page edge discolored. pages slightly curled. no marks on text. dustjacket rub marks, dents and scratches. dustjacket torn at corners and piece torn off spine top

This book includes the story of 240 of Colorado's mining camps with emphasis on the human side. The men who swarmed to the mountains to find precious metal came in successive waves from the late 1850's on, combing the gulches, scrambling over the passes and climbing the peaks. Their story is full of adventurous chances, lucky strikes, boom conditions, reckless spending, banditry, claim jumping, railroad wars and labor troubles. The author searched the Colorado Rockies from the time she saw and sketched her first ghost town until she had rediscovered and painted the vanishing mining camps. Eighteen maps give the location of each one and serve as a guide for those who want to reach them by car or jeep, by horseback or on foot. The hardships of the early prospectors, the strikes they made, the gold and silver mines they uncovered, the towns they established, and the rise and fall of their fortunes are vividly recorded. Names and dates are given of the earliest finds, of the most important mines and the money they made, of the newspapers printed, and of the hotels, churches and theaters erected. The difficult supply routed into the rocky fastness are also clearly traced. But all these facts are humanized by an author who is an artist rather than a historian, and to whom all this mining in the Colorado Rockies is essentially the story of heroic pioneer effort - the men behind the deeds. 198 sketches included,